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Top Business Books Recommended by Founders

The Top Entrepreneurs podcast has interviewed 900+ founders. Each CEO shares their favorite book. This list highlights the most popular.
Showing 1 - 242 of 242 books

1. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
Read comments 30 mentions

2. Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Read comments 18 mentions

3. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't
Read comments 11 mentions

4. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition
Read comments 10 mentions

5. The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
Read comments 9 mentions

6. The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It
Read comments 8 mentions

7. How to Win Friends & Influence People
Read comments 8 mentions

8. Steve Jobs
Read comments 8 mentions

9. Rework
Read comments 7 mentions

10. Think and Grow Rich
Read comments 7 mentions

11. High Output Management
Read comments 6 mentions

12. Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers
Read comments 6 mentions

13. The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business
Read comments 6 mentions

14. Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success
Read comments 5 mentions

15. Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!
Read comments 4 mentions

16. Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal (Business Skills and Development)
Read comments 4 mentions

17. Predictable Revenue: Turn Your Business Into a Sales Machine with the $100 Million Best Practices of Salesforce.com
Read comments 4 mentions

18. Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business
Read comments 3 mentions

19. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't
Read comments 3 mentions

20. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Read comments 3 mentions

21. Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company-and Revolutionized an Industry
Read comments 3 mentions

22. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
Read comments 3 mentions

23. The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure
Read comments 3 mentions

24. The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry
Read comments 3 mentions

25. The 48 Laws of Power
Read comments 3 mentions

26. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
Read comments 3 mentions

27. The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company
Read comments 2 mentions

28. Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way
Read comments 2 mentions

29. The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less
Read comments 2 mentions

30. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
Read comments 2 mentions

31. The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
Read comments 2 mentions

32. The Chimp Paradox: The Mind Management Program to Help You Achieve Success, Confidence, and Happine ss
Read comments 2 mentions

33. Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't (Rockefeller Habits 2.0)
Read comments 2 mentions

34. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
Read comments 2 mentions

35. Thinking, Fast and Slow
Read comments 2 mentions

36. Less Doing, More Living: Make Everything in Life Easier
Read comments 2 mentions

37. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Read comments 2 mentions

38. The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
Read comments 2 mentions

39. The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million
Read comments 2 mentions

40. Think and Grow Rich
Read comments 2 mentions

41. The Hockey Stick Principles: The 4 Key Stages to Entrepreneurial Success
Read comments 2 mentions

42. Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Growing Firm
Read comments 2 mentions

43. Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers (Collins Business Essentials)
Read comments 2 mentions

44. Steve Jobs
Read comments 2 mentions

45. Anything You Want
Read comments 2 mentions

46. Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat (Agora Series)
Read comments 2 mentions

47. David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants
Read comments 2 mentions

48. Virtual Freedom: How to Work with Virtual Staff to Buy More Time, Become More Productive, and Build Your Dream Business
Read comments 2 mentions

49. Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
Read comments 2 mentions

50. Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World
Read comments 2 mentions

51. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
Read comments 2 mentions

52. Ego Is the Enemy
Read comments 2 mentions

53. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition
Read comments 2 mentions

54. Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
Read comments 2 mentions

55. Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace)
Read comments 2 mentions

56. Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (Harper Business Essentials)
Read comments 2 mentions

57. Crossing the Chasm, 3rd Edition: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers (Collins Business Essentials)
Read comments 2 mentions

58. The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM)
Read comments 2 mentions

59. The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur’s Vision of the Future
Read comments 2 mentions

60. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Read comments 2 mentions

61. Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Read comments 2 mentions

62. How Google Works
Read comments 2 mentions

63. Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
Read comments 2 mentions

64. Guerilla Marketing: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business
Read comments 2 mentions

65. Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't
Read comments 2 mentions

66. Breakthrough Advertising
Read comments 2 mentions

67. The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results
Read comments 2 mentions

68. Ask: The Counterintuitive Online Method to Discover Exactly What Your Customers Want to Buy...Create a Mass of Raving Fans...and Take Any Business to the Next Level
Read comments 2 mentions

