As previously mentioned, I listen to audiobooks on my commute.  And my commute is loooong so I go through several.  A recent focus of mine has been on business, and specifically starting one.  If you work for a business, own a business, want to start a business, or are thinking about forming a business… here are some of the books I found useful.

Power Your Happy by Lisa Sugar.  Lisa is the founder of POPSUGAR, her self-created dream job.  And perhaps you’ve also heard of ShopStyle and POPSUGAR Must Have which also fall under the POPSUGAR Inc. umbrella.  In her book, Lisa describes how she went about figuring out what her dream job was, and then took the risks to create it.  Her personal and business story is a light read that is sure to get you inspired and motivated!  This is the only non-audiobook on the list, but it’s perfect for lazy Sunday mornings, a local cafe, or airport layovers.

The Hard Thing About Hard Things:  Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz.  Ben Horowitz is a technology entrepreneur who together with Marc Andreessen founded Loudcloud.  When Loudcloud sold its core managed services business to EDS, Ben worked to rebrand the remaining company into an enterprise software company called Opsware, which was ultimately bought by Hewlett-Packard.  In his book, Ben gives an honest, no-nonsense, recounting of the difficulties of running a startup and he shares the lessons he learned along the way.  The book has great tips for anyone starting a business, running a business, managing people, or aspiring to do any of the above.

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries.  Eric Ries is a serial entrepreneur turned venture advisor and knows first hand that most startups fail.  From his experience though, Eric developed a methodology to help startups succeed.  Eric began documenting his methodology on his blog, and now in this book.  Eric details his lean startup method with real life examples from his days as CTO of IMVU where he learned the value of creating a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) to figure out what customers actually want and will use before spending loads of time and resources creating a seemingly perfect product.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnagie.  Written in 1936 this book has been around a while.  And as I learned from reading The Snowball, Warren Buffett read it numerous times and even took Mr. Carnegie’s course.  With its 12 ways to win people to your way of thinking, and 9 ways to change people without arousing resentment, this book is just as useful in the workplace as it is at home 😉

Start Your Own Corporation:  Why the Rich Own their Own Companies and Everyone Else Works for Them by Garrett Sutton.  If you are starting a business, own a small business, or have wealth that you want to protect and/or pass on, then this book is worth a read.  The author is an established business attorney and he does a good job of walking you through the various types of business entity structures, why you may want to have one, and how to get one.  For each entity type he highlights pros and cons, and gives real life examples of business entities limiting liability, gaining tax advantages, and safeguarding assets.

Happy reading!  And if you have any inspirational business books to recommend, let us know in the comments!

xoxo
– ash