The Top Five Business Books for Young Entrepreneurs
October 8, 2007 by Richard Millington
Filed under Business
College Startup has listed their Top 5 books for Young Entrepreneurs. It’s a worthwhile read, but it’s not a list I agree with.
Reading books and blogs is vital, usually it will give you an extra edge over the majority who don’t. But ‘How I Did It’ books will either give general advice (e.g. be persistent), or outdated advice (e.g. You need to raise lots of capital). Times are changing quickly and these sorts of books struggle to keep up.
If you want the ‘How I did it’ books read the autobiographies of Richard Branson, Felix Dennis or Warren Buffet.
What should you read then?
I would avoid the ‘how I did it’ style books and anything with ‘Young Entrepreneur’ in the title. Instead you should become an expert on specific and useful practical areas. For example Selling, Marketing, Management (if you intend to hire people), and presentation/confidence books (many people disagree with this last one).
I would recommend these:
1) Seth Godin – Purple Cow (2002) A near-definitive marketing book about the importance of being remarkable when most products and companies are entirely dull.
2) John Jantsch’s – Duct Tape Marketing (2007) The most modern and most practical advice about starting a company from a purely marketing point of view (which is the way it should be).
3) The Sales Bible: Jeffrey Gitomer (2003) Selling is crucial, this book will tell you how to do it.
4) Never Eat Alone – Keith Ferrazzi (2006) The business version of ‘how to make friends and influence people’. If you want to get ahead and ‘know people’ – this will be vital.
5) The Long Tail – Chris Anderson (2006) Today, this is where the opportunities are at.
Coincidentally, read the Financial Times’ experts debate on the best business books of all time.
