As the holiday season winds down, many of us finally have time to sit down and read a good book. Why not read one that will help your business in the year to come?
From venture capitalist Ben Horowitz's take on failure and turning his company around to the inside scoop on how Pixar grew from a small special effects company into a media behemoth, here are five books that may inspire you.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
By Ben Horowitz
Dubbed “required reading for business-builders everywhere” by The Economist, this book from last year by entrepreneur and venture capitalist Ben Horowitz explores failure — the difficult part of entrepreneurship nobody seems to talk about. Formerly of Netscape and AOL and co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Horowitz has no shortage of lessons or stories to draw from. His first company, Loudcloud, launched right before the tech bubble burst and its stock fell to $0.35. Horowitz eventually turned the company around and sold it to HP for $14.25 a share.
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
By Charles Duhigg
If you’re in the startup business, you know how crucial understanding habits can be. Grasping why your customers do what they do can offer crucial sales insights or spark entirely new business ideas. Equally as important, figuring out the root causes of your own bad behavioral patterns can help you grow both as an employee or a founder and as a person. In The Power of Habit, Pulitzer Prize winner Charles Duhigg shares his insights from a deep dive into the world of habit research, helping you understand how to change them.
Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
By Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace
Ed Catmull co-founded Pixar with Steve Jobs back in 1986 when Jobs had just gotten fired from Apple. Originally a special effects company that provided third party services for filmmakers, the company eventually grew into one of the most recognized brands in entertainment, and was acquired by Disney in 2006. But the path from scrappy startup to media juggernaut was all but smooth. For instance, a year before Toy Story 2 was set to be released, a command line error caused 90% of the film to be deleted. But beyond being the story of an exciting company, Creativity, Inc. is first and foremost a book of hard-earned lessons about creative leadership.
By Aaron Ross and Marylou Tyler
A must read for sales leaders, Predictable Revenue takes an inside look at how changed the way it approached the sales process. Although they originally struggled to gain a foothold in the CRM world, Salesforce became an industry leader through strategies like asking companies about their business rather than pushing their own product, and streamlining the sales prospecting process.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
By Stephen R. Covey
Over 25 years old at this point, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People remains one of the foundational texts every entrepreneur should read. From proactivity to prioritizing, listening, and drawing on the strengths of others, Covey’s imperatives remain as important in our connected age as they were when the book was written — if not more so.
Photo via Shutterstock.
Do you know a tech startup that deserves coverage? Email us via [email protected]
