20 MUST HAVE GOOD READS ON BOOKSHELF TO GROW YOURSELF

There is no age limit to learn and I feel that one of the best ways to learn is to read. Especially now in the unsteady times some brilliant books from leading authors remains one of the few things we can count on. If you’re an aspiring reader and craving to learn something fresh, but because of your frenetic schedule you couldn’t, you can start now! For those of us who proclaimed earlier that we’d be avid readers if we just had more time at home, this is the moment. Now is the time to make that big dent in your good reads list of 2020.

Expand your knowledge and imagination with these 20 books recommended by successful entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and many others which are both inspirational and fascinating to read:

1. Shoe Dog By Phil Knight

The inspiring memoir is written by Knight, the co-founder of Nike, and speaks about the history of Nike from its early struggles to its evolution into one of the world's most recognized and profitable companies. It also highlights certain parts of Phil Knight's life. This book is recommended by Bill Gates and he says the book is a "refreshingly honest" reminder that the road to success is never a straight line. It's a winding path rife with disagreements, fallouts, and hurt feelings.

2. The Ride of a Lifetime By Bob Iger 

Another book recommended by Bill Gates. He calls this book as one of the best business books he has read in several years. The book is written by Bob Iger about his experience as Disney’s CEO and is a must-read if you’re looking for some informative business insights.

3. Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2012: A Fortune Magazine Book By Carol Loomis

This book, written by Carol Loomis, a financial journalist, complies with the six decades of Warren Buffet’s thinking of business and investing. She gives insights into Buffett's investment strategies along with his wisdom on management philanthropy, public policy, and parenting. Buffet gave a shout out to this book in his 2012 shareholder letter and called Loomis “invaluable”.

4. The Copywriter's Handbook: A Step-by-step Guide to Writing Copy that Sells By Robert Bly

This book reveals dozens of copywriting techniques that can help you write ads, commercials, and direct mail that are clear, persuasive, and get more attention―and sell more products. This book is a must-read for copywriters, account executives, creative directors, freelance writers, advertising managers, and even entrepreneurs and brand managers. This is recommended by the advertising tycoon David Ogilvy.

5. This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See by Seth Godin

This book, written by the successful entrepreneur Seth Godin, argues that marketing success in today’s world comes from focusing more on the needs, values, and desires of your target audience, rather than spamming as many people as possible with your messages. This is an important read for all marketers or anyone interested in marketing. 

6. Creative Calling by Chase Jarvis 

This book recommended By Seth Godin and written by renowned artist, author, and CreativeLive founder, Chase Jarvis, reminds that creativity isn't a skill—it's a habit, available to everyone: beginners and lifelong creators, entrepreneurs to executives, astronauts to zookeepers, and everyone in between and through small, daily actions we can supercharge our innate creativity and rediscover our power in life.

7. Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport

Another Seth Godin recommendation, this book talks about where to draw the line with technology and how taking time off our digital devices is essential to living a focused life in a noisy world. This book shows how technology should be used by you and should not let it use you. 

8. The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself by John Jantsch 

This book is recommended by Tony Hsieh ( CEO Of Zappos), Seth Godin, and Guy Kawasaki (Author). John Jantsch, duct tape marketing guru shares his valuable lesson on how small businesses can use their customers for their marketing in the form of referrals and word of mouth marketing. This practical, smart, and original guide is important reading for any company looking to grow without a massive marketing budget.

9. Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore

Crossing the Chasm described the general layout of market adoption and looked at a few case studies of companies that had successfully gained mainstream acceptance. This is one of the books which is recommended to every founder to know more about how to capture the mainstream market by crossing the chasm.  

 10. Inside the Tornado, by Geoffrey A. Moore

Another Geoffrey A. Moore, which is a sequel to his book mentioned above. Inside the Tornado lays out a very specific set of concepts to help a company get there and further describes what generally happens once a market becomes validated. Geoffrey Moore's theory of early adopters as key to a technology's eventual success is used by Apple for its product release cycle. 

 11. Zero to One by Peter Thiel

In Zero to One, Peter Thiel draws on his experience at PayPal and Palantir to offer ideas and suggestions for technology startups. It is an inside view of Peter Thiel’s philosophy and strategy for building a successful startup by looking at the lessons he learned from founding and selling PayPal, investing in Facebook, and becoming a billionaire in the process. It’s recommended reading for startups, entrepreneurs, and innovators.

12. Steve Jobs By Walter Isaacson

This book is recommended by Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and many other successful entrepreneurs. Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years - as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, competitors, and colleagues - Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and extremely intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. This book is a definite must-read for all entrepreneurs. 

13. Winning Now, Winning Later by David M Cote

Business leaders often take actions that steady the earnings in the short term but compromise their companies’ long-term health. David Cote, the former leader of Honeywell International and one of the most successful CEOs of his generation, shares a simple, fundamental change method of achieving both short- and long-term goals. Indra Nooyi suggests this book and said that it is a must-read in today’s environment, and wished that she had this playbook available to her during her tenure as a CEO. 

14. The monk who sold his Ferrari By Robin Sharma

This book is a self-help classic telling the story of a fictional lawyer named Julian Mantle, who sold his mansion and Ferrari to study the seven virtues of the Sages of Sivana in the Himalayan mountains. The book is a business fable derived from Sharma's personal experiences after leaving his career as a litigation lawyer at the age of 25.

15. Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and Your Life by Spencer Johnson

This is an all-time classic book that you can directly apply to your own life, to stop fearing what lies ahead and instead thrive in an environment of change and uncertainty. This book is both entertaining and inspiring to read and teaches that moving on in your life is very important to survive. 

16. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

Another all-time classic and inspirational book is part of the Rich series by Robert Kiyosaki. This book is about Robert and his two dads (one real father and other father is his best friend’s father) and the way both men shaped his thoughts about money and investing. It advocates the importance of financial education, financial independence, and building wealth through investing in assets, real estate investing, starting and owning businesses, as well as increasing one's financial intelligence to improve one's business and financial aptitude.

17. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

This is a book that every business owner should keep easily accessible. It’s not a book you can read once to pick up a few tips from, but instead, it is a book to continually revisit as you grow as an entrepreneur and build your business. It will teach you how to be a better entrepreneur than everyone else and how to harness powerful focus and initiative to run a better business.

 18. The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker 

 Jeff Bezos made his senior managers sit down and read this book during an all-day book club. So, this book has some valuable advice for business owners. This book teaches business owners the importance of getting the things that matter done. The book reinforces how important it is to avoid being unproductive and invest in the right things. This book is a good source to learn time management tips and the decision-making habits of the best executives out there.

 19. Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge by Michael Suk-Young Chwe

This was one of the 23 books which Mark Zuckerberg recommended and discussed in his book club back in 2015. The book offers a game-theory-based analysis of the role rituals, ceremonies, and media events play in society. Throughout the ages, these rites have been used to create “common knowledge” that allows people to solve problems, such as which ruler to obey and which products to buy. Mark picked this book to dig deeper into the concept of “common knowledge,” which could play a part in the shape of Facebook to come. Common knowledge, he says is an important idea for designing social media, as we often face tradeoffs between creating personalized experiences for each individual and crafting universal experiences for everyone.”

20. Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace

Another book is discussed in Mark’s book club. This book is for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights. It combines Catmull’s recollections of his childhood and his rise through the ranks of Disney and Pixar with the lessons he’s learned along the way and how he believes they can help the average person achieve their creative goals. The book also shows how the idea of 3D animation developed and took time to become a reality.

Happy Reading!