Entrepreneur's Reading List

Here's my Top 5 "must reads" for entrepreneurs:

5. Corps Business: The 30 Management Principles of the U.S. Marines by David H. Freedman

4. The Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life While Making a ... by Randy Komisar

3. Losing My Virginity: How I've Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune... by Richard Branson

2. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

1. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

[Honorable Mention: The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quite (and When to ... by Seth Godin]

What are yours?

Tags: books, branson, business, corps, ender's, endurance, game, godin, komisar, list

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Permalink Reply by Michael Mealling on January 23, 2008 at 4:45pm: For space entrepreneurs I would add anything on disruptive technology/business models by Clayton Christensen. Creating a business for market's that don't yet exist is difficult. You need to think about dual use technology, starting downmarket and going up instead of the other way around, etc.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Joe Latrell on January 28, 2008 at 10:04pm: Guillermo,

I just finished reading "The Monk and the Riddle" and found the book wonderful, yet confusing. The big vision is where we started quite some time ago only to be told by many an investor that if you can't measure it, it didn't happen. It is frustrating but at the same time, it only goes to show that you have to find the right KIND of investors instead of just looking for ANY investors.

I do agree on Randy's use of Passion vs. Drive. It sums up exactly my feelings about business.

Thanks for the suggestion.

As for my own list of books, I'll publish a complete list later, but I am really fond of Guy Kawasaki's Selling the Dream. It is a good look at how Apple put together their evangelist program.

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Permalink Reply by cygonaut on February 29, 2008 at 12:18pm: For space entrepreneurs, I would like to mention my never ending registry of space product concepts and opportunities:

http://www.cygo.com/space_products.html

This might spark more ideas and specifics on the part of our readers.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Abdul Wahid Tanner on March 18, 2008 at 1:53am: I just finished reading The Dip. It is a small book that should be quick to read but I found it to be full of good advice. Probably the most memorable quote for me was from Sergey Brin, cofounder of Google, who said "We knew that Google was going to get better every single day as we worked on it, and we knew that sooner or later, everyone was going to try it. So our feeling was that the later you tried it, the better it was for us because we'd make a better impression with better technology. So we were never in a big hurry to get you to use it today. Tomorrow would be better."

This quote represents the essence of The Dip in many different ways. First, is because the product was getting better, there was noticeable progress being made which helps people get through the dip - the real dip, not the book. It also touches on the concept of making it harder for others to cross the dip because as you make your product better, your competitors have further to go before they can catch up. And it is also related to the discussion in The Dip about influencing others vs. influencing a market.; ▶ Reply to This