Best Books That Every Aspiring Entrepreneur Must Read

Reading has been an essential part of my entrepreneurial journey. I found that reading books was one of the best ways to learn new skills and ideas. It not only helped me grow as a person but also helped my entrepreneurial journey. That's why I made it a personal goal to read at least one book per month that could help grow my business. But what if you fell asleep as soon as you hold a book in your hand? Entrepreneur audiobooks are a good way to read books without stressing your eyes and falling asleep.

Here at Helptap, I will help you choose the best entrepreneurship books for beginners. We will also explore how the best books on entrepreneurship and the books about entrepreneurs that can help you gain success within a short time.

Being an entrepreneur is not easy, but reading books and gaining knowledge can make it more manageable. Reading can provide inspiration and motivation when you need it the most-especially when you are feeling down or uninspired.

Entrepreneurship is a life full of challenges that require constant adjustment and adaptation. It's best to keep your mind sharp and read the best books for aspiring entrepreneurs written by veterans and researchers.

Some of the Best Books of Successful Entrepreneurs Include:

1. The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

The 4-Hour Work Week is the ultimate guide for anyone who wants to buy their freedom. It is by far one of the best books for beginning entrepreneurs. It has sold more than 3 million copies worldwide.

What makes it the best book for beginner entrepreneurs is, you can learn how to increase your income while decreasing your working hours. The author Tim Ferriss deconstructs the perfect lifestyle and shares his tips on how to get there.

The author is not an average entrepreneur. He had a successful career in Silicon Valley but was willing to risk it all for something he believes in. Tim is the author of the bestseller The Four Hour Work Week. This is one of the best beginner entrepreneur books, who wish to have a great lifestyle without going through all the hassle of entrepreneurship and work smart to earn more money.

The 4-Hour Work Week is a long-time favorite of entrepreneurs and business owners because it offers a great perspective on how to start a company, create an income stream, and travel the world. The book has been translated into over 30 languages and has been mentioned in nearly every major publication from Forbes to The Oprah Magazine.

It’s one of the best books for entrepreneurs that not only provides sound advice but also inspires you to take action.

If you read the book, you'll find yourself dreaming about escaping your 9-5 grind and seeing the world with a lot of clarity along with what you want to do with your lives. You'll aspire to build businesses, make money and live life on your own terms.

This book inspires people to get out of their 9 to 5 jobs and live the life of their dreams. 33% of Americans will quit their jobs within the next six months. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many to question what they wanted to do with their lives and whether they were still happy in their jobs.

“The Great Resignation” is here to stay and employees are wanting to build businesses, make art, and pursue some other endeavors from a remote location of their choice. This is the best book for entrepreneurs who want a complete guide to living the life of their dreams.

2. The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It

The E-Myth Revisited is a book by Michael Gerber, published in 1986. The book is now considered a classic of small business literature and is one of the best entrepreneur books for beginners. With over four million copies sold, it's one of the bestselling business books of all time. It has been translated into 20 languages and has become a must-read for anyone who is an entrepreneur or wants to start a business.

The book starts with this statement: "The single greatest problem facing small businesses today is that too many people who could be successful at something other than what they're doing now are instead working full time to barely get by."

It examines the reasons why most small businesses fail and offers guidelines for how to avoid making the same mistakes. This is what makes it one of the best young entrepreneurs' books.

Gerber's thesis is that most small businesses are founded, owned, and operated by people who lack what he calls "entrepreneurial skills". These skills include everything from accounting basics to marketing know-how. The book points out that many entrepreneurs make the same mistakes over and over again. It also suggests ways for new entrepreneurs to avoid these mistakes or fix them when they inevitably happen. For all entrepreneurs, success is never a given and failure can happen to anyone.

With this in mind, this book is by far one of the best books on entrepreneurship as it highlights the importance of not repeating any of the common mistakes that entrepreneurs commit at the early stages of their business. Another important takeaway from this book, and what makes it one of the best books for entrepreneurs is the need to know your business and find a mentor or partner who can share their knowledge and expertise with you.

It is one of the most-read books of all time among entrepreneurs, small business owners, and new business owners who are looking to start their own ventures. In the updated version of this book, you can also find practical solutions for aspiring entrepreneurs who are struggling with their businesses.

3. The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

Eric Ries, entrepreneur and author of The Lean Startup, argues that business can’t succeed in the long term if it isn’t sustainable.

The Lean Startup is a methodology that fuses scientific principles and customer insights to build sustainable businesses. The book's main objectives are to educate entrepreneurs in the process of launching new products, services, or companies in the most efficient manner possible. This makes it one of the best books for aspiring entrepreneurs to grow and succeed.

It provides entrepreneurs with tools for transforming ideas into testable business propositions, minimizing the risk of starting a business by defining its core value proposition and measuring progress along the way. It includes techniques to reduce waste, identify opportunities for rapid experimentation, and increase the speed of learning.