69. How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It
Read comments 1 mention

70. The Marine Corps Way to Win on Wall Street: 11 Key Principles from Battlefield to Boardroom
Read comments 1 mention

71. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
Read comments 1 mention

72. Conversion Optimization: The Art and Science of Converting Prospects to Customers
Read comments 1 mention

73. Never Eat Alone, Expanded and Updated: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time
Read comments 1 mention

74. What Is Your WHAT?: Discover The One Amazing Thing You Were Born To Do
Read comments 1 mention

75. The Predictable Profits Playbook: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Dominating Any Market And Staying On Top
Read comments 1 mention

76. The Art of Fielding: A Novel
Read comments 1 mention

77. The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
Read comments 1 mention

78. Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers
Read comments 1 mention

79. The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies
Read comments 1 mention

80. Ender's Game (The Ender Quintet)
Read comments 1 mention

81. The Compound Effect
Read comments 1 mention

82. The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance
Read comments 1 mention

83. Startup CEO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Business, + Website
Read comments 1 mention

84. Storming The Magic Kingdom
Read comments 1 mention

85. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
Read comments 1 mention

86. Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It
Read comments 1 mention

87. Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets
Read comments 1 mention

88. Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends
Read comments 1 mention

89. Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
Read comments 1 mention

90. The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime.
Read comments 1 mention

91. The Path (Business Books)
Read comments 1 mention

92. The Ultimate Question 2.0 (Revised and Expanded Edition): How Net Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven World
Read comments 1 mention

93. How to Win Friends & Influence People
Read comments 1 mention

94. The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future
Read comments 1 mention

95. One Simple Idea, Revised and Expanded Edition: Turn Your Dreams into a Licensing Goldmine While Letting Others Do the Work (Business Books)
Read comments 1 mention

96. The Power of the Other: The startling effect other people have on you, from the boardroom to the bedroom and beyond-and what to do about it
Read comments 1 mention

97. The Executive in Action : Managing for Results, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Effective Executive
Read comments 1 mention

98. Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story, Updated and Expanded Edition (paperback)
Read comments 1 mention

99. The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking
Read comments 1 mention

100. The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, Fourth Edition
Read comments 1 mention

101. The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
Read comments 1 mention

102. Extreme Revenue Growth: Startup Secrets to Growing Your Sales from $1 Million to $25 Million in Any Industry
Read comments 1 mention

103. Choose Yourself!
Read comments 1 mention

104. Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat
Read comments 1 mention

105. Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competit ion
Read comments 1 mention

106. The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea
Read comments 1 mention

107. Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today's Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves
Read comments 1 mention

108. The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies
Read comments 1 mention

109. Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd
Read comments 1 mention

110. As a Man Thinketh (Life-Changing Classics Ser) (Life-Changing Pamphlet)
Read comments 1 mention

111. Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Read comments 1 mention

112. King Icahn: The Biography of a Renegade Capitalist
Read comments 1 mention

113. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
Read comments 1 mention

114. Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success
Read comments 1 mention

115. The Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life While Making a Living
Read comments 1 mention

116. Yeager: An Autobiography
Read comments 1 mention

117. Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
Read comments 1 mention

118. Uncontainable: How Passion, Commitment, and Conscious Capitalism Built a Business Where Everyone Thrives
Read comments 1 mention

119. In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies
Read comments 1 mention

120. The Perfect Day Formula: How to Own the Day And Control Your Life
Read comments 1 mention

121. Brave New World
Read comments 1 mention

122. The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling
Read comments 1 mention

123. Pitching and Closing: Everything You Need to Know About Business Development, Partnerships, and Making Deals that Matter (Business Books)
Read comments 1 mention

124. Do the KIND Thing: Think Boundlessly, Work Purposefully, Live Passionately
Read comments 1 mention

125. Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
Read comments 1 mention

126. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Read comments 1 mention

127. The Servant: A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership
Read comments 1 mention

128. From Impossible To Inevitable: How Hyper-Growth Companies Create Predictable Revenue
Read comments 1 mention

129. The All-Day Energy Diet: Double Your Energy in 7 Days
Read comments 1 mention

130. The Purpose Principles: How to Draw More Meaning into Your Life
Read comments 1 mention

131. The Halo Effect: . . . and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers
Read comments 1 mention

132. Boundaries for Leaders: Results, Relationships, and Being Ridiculously in Charge
Read comments 1 mention

133. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Read comments 1 mention

134. Nonsense: The Power of Not Knowing
Read comments 1 mention

135. Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?: Leading a Great Enterprise through Dramatic Change
Read comments 1 mention

136. The Alchemist
Read comments 1 mention

137. Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built
Read comments 1 mention

138. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
Read comments 1 mention

139. The Startup Playbook: Secrets of the Fastest-Growing Startups from Their Founding Entrepreneurs
Read comments 1 mention

140. Rembrandts in the Attic: Unlocking the Hidden Value of Patents
Read comments 1 mention

141. Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters
Read comments 1 mention

142. Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle
Read comments 1 mention

143. Do Cool Sh*t: Quit Your Day Job, Start Your Own Business, and Live Happily Ever After
Read comments 1 mention

144. Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Read comments 1 mention

145. Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work
Read comments 1 mention

146. The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
Read comments 1 mention

147. Writing Riches: Learn How to Boost Profits, Drive Sales and Master Your Financial Destiny With Results-Based Web Copy
Read comments 1 mention

148. Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business
Read comments 1 mention

149. Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling
Read comments 1 mention

150. The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness
Read comments 1 mention

151. The Science of Growth: How Facebook Beat Friendster--and How Nine Other Startups Left the Rest in the Dust
Read comments 1 mention

152. Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life
Read comments 1 mention

153. Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company
Read comments 1 mention

154. Slash
Read comments 1 mention

155. Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best... and Learn from the Worst
Read comments 1 mention

156. Elon Musk: Biography of a Self-Made Visionary, Entrepreneur and Billionaire
Read comments 1 mention

157. The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel (Revised Edition) (Collins Business Essentials)
Read comments 1 mention

158. The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success
Read comments 1 mention

159. Peopleware : Productive Projects and Teams
Read comments 1 mention

160. Elevator to the Top: Your Go-To Resource for All Things Sales
Read comments 1 mention

161. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World
Read comments 1 mention

162. The Art Of Less Doing: One Entrepreneur's Formula for a Beautiful Life
Read comments 1 mention

163. Mini MBA
Read comments 1 mention

164. Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box (Agency/Distributed)
Read comments 1 mention

165. It's Not My Department!
Read comments 1 mention

166. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Read comments 1 mention

167. Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition
Read comments 1 mention

168. Double Double: How to Double Your Revenue and Profit in 3 Years or Less
Read comments 1 mention

169. Rocket Fuel: The One Essential Combination That Will Get You More of What You Want from Your Business
Read comments 1 mention

170. Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers
Read comments 1 mention

171. Make Big Happen: How To Live, Work, and Give Big
Read comments 1 mention

172. Profit from Happiness: The Unity of Wealth, Work, and Personal Fulfillment
Read comments 1 mention

173. Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
Read comments 1 mention

174. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Read comments 1 mention

175. The School of Heart Knocks
Read comments 1 mention

176. Approach: The Rejection-Free Way for Marketers to Reach Your Ideal Clients, Have Them Clamoring to Work with You, and Grow Your Business with Multiple Streams of Revenue.
Read comments 1 mention

177. There Is Nothing Wrong with You: Going Beyond Self-Hate
Read comments 1 mention

178. The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
Read comments 1 mention

179. Profit First: A Simple System to Transform Any Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine.
Read comments 1 mention

180. The Art of SEO (Theory in Practice)
Read comments 1 mention

181. The PayPal Wars: Battles with eBay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of Planet Earth
Read comments 1 mention

182. The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness
Read comments 1 mention

183. The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age
Read comments 1 mention

184. The Complete Guide to Buying and Selling Apartment Buildings
Read comments 1 mention

185. Inside Steve's Brain
Read comments 1 mention

186. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
Read comments 1 mention

187. Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Read comments 1 mention

188. A Modern Approach to Graham and Dodd Investing
Read comments 1 mention

189. Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal
Read comments 1 mention

190. Into the Wind: My Six-Month Journey Wandering the World for Life’s Purpose
Read comments 1 mention

191. The Magic of Thinking Big
Read comments 1 mention

192. The Art of War: Slip-case Edition
Read comments 1 mention

193. Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live
Read comments 1 mention

194. Quench Your Own Thirst: Business Lessons Learned Over a Beer or Two
Read comments 1 mention

195. Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator
Read comments 1 mention

196. Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
Read comments 1 mention

197. John Adams
Read comments 1 mention

198. Anyone Can Do It: Building Coffee Republic from Our Kitchen Table - 57 Real Life Laws on Entrepreneurship
Read comments 1 mention

199. The All-Day Fat-Burning Diet: The 5-Day Food-Cycling Formula That Resets Your Metabolism To Lose Up to 5 Pounds a Week
Read comments 1 mention

200. Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love
Read comments 1 mention

201. The Way of the Wizard: 20 Lessons for Living a Magical Life
Read comments 1 mention

202. Turning Pro: Tap Your Inner Power and Create Your Life's Work
Read comments 1 mention

203. Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth
Read comments 1 mention

204. Commercial Real Estate Investing For Dummies
Read comments 1 mention

205. Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You
Read comments 1 mention

206. Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter
Read comments 1 mention

207. The Joshua Principle: Leadership Secrets of Selling
Read comments 1 mention

208. The Art Of War
Read comments 1 mention

209. Changes That Heal
Read comments 1 mention

210. Hacking Marketing: Agile Practices to Make Marketing Smarter, Faster, and More Innovative
Read comments 1 mention

211. The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal
Read comments 1 mention

212. Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction
Read comments 1 mention

213. The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal
Read comments 1 mention

214. Boss Life: Surviving My Own Small Business
Read comments 1 mention

215. Lean Analytics: Use Data to Build a Better Startup Faster (Lean Series)
Read comments 1 mention

216. Predictable Success: Getting Your Organization on the Growth Track--and Keeping It There
Read comments 1 mention

217. Digital Influencer: A Guide to Achieving Influencer Status Online
Read comments 1 mention

218. The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster: Why Now Is the Time to #JoinTheRide
Read comments 1 mention

219. Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise
Read comments 1 mention

220. The Power of Your Identity
Read comments 1 mention

221. The Great Game of Business, Expanded and Updated: The Only Sensible Way to Run a Company
Read comments 1 mention

222. Exponential Organizations: Why new organizations are ten times better, faster, and cheaper than yours (and what to do about it)
Read comments 1 mention

223. Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days
Read comments 1 mention

224. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses
Read comments 1 mention

225. Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less (Revised 4th edition, 2017)
Read comments 1 mention

226. Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2013
Read comments 1 mention

227. Trump: The Art of the Deal
Read comments 1 mention

228. Straight-Line Leadership: Tools for Living with Velocity and Power in Turbulent Times
Read comments 1 mention

229. Warfighting
Read comments 1 mention

230. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk!
Read comments 1 mention

231. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You (10th Anniversary Edition)
Read comments 1 mention

232. DotCom Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Growing Your Company Online
Read comments 1 mention

233. Turning the Mind Into an Ally
Read comments 1 mention

234. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
Read comments 1 mention

235. Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: How I Went from Gang Member to Multimillionaire Entrepreneur
Read comments 1 mention

236. The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business
Read comments 1 mention

237. Great CEOs Are Lazy
Read comments 1 mention

238. Der Weg zum erfolgreichen Unternehmer
Read comments 1 mention

239. The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King
Read comments 1 mention

240. Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul
Read comments 1 mention

241. Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity
Read comments 1 mention

242. Fooling Some of the People All of the Time, A Long Short (and Now Complete) Story, Updated with New Epilogue
Read comments 1 mention

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