10 Entrepreneur Books That You Must Read

10. Think & Grow Rich

The Book: Think and Grow Rich! is the all-time bestseller in the personal success field and offers a life-altering experience. It shares the practical steps to high achievement and financial independence. This amazing book can help anyone not just achieve financial success, but it can help you get whatever it is that you desire from life.  If there is one mandatory read for entrepreneurs, this is it.

9. E-Myth Revisited

The Book: The E-Myth by Michael Gerber dispels the myths surrounding starting your own business and shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business. Next, he walks you through the steps in the life of a business -- from entrepreneurial infancy through adolescent growing pains to the mature entrepreneurial perspective: the guiding light of all businesses that succeed -- and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether it is a franchise or not. Finally, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business.

8. The Tipping Point

The Book: The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell coined the term "viral marketing."  The premise of this facile piece of pop sociology has built-in appeal: little changes can have big effects; when small numbers of people start behaving differently, that behavior can ripple outward until a critical mass or "tipping point" is reached, changing the world. Gladwell's thesis that ideas, products, messages and behaviors "spread just like viruses do" remains a metaphor as he follows the growth of "word-of-mouth epidemics" triggered with the help of three pivotal types.

7. Get The Edge

The Book: This may be the first shocker.  But before you jump down my throat, hear me out.  I recognize this is a CD collection... and I recognize this is not specific to entrepreneurs.  But this lays down the foundation for the entrepreneurs mindset.  This is often over looked, since it hearkens to the cheezy infomercial promotion methods that made it popular.  Perhaps that was just a method of getting to "The Tipping Point."  Anthony Robbins' "book" addresses the 7 key categories to go from mediocre to magnificent.

6. How To Win Friends & Influence People

The Book: This grandfather of all people-skills books was first published in 1937. It was an overnight hit, eventually selling 15 million copies. How to Win Friends and Influence People is just as useful today as it was when it was first published, because Dale Carnegie had an understanding of human nature that will never be outdated. Financial success, Carnegie believed, is due 15 percent to professional knowledge and 85 percent to "the ability to express ideas, to assume leadership, and to arouse enthusiasm among people." This book shows the way.

5. Body for Life

The Book: "Are you kidding me?" I can almost guarantee you are thinking that.  But if you haven't read this book, you are missing out on a lot.  Here is why this is a must read for entrepreneurs:  First of all, without your health, you might as well forget building a business.  This book will get you fit, energized and disciplined within a few months.  Secondly, this book shows (and proves) how changing your body is in a large part a mental game.   Which is true for business too - to change your business you need to first change your mind.  The method of long term visioning and short term progress planning is the key to success, both for your body and your business.

4. Blue Ocean Strategy

The Book: The blue ocean metaphor elegantly summarizes the kind of expanding, competitor-free markets that innovative companies can navigate. Unlike "red oceans," which are crowded with competitors, "blue oceans" represent "untapped market space" and the "opportunity for highly profitable growth." Using dozens of examples-from Southwest Airlines and Cirque du Soleil to Curves and Starbucks- the book presents the tools and framework to find your own blue ocean.

3. Rich Dad, Poor Dad

The Book: Rich Dad, Poor Dad chronicles the story of the Rich Kiyosaki's two "dads", his own father, who was the superintendent of education in Hawaii and who ended up dying penniless and his best friend's father who dropped out of school at age 13 and went on to become one of the wealthiest men in Hawaii. Kiyosaki uses the story of these two men and their varying financial strategies to illustrate the need for a new financial paradigm in order to achieve financial success in the new millennium.  There is a reason this book is a best seller.

2. The Richest Man In Babylon

The Book: What can a book written in the 1920s tell modern entrepreneurs about their finances? A whole lot if it's George Clason's delightful set of parables that explain the basics of money. This is a great read for anyone who seems baffled by the world of finance (especially in these economic times) and a wonderful, refreshing read for even the most experienced investor.  Another big bonus, you can read it in a single flight from New York to LA - I did.

1. Good To Great

The Book: The Author, Jim Collins, and his team of researchers studied 1,435 companies, looking for those that made substantial improvements in their performance over time. From this analysis he found 11 companies who achieved "greatness" and discovered their common traits that challenged many of the conventional notions of what drives corporate success. Making the transition from good to great doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. Surprise! It requires the elements of a TPE - passion, focus, ingenuity, exploiting strengths and a few more things (but you'll have to read it to find out).

BONUS - U.S. News Reported The Top 5 Entrepreneur Books For 2009

With the economy headed where it is, U.S. News just reported the top 5 most inspiration books for entrepreneurs to read in 2009. Click on George (at the left of this) to read the article).

BONUS - The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur

The Book: OK, OK... you can't blame a guy for trying.  I am not here to say this deserves to be in the top 10, let alone the top 100 or 1000. That's for you decide.  Check it out on Amazon, or Wiki, or anywhere on Google and decide for yourself.

Shit, I run this site... a little self-promotion is all I ask. Plus you can get a used copy on Amazon for like $0.01 or something.