By Ian Naylor
People often talk about the “entrepreneurial spirit,” but spirit doesn’t necessarily guarantee success. For that you need to have a single-minded drive, which is probably the single most important quality an entrepreneur can have. Fat stacks of cash help, too, I’m not going to lie.
Still, all the passion in the world isn’t enough to see you through. You’re going to need an education, but that doesn’t mean you need to go to business school. I mean, I got my bachelor’s degree studying the Swedish language—och titta på mig nu. But my education continued well past college, in the jobs that I held, and in the books that I read—and all of it led to the point I’m at now.
But I can’t stress enough how important the reading part is. None of us are born knowing everything, not even for the things we may be naturally good at. I had the spirit and the drive, but that didn’t mean I knew how to run a business. If this sounds like you, then you’ll want to check out this list of books that made an impact on me as an entrepreneur. Whether you’re starting a business, or even if you’re already running one, I’d consider them essential reading.
1. The Startup Owner’s Manual, Steve Blank and Bob Dorf
I’m a firm believer in RTFM. Seriously, those people who say they don’t need to read the instructions are missing out. It doesn’t matter what the product is or how intuitive it is to use—it could be an iPhone or it could be a blender—you are going to find out things you didn’t know that will help you operate it most effectively.
It’s the same with starting a business. You may have a great idea for a product or service that addresses a real need, but there are things you don’t know when you first start up—like who, exactly, your customers are.
The Startup Owner’s Manual teaches you how to identify and develop your customer base, so you can operate your business most effectively. It starts with your assumptions on who your customers might be, and teaches structured processes for testing against those assumptions. Let’s face it: Starting a business involves a lot of guesswork, no matter how detailed your business plan is. The biggest guess of all is who’s going to buy, but by adhering to the wisdom in these pages you can eliminate many of the unknowns and develop a reliable understanding of just who your customers are going to be.
This book is a must-have for any startup owner’s library. It isn’t meant to be read straight through, so much as it as a reference for the entire startup phase. From customer discovery through to the business execution phase, you seriously need to RTFM, OK?
2. Purple Cow, by Seth Godin
This is the idea behind Seth Godin’s book on marketing: In a big field of brown cows, the purple one is going to stand out. Standing out in the crowd is a marketing principle so basic that I’m sure most of you read that and thought, “Wow, this Ian guy is easily impressed.” Consider this, though: The very fact that this book is a best seller is a testament to what Godin preaches.
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of marketing books out there that will tell you the same thing. But how many of them are international best sellers? How many of them are just one of 18 bestsellers by the same author? Clearly, Godin’s done something to stand out with Purple Cow.
Maybe it’s his writing style—Godin pulls no punches with his opinions. Or maybe it’s his marketing ability that converts the millions of people reading his blog into book buyers. Of course, the book goes into much more depth than the simple maxim of “be unique,” detailing and analysing examples of the world’s most successful purple cows—and Godin’s great at synthesizing the lessons learned from each one.
3. The Art of the Start, Guy Kawasaki
Guy Kawasaki is best known as Apple’s chief evangelist for the mind-blowing-at-the-time Macintosh back in the mid-eighties. In the 30 years since his departure from Apple, he’s made quite a living out of technology evangelism. He’s also written several books, and The Art of the Start is his most indispensable. If there were an actual startup bible, this would be “The Gospel According to Guy.”
It’s practical advice from a guy (Guy!) who’s done it all before, a few times over. When Kawasaki talks about defining your vision, or guides you through the legal aspects of starting up, or advises you on securing funding, you would do well to listen carefully and say, “Amen.”
The Art of the Start 2.0, Kawasaki’s revised and updated edition, has tons of new advice to reflect the current business landscape. He covers things like crowdfunding and social media marketing, even giving technical advice on how to build a cost-effective infrastructure in the cloud. This book isn’t Guy the Evangelist preaching to the masses, it’s practical, nuts-and-bolts advice that no entrepreneur should do without.
4. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey
This isn’t a book about winning at business. It’s a self-help book aimed at sparking personal change in the reader, but the appeal to entrepreneurs should be apparent in the title. If you’re going to achieve success starting a new business, then you’ve got to do things effectively, right? And you can’t expect to manage a business effectively if your own self is a personal mess.
Stephen Covey’s list of seven habits—which include things like being being proactive, communicating, and cooperating—can help anyone navigate the interpersonal waters of office life. But in the hands of the person designated as the leader, it’s vital information. You, as the leader set the tone, lead by example, and inspire others to be at their best. To do that means being able to the same for yourself. It’s like RuPaul says, “If you can’t love yourself, how you gonna love someone else?”
5. Revolution in The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made, by Andy Hertzfeld
This is the definitive behind-the-scenes look at the years-long development of the groundbreaking Macintosh computer, told by one of the core members of the team that wrote the Mac’s system software. There’s no sage business advice here, just lots of great stories, photos, and other ephemera like handwritten notes and diagrams—a treasure trove of information that any tech fan would get a kick out of reading.
Underneath all that, though, is the story of a team of people who worked their tails off to create something the world had never seen before. You definitely get a sense that they knew they were working on something bigger than themselves, and you get to see the camaraderie (and fun) that developed in that setting.
It’s not that there wasn’t any drama, or that egos didn’t clash, but the wistful nostalgia most of the team has for that time is something to behold. At the center of it all is Steve Jobs and the culture he created there. There’s no whitewashing there—Jobs was a legendary jerk to many of his employees, and Revolution in the Valley pulls no punches. But he also inspired the hell out of his Mac team, and pushed them to accomplish things that seemed at best improbable, and at worst impossible.
To understand what Jobs put them through, and also what he got them to achieve, is a master class: both in how to manage a team, and how NOT to manage a team.
6. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers, by Ben Horowitz
Running a business can be a daunting job, overwhelming and sometimes damn right scary. The lines between success and failure are at times blurred, which can lead to self-doubt or megalomania in equal measure. I’ve always taken solace and grounding from reading other founder stories and the struggles and successes they’ve journeyed.
I think in the tech world there aren’t too many roller-coaster rides better than the journey of Ben Horowitz, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley’s most respected and experienced entrepreneurs. The Hard Thing About Hard Things offers essential advice on building and running a startup—practical wisdom for managing the toughest problems business school doesn’t cover, based on Horowitz’s own experience.
While many people talk about how great it is to start a business, very few are honest about how difficult it is to run one. Horowitz analyzes the problems that confront leaders every day, sharing the insights he’s gained developing, managing, selling, buying, investing in, and supervising technology companies. A lifelong rap fanatic, he amplifies business lessons with lyrics from his favorite songs, telling it straight about everything, from firing friends to poaching competitors, cultivating and sustaining a CEO mentality, to knowing the right time to cash in.
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