Sustainability in a business doesn’t come without continuous innovation. The Lean Startup shows how to quickly test new ideas and create sustainable growth patterns. This book provides solutions to common entrepreneurial problems and teaches skills to build successful businesses by understanding who your customers are and what they want from them. This is the best book for entrepreneurs who want to start lean and have minimal resources, to begin with.

The book aims at teaching young entrepreneurs how to build a business and is one of the most motivational entrepreneur books. It’s a guidebook for visionaries, pioneers, and everyday people who want to transform their ideas into something extraordinary. The Lean Startup contains tools that can be applied to any problem in any field of human endeavor. It provides entrepreneurs with the best practices that help them build successful ventures on a tight budget while using minimal resources.

The book also offers insights on how to get started without quitting your day job, building a sustainable company without getting an expensive MBA degree, and finally how to measure progress in entrepreneurship.

This book has been praised for its helpful lessons on marketing, customer research, product development, and more. It is a must-read and one of the best books for young entrepreneurs who want to take their company to the next level.

4. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

The Hard Thing About Hard Things is one of the best books for entrepreneurs, fantastically written by the CEO of GE, Ben Horowitz, a Silicon Valley veteran and co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz.

He shares his own experience with us and provides practical solutions to the common problems entrepreneurs face. This book teaches you how to be successful in business, without sugar-coating any part of the struggle associated with it.

The Hard Thing About Hard Things is the best book for entrepreneurs, ever. It's not just a book about entrepreneurship; it's a book about how to manage your emotions, how to lead people, and how to think about the future - all with the unspoken assumption that you're going to face crushing setbacks. It is not only informative but relatable.

It provides several solutions for entrepreneurs when they are in a tough spot, through real-life examples and anecdotes that make the lessons more understandable and easier to apply. This makes it one of the best books for young entrepreneurs and a great female entrepreneurs books.

Ben Horowitz talks about his considerable experience as an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and corporate executive. He offers solutions to the most difficult problems that every entrepreneur faces. These include how to hire good people, how to lead them without destroying their,orale, what it takes to be a founder CEO, what you need to know about industry trajectories, how big companies are structured-the right way-and why great ideas are not enough.

He teaches about the art of hiring, leading & working with teams which is the most important aspect of entrepreneurship, thus making it one of the best books on entrepreneurship. While reading this book you'll go through the founder's perspective on what it takes to become a CEO, what it means to be a founder, and lessons learned from years of experience.

It is the best young entrepreneur book that provides relatable experiences and practical solutions.

The book also includes specific suggestions on hiring the right people, managing them effectively, and firing those who do not perform well without destroying them. After all, an organization is as good as its employees, who represent it and work towards its growth.

5. Zero to One: By Peter Thiel

One of the most iconic and the best books for entrepreneurs is Zero to One by Peter Thiel. It focuses on the necessity of creating and not just copying. The idea is to innovate and look for new and better ways to tackle old problems. It is a best-selling non-fiction book written as his class lectures at Stanford University in 2012.

The book also focuses on how startups should approach business and provides solutions to entrepreneurial problems. This is the best entrepreneurship business book that is truly innovative and has a unique perspective on everything.

It is a must-read for entrepreneurs, investors, or creators as the book challenges the reader to think in a radically new way about economic growth and offers a contrarian blueprint for creating value in today's world.

The author takes an entrepreneur’s view on how to be successful in business and is one of the most inspiring books for entrepreneurs. He understands that there is no one size fits all model for success and that it’s important to do something different than everyone else. Zero to One teaches you how to create something new - whether it is a product or a service - and how to grow your company from an idea.

It also provides input on how startups should approach the world and teaches the reader about the different types of businesses and how they can be successful at it. One of its main points is that startups should make a product that isn't available in the market yet, instead of building a better product for existing markets ie. differentiated products. This also includes the idea of solving problems in a more efficient way that is new to the market.

The author has also included his own experiences, the challenges that he faced, and the solutions. This is what makes this one of the best entrepreneur books to read.

The book is written with the assumption that entrepreneurship is a tough journey and the author focuses on helping entrepreneurs overcome the challenges they face before they become successful.

6. How To Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie

Dale Carnegie is one of the most influential writers in the self-help genre and his book "How to Win Friends and Influence People" is the top book for entrepreneurs. This book is a classic that was first published in 1936 and still has relevance in the 21st century.

It has sold more than 15 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling books of all time. According to Forbes, this book has been translated into almost 30 languages and is available in 110 countries in 38 editions.

It teaches you how to improve your interpersonal skills, how to deal with difficult people, and how to win them over. It is one of the must-read entrepreneur books because it helps you to learn the single most important skill that is necessary to be successful in business, “Communication”.

