.png)
They say knowledge is power, and this is a mantra that I believe in strongly. As entrepreneurs and small business owners, expanding our knowledge base is something that should always be at the top of our minds.
The more we know, the better we are at business, life, love, and so on. I am constantly telling folks I work with to never stop reading.
Some of your best ideas will be as a result of some kind of inspiration you got by reading a book. Reading also lets us know what is going on around us, and where the next big idea will come from.
One that may just redefine your industry. That being said, these are the top 5 entrepreneurial books to read this year, in my humble opinion.
1. Principles: Life and Work
by Ray Dalio
Ray Dalio, one of the world’s most successful investors and entrepreneurs, shares the unconventional principles that he’s developed, refined, and used over the past forty years to create unique results in both life and business—and which any person or organization can adopt to help achieve their goals.
In 1975, Ray Dalio founded an investment firm, Bridgewater Associates, out of his two-bedroom apartment in New York City. Forty years later, Bridgewater has made more money for its clients than any other hedge fund in history and grown into the fifth most important private company in the United States, according to Fortune magazine. Read more
2. The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand Out From The Crowd
by Allan Dib
To build a successful business, you need to stop doing random acts of marketing and start following a reliable plan for rapid business growth. Traditionally, creating a marketing plan has been a difficult and time-consuming process, which is why it often doesn't get done.
In The 1-Page Marketing Plan, serial entrepreneur and rebellious marketer Allan Dib reveals a marketing implementation breakthrough that makes creating a marketing plan simple and fast. Read more
3. Startup Monday: How to tackle some of the often overlooked challenges you will face while trying to grow your Startup company
by Frank Dappah
Startup Monday is an easy-to-digest, straight-to-the-point book about Leadership, growth and corporate culture.
This 160-plus page book is my latest attempt at helping any entrepreneur or business owner out there, based on my own personal experiences, navigate the unique set of challenges one faces when trying to grow a Startup company that has started to gain some momentum.
This book touches on topics like recruiting and retaining talented men and women, raising growth capital, and building a healthy, non-toxic corporate culture. Read more
4. Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It
by Chris Voss
After a stint policing the rough streets of Kansas City, Missouri, Chris Voss joined the FBI, where his career as a hostage negotiator brought him face-to-face with a range of criminals, including bank robbers and terrorists.
Reaching the pinnacle of his profession, he became the FBI’s lead international kidnapping negotiator. Never Split the Difference takes you inside the world of high-stakes negotiations and into Voss’s head, revealing the skills that helped him and his colleagues succeed where it mattered most: saving lives. Read more
5. Emotional Intelligence 2.0
by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves
In today's fast-paced world of competitive workplaces and turbulent economic conditions, each of us is searching for effective tools that can help us to manage, adapt, and strike out ahead of the pack.
By now, emotional intelligence (EQ) needs little introduction—it’s no secret that EQ is critical to your success. But knowing what EQ is and knowing how to use it to improve your life are two very different things.
