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Ask Slashdot: What Are Your Favorite Books On Entrepreneurship?
An anonymous reader writes: There are excellent well-known books like Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, but I find some of the lesser-known books about tech entrepreneurship very interesting, like A Triumph of Genius about Edwin Land of Polaroid or Riding the Runaway Horse about An Wang of Wang Laboratories. Also, there's Fast Forward by Lardner about VHS/Betamax. What books regarding entrepreneurship would Slashdotters recommend?
I've noticed the only quality that helps is insane confidence. There is no correlation between intelligence and a good idea. The only thing that helps is having enough money to make it to the buy-out.
Trump: Art of the Deal
So many good books. The best books.
Trump: The Art Of Building Walls To Keep Bad Hombres Out
that and the Art of the Deal. More or less the same thing really.
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Everything I needed to know for owning and running my own business was there.
Being an entrepreneur is about being willing to fail, and recovering after you realize you made a mistake.
Lest Darkness Fall
Lord Kalvan of Other when
Conrad Stargard
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
King David's Spaceship
Have Spaceship, Will Travel
Dune
Man of Gold
Riverworld
Don't read a book. Go start a business. "Entrepreneurship" books are largely useless, in my opinion (as a successful entrepreneur).
I don't respond to AC's.
Your checkbook.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
The Incredible Secret Money Machine.
There is no other book like it.
https://www.amazon.com/Incredi...
I would add "Microserfs" and possibly "The Circle" to that list.
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My favorite Silicon Valley startup book is, "Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure" by Jerry Kaplan, about the first pen-based handheld computer in the late 1980's that got screwed over by Microsoft ("Why aren't you using Windows?!"), Intel ("Why aren't you using the 386 processor?!"), Apple ("We invented that with the Apple Newton!"), and IBM ("We don't know what we're doing but sign these forms anyway!").
Yeah, "Microserfs" and "The J Pod". Plus the CBC JPod TV series if you can find a copy.
"The Circle" is typical Dave Eggers. I couldn't finish it.
"The Circle" is typical Dave Eggers. I couldn't finish it.
Fair enough.
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+1.
The franchise prototype model is really the way most businesses should be run. It certainly is for PAAS and SAAS based businesses.
I really enjoyed Ed Catmull's book about Pixar. As someone who has worked in the games industry for over 10 years, I wish this book were recommended reading for everyone running a studio.
TTL Cookbook by Don Lancaster.
Okay, I started back in the late 70s.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
The examples are a bit dated but people keep making the same mistakes ... My main take-away is pretty simple: build a team and manage your costs. The more of your company you manage to hold on to, the more control you keep while you are there and the more you get when you leave.
Have gnu, will travel.
My last two reads in this area were The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon (2013) and When Genius Failed (2000), both of which I found highly engaging.
Is that what you were looking for?
On my near-term list is The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers (2014).
Perhaps that's more what you're after.
I also liked The Man in the Machine (2015).
by Nesheim. He goes through the steps from idea to IPO/buyout. a few good practical tips, such as think about how you will make money/cash out, how to go through the various rounds of VC and angel investor funding, and the one I think some people forget which is a takeover plan where you the mad scientist will step aside and let a professional management team take over, in return for money. The core of the book talks about unfair advantage which is definitely worth thinking about in depth. The eventual goal is to own a few percent of a company that goes IPO. He realistically estimates the odds of doing this as 1/1000, and claims that his book raises it to 6/1000.
... Pussy Grab by ghost writer for Donald Trump.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
"Innovation and Entrepreneurship" by Peter Drucker really makes you think about what your product aspirations should be.
I'm also fond of "Almost Perfect" http://www.wordplace.com/ap/
and "Peopleware" by DeMarco and Lister
and "The 10 Day MBA" by Silbiger
IMO, a successful entrepreneur needs some basic business sense in addition to whatever product the idea might be.
Reading some boring books and trying a few low-risk ventures can prep you for the big swing.
Business Adventures https://www.amazon.com/Busines... The New New Thing https://www.amazon.com/New-Thi... and probably Microserfs: https://www.amazon.com/Microse...
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
FYI, there are a dozen or more titles starting with "The E-Myth..."
Maybe narrow it down?
I come here for the love
This one is a great book about the early days of getting computer companies established. The significance of Commodore is often overlooked these days, but at the time they were trouncing the likes of Apple.
Unfortunately, Jack Tramiel never really evolved into a big company player and kept small practices like starving suppliers etc. going. The later nepotism didn't help much either. This is a fascinating book of how a company that should have become what Apple is today, with tech way ahead of its time, fell into ruin. Well worth the read.
... and in no specific order:
The 4-Hour Workweek
The 100$ Start-Up
The Lean Startup
The one on my list that I haven't read yet:
The hard thing about hard things
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
It's 40 odd years old, but still one of the most 'humane' books about business: https://www.amazon.com/Up-Orga...
Treat people well, don't lie, don't be a bureaucrat. Not a single thing about beanbags, strange hairstyles and flat whites (whatever they are?) in there either.
On y va, qui mal y pense!
I particularly enjoyed Paul Graham's "Hackers & Painters". It's a collection of his essays, which are also available on his site, but I did enjoy the book format.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
I've been reading a lot of these books over the last few years and would even be glad to contribute a few comments, but... Too transient to justify the effort. How about redoing it as a poll? The current poll has been basically dead for a week or two, and this would seem to be a much more interesting topic.
You could get the top candidates at random, but I'd recommend using Amazon to get the bestselling examples for the top 4 or 5 slots and collect the others in the comments.
Seems to be a problem with the Cowboy Neal option. If it was about the creation of Slashdot, there's not much grounds for recommending it. Perhaps an option like "Cowboy Neal doesn't read books anymore"?
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I am hoping to learn enough to get a working business, but it competes with other priorities in life. In addition to reading from a variety of sources and just thinking, I bought a few business books based on amazon reviews (the "quick MBA" type). The best by far was "start your own business" from entrepreneur magazine. It was loaded (really, not a buzzword) with practical things like how to choose what form of corporation (and when/whether to bother), how to choose a name (& how much to bother), kinds of businesses to consider, how to evaluate a market to improve your odds, pros & cons of franchises, how to choose one, legal & tax issues, etc.
No relation other than I bought it and studied some chapters, skimmed others carefully. It has a good index & table of contents. The other books i bought seem like they could be useful for specific topics, later on, if/when I get to that point.
I also recommend the Covey "7 habits" book, just to make sure your ladder is leaning against the right wall, and for the basic issues like honesty that I think are required for any kind of real success in life. There are probably some other good books mentioned in this discussion but I seriously would mistrust those that have a "take over the world" angle: I think the fundamentals of life are what matter most, and treating people with courtesy, taking an honest look at things and seeing what service would be beneficial to others, really do matter. Some things are more important than dominance, control and money.
Discussion of those thoughts is welcome.
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Its a series about a child with a dream who funds himself in his cave with the help of his butler. He builds forensic devices and military grade weaponry and does his own field testing. Wonderful series.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
I can't imagine a more boring subject. Entrepreneurship is definitely not News for Nerds. *yawn*
https://www.amazon.com/Creativ...
by Rose Wilder Lane. Discusses why entrepreneurship has thrived only twice in human history: for the Saracens in the middle ages and in the US from the late 1800- mid 1900's (and up to present).
This is the best book about management: http://booksliteraryreviews.bl...