10 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read | Hacker News Reader

10 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read

davidcancel.com

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Wont vote for lists like this unless you take the time to tell me why I should read them. I have some of those books, others I'm not so sure about.

Here are the ones there that I agree with for sure:

* Growing a business. It has stood the test of time, and despite being about a non high tech business, is still quite relevant in terms of general advice. Buy this instead of the 37 signals book.

* Art of the Start. It's brief and to the point. Nothing earth shattering.

The Innovator's Dilemma is good too, but is very summarizable, in my opinion.

I found out about Growing a Business on HN, loved it, recommend it w/o reservation. For a similar but more hard-headed perspective, I also liked Norm Brodsky's "The Knack".

I started doubting this list as soon as I saw Guy Kawasaki on it.

What'd you like about the knack? Thinking about getting it.

It's got some of the same aspirational tone as Growing a Business, the same vantage point of tiny companies, and it's much more nuts-and-bolts than Growing a Business.

Would it make sense to automatically filter submissions that contain the word "should"?

I would love to see the same kind of list, but for fiction books. I can't think of any fiction right now that have a clear connection to the spirit of entrepreneurship, but I'm fairly sure there must be. For example a book portraying determination within the central character, or overcoming great challenges.

Can anyone think of such books?

Microserfs by Douglas Coupland is about some MS employees who go to do a startup in Silicon Valley. It captures more the atmosphere and feeling of living than specific advice on startups.

The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson is also interesting since the colonization of Mars is sort of like a startup and the trilogy really delves a lot into the social, political, and economic impact of the growing martian community.

Try the Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, or Atlas Shrugged. Her works seem to polarize her readers into those that love and those that hate her work, but both works were the first that came to mind based on your request. Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon would also satisfy your request, and is a fun story to read loaded with interesting plot – it is definitely targeted at a tech-oriented reader, which may or may not be what you're looking for.

Anyone else feel there are too many books on how to start and too few on finishing?

What is "finishing"? Everyone has the same definition of "start" but there are thousands of versions of success (i.e. finishing). Selling a company is not what everyone is trying to do...

Talking about what finishing might mean may be a good place to start the book.

There are similar number of typical "finishes" as "starts" I'd argue once you segment different types of startups. Some want to make enough to not have to work; some enough to be really rich without raising $; some to get acquired etc.

Just like there are some that start with applying to YC, some which start with coding, some that start with finding a cofounder.

Of course, there is a vast number that would like to do multiple things from each list(ie. get rich from profits THEN get acquired).

Agreed! Most likely that's because "starting" a business is very well defined and essentially the same for everyone, but "finishing" it (successfully) is person-specific. Is a successful finish an IPO, M&A, or turning it into a "built to last" company? Is it measured simply in the satisfaction? etc...

Update: When I started writing this, there were no other comments with the same sentiment. When I posted, there were two, one of which was from "11 minutes ago". I didn't spend 11 minutes writing it, so what happened?

Where's Founders At Work?

Hmm, this site for some reason evokes codinghorror for me. I wonder why.

I'm afraid I'm 0 for 10 on that list.

Don't be afraid - there are some great works on that list.

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