It teaches us that success is not just about getting rich and famous but also about how you deal with people. No matter how much money or power people have, they are still just people with problems - so it is important to learn how to deal with these people if you want your business to succeed. If you are someone who struggles with active communication, this is one of the must-read books for entrepreneurs and the best books for young entrepreneurs.

The book talks about six ways how one can win friends and influence people: be a good listener, smile, remember names, be genuinely interested in others, compliment sincerely, and make people feel important.

It is written with anecdotes, stories, and examples. Dale Carnegie gives his readers practical ways to get along with others and improve their social skills through the use of specific techniques that enable them to be successful in their personal and professional lives, by following some simple yet powerful techniques. These are skills that are used by all great leaders, entrepreneurs, educators, parents, politicians, and businessmen.

7. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a best-selling book that has been translated into more than 30 languages. The book was first published in 1989 and it is still a global phenomenon, translated into at least 50 languages. It is one of the best books for new entrepreneurs written by Stephen R. Covey. In this book, he shares the principles behind effectiveness as well as how to apply these principles in one's life and business. it is one of the books every entrepreneur should read.

The author had spent his life teaching and training people to be more effective in all areas of their lives, both personal and professional. Covey believed that effective habits can be learned and that these habits work together to help one achieve what they want in life. The principles he teaches are universal and timeless, which makes his book one of the best books for entrepreneurs, who are looking to lead a productive and satisfying life.

The book is divided into two parts: Part One is about the seven habits, while Part Two tackles the importance of renewing one’s purpose on a regular basis. Covey insists on self-renewal as the key factor in remaining proactive even when we face difficult times

He has been a leading thinker in the field of personal development for over thirty years and all his expertise has been summarised in this book.

It provides a variety of insights about how to find fulfillment in the business world, in families, and with oneself. Covey outlines 7 habits that anyone can adopt to create a successful, satisfying and balanced life.

1. Be Proactive

2. Begin with the End in Mind

3. Put First Things First

4. Think Win-Win

5. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

6. Synergize

7. Sharpen the Saw

It is one of the best books for all entrepreneurs as it is an easy read and breaks down the concepts of what the 7 habits are, what you need to do, how to prioritize tasks, and how you can make your world better for both yourself and others around you.

The author's main goal of this book is to teach the reader about the power of their mental thoughts and how they can change their life. The book is designed to be a guide for displaying habits that are highly effective.

It is one of the best books for entrepreneurs because it teaches you how to change your thinking and behavior so that you can achieve success in all aspects of life.

8. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert Cialdini

Influence is a book written by Dr. Robert Cialdini on the six psychological principles of persuasion. He has been teaching at the University of Arizona since 1973 and this book was published in 1984. It is considered to be one of the best books ever written on the art and science of getting what you want and this makes it one of the best books for entrepreneurs.

It explores the psychology of why it is so easy to say yes to requests or agree with ideas, and how you can use this knowledge to your advantage in your career, business, relationships, and day-to-day interactions.

It is a foundational book on marketing and advertising. It offers a better understanding of how people can be persuaded to do certain activities, teaches readers how to identify what motivates people and how to use this knowledge for marketing purposes.

It is filled with insights on topics such as getting a larger response from an audience or increasing the number of referrals from customers. It is one of the must-read books for entrepreneurs interested in building their businesses through effective marketing techniques.

Cialdini reveals the six principles of persuasion: reciprocity, scarcity, consistency, authority, liking, and social proof.

The first one- consistency - is all about people's need to be consistent with their beliefs or past behaviors. When someone does something once they feel obliged to do it again in order to not be inconsistent with themselves.

The second principle is scarcity- this principle states that people will want something more if they believe there are fewer of them available than if they think there are plenty around.

The third principle is reciprocity- which dictates that people will do something for someone they like if they hope that person will do something for them

The fourth principle is authority- which dictates that people will obey someone in a position of authority

The Fifth Principle is liking- Which is the principle that most people have a positive reaction to. If someone likes you, they are more likely to want to cooperate with you and do what you want.

The final principle is consistency- which dictates that people want to be consistent with their beliefs and actions. They will change their beliefs or actions to be consistent with what they already believe or do.

All these principles and concepts make it one of the best young entrepreneur books.

9. The Four Steps to the Epiphany, Steve Blank

One of the best books for entrepreneurs is the Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank. This book is considered a must-read for any entrepreneur. The book was originally published in 2005 but it holds as much relevance today, as it did back then.

The author is an American entrepreneur-turned-educator, who created the customer development process. He has co-founded eight companies, including E.piphany (1986), which he started with chief scientist Elissa Moses; Teknowledge (1989), which developed AI software for semiconductor design; and GO Corporation (1994).

In this book, blank talks about how to transform an idea into a marketable product. He discusses how entrepreneurship is not for everyone and what those who want to start a business should do first. It provides an answer to all entrepreneurial problems and helps them pave the way for success.

It is the best entrepreneurship book for those who want to start or grow their businesses and generate new ideas and strategies. Steve Blanks offers a four-step process that will help you test your idea and see if it makes sense in the real world. Build – Measure – Learn – Repeat. It is one of the best books entrepreneurs should read.

It starts with a problem, then finding out how people can solve that problem. The next step is to find the customer segments who would want your product with these solutions. And finally, you need to ask yourself how you are going to make money from this idea and what resources you will need such as technology and staff.

This book is dedicated mainly to those who want to build something of their own and is one of the best books for entrepreneurs looking to launch an app or an online store, or some other business venture. This is one of the highly recommended entrepreneurship business books to read. The Four Steps to the Epiphany offers a blueprint for turning your startup idea into a successful business, based on the fundamental principle that marketing is everything.

10. The Innovator's Dilemma, Clayton Christensen

The Innovator’s Dilemma, by Clayton Christensen, is one of the best books for entrepreneurs. It is one of the best books for female entrepreneurs as the book discusses how disruptive innovations affect established companies that might not have seen it coming. The author brings to life a deep well of management theory and practice that can help any business leader looking to create and sustain a competitive advantage.

It talks about the failure of the best-run companies to successfully disrupt themselves from time to time. The book was listed as one of the most influential business books of all time in a survey by Strategy+Business and is by far one of the best books for entrepreneurs.

In this book, the author provides a framework for understanding why some companies are able to become successful in the long term, while others fail. It shows that success depends on recognizing and exploiting opportunities that allow a company to foresee and create new markets, rather than being locked into its current market position.

Christensen discusses the concept of “disruptive innovation” which means that successful companies eventually get disrupted by new technology and industries. The author also uses a case study of the disk drive industry and how it was disrupted by the invention of the personal computer.

This is the best book for female entrepreneurs who want to get a better understanding of how to succeed in this changing economy by learning about management, business strategy, and the socioeconomic environments that small businesses have to work in.

There are many reasons why this book is considered "The Bible" for entrepreneurs. The main reason is that “It teaches an age-old lesson: competition does not matter”, and only the movement on your own end does. It also teaches us an important lesson that most innovation comes from small organizations that are no more than 5000 around the world and are often ignored.

11. Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

Predictably Irrational is a book about behavioral economics. It talks about the systematic ways in which people make irrational decisions. Dan Ariely is an Israeli-American Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University and has authored many books on how our psychology influences economic decision-making. It is one of the best books for entrepreneurs because it explains the irrationalities that cause us to make decisions that we regret.

Dan Ariely has researched how our brains process happiness and what influences our decision-making. He’s applied his knowledge to create an engaging and entertaining read that will teach you how you can be predictably irrational in your own life.

Filled with eye-opening insights and practical advice, this book will change the way you think about everyday experiences, as well as big-picture issues such as financial crises and global warming. The author has spent the last two decades exploring the hidden forces that shape our decisions.

For example, we always think we're in control of our actions, but over time he's learned that people's decisions are shaped by social norms, emotions, and prices (or lack thereof). It is a must-read and one of the best-selling entrepreneur books as it teaches self-control which is imperative for a business owner.

This book is rather simple and does not require a lot of background knowledge. It tackles the question: why do we make irrational decisions? By removing the space between us and the subject, we get more insights into how our minds work. The author also states that we all have some irrationality in us, which is good to know. This way we will know that no one has a monopoly on being rational and it’s okay to be wrong once in a while.

After reading this book you will know what makes people tick without revealing the inner workings of the brain. It also tells readers how they can use this knowledge to make better decisions in their own life, whether it's for business or personal matters.

Entrepreneurship is one of the most difficult careers to start and reading the best books on entrepreneurship is most important for growth.  It’s not just about having an idea but also about executing that idea. To succeed in entrepreneurship, you need to be able to identify your strengths and use them to your advantage. This book will teach you strategies on how to think like an entrepreneur and how to be successful in any situation.

The author shares his findings of the motivations, emotions, and innate desires of human beings by sharing studies from various disciplines such as economics, psychology, biology, sociology, politics, anthropology, etc. The book also has tales about everyday people who are victims of their own biases in order to show how they can take charge of their lives for better solutions to entrepreneurial problems.

The search for the best book for entrepreneurs is never-ending and to my sane mind, there can not be just one particular book for entrepreneurs that can provide solutions to all entrepreneurial problems. You will face multiple hurdles as an entrepreneur and reading one good book a month or every quarter can help you gain knowledge and avoid repeating mistakes that people have already made in their journey.

The most important part of reading a book is to practically implement the learnings as is the popular saying “ We forget what we hear, we remember what we see and we learn what we do.”

Your idea can change the world, let's make it a reality!

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