I’m regularly asked what books I recommend people should read to help further their business education. So, with Christmas just around the corner, I thought I’d try and pull together a collection of what I believe are the most useful business books – the ones that every ambitious entrepreneur should be reading and studying.
By the way, the difference between reading a book and studying it is significant. All I’m interested in is finding the nuggets that I can deploy in my business and, in that regard, books that I have studied often have pages missing – where I’ve torn them out – they have highlighted pen and biro all over and through them and many pages will be turned over. My aim is not to maintain a library of pristine books in tiptop condition – it is to elicit the things that will make a different to my enterprise and my lifestyle.
In truth, this was a tough job. I counted over 250 books on the shelves in my office and they only get a place on a shelf if there’s something interesting in it, so to whittle this down to a Top 11 was no mean achievement.
I know that there are worthwhile books that do not appear on this list but my criteria was that the books I chose had to have had, in some way, a profound impact on my own entrepreneurial career and, in that regard these were the 11 that rose to the top.
Why 11? Two reasons: Firstly, I simply didn’t know which one to leave out to make it a Top 10. Secondly, I remembered that when Botty’s Rules was published and we ran our big campaign to make it a Top 10 bestseller we failed by 27 copies and I became a ‘Top 11 Sunday Times Bestselling Author’. The synergy appealed to me.
So, in no particular order, here are the 11 books that have had the biggest impact on me over the last 10 years.
1. ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ by Robert Kayosaki
In many ways it was this book that began it all for me. A meeting in London had gone very badly wrong from my perspective and as I stood in the newsagent’s at Euston Station waiting for my train back to the Midlands, I knew that my opportunity to have a go at setting up my own business had been thrust upon me rather sooner than I had planned. I saw this book on the shelves and mistakenly thought that it was a parable of my life that day – that this morning, with my six-figure salary and big bonuses I’d been a rich dad and now that I was going to have to do my own thing and build my own business I was a poor dad. The opposite, of course, is true and Kayosaki taught me that as I read pretty much the whole book in one sitting. He taught me more about money than I learned in an entire lifetime up to that point and, in terms of where my B plan came from, it all started here.
2. ‘Think & Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill
This book was originally published in 1938 and I have now read and studied it over 10 successive Christmas holidays and each year, as I go through it again, I find another gem – something to nudge me back on track for the year ahead. The reality is that this is a handbook, a guide if you will, to what you need to do to join the ranks of the world’s most successful people. And I promise you it all works. Hill’s 13-step formula is challenging. It does require you to think – a lot – but it has provided the foundation for pretty much everything I have achieved and any list of best business books that I ever compile will, I promise you, always have this one in it.
3. ‘Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion’ by Robert Cialdini
This is quite a tough read but well worth the effort. Cialdini taught me the six universal principles and how to use them to become a skilled persuader. In that respect, it’s essential reading for anyone looking to build a successful business – because we all need people, whether this is customers or suppliers, to come onside and do things that we need/want them to do.
There’s no trickery in here – when you get down into the beef, in truth it’s all common sense stuff but Cialdini provides the structure and the depth of understanding that has underpinned many of the big launches and breakthroughs that we’ve experienced over the last 10 years.
4. ‘Jeffrey Gitomer’s Sales Bible’ by Jeffrey Gitomer
In truth, there were two of Gitomer’s books that were jostling for a place in this list but I eventually chose his ‘Sales Bible’ over the ‘Little Gold Book of Attitude’ simply because nothing happens in business until somebody buys something and, if more business owners took time to become proficient at selling, then our economy would be growing at a much more rapid rate.
Now, while it’s true that Gitomer is an American (it’s important not to hold this against him) and his style is somewhat irreverent (the book is full of cartoons and pages with just a single sentence on), it is incredibly easy to consume. I defy anyone not to pick up the ‘Sales Bible’ and find something in there that would help them, today, to sell more stuff. It’s a hugely useful resource and my original copy is well worn, well thumbed and well used.
5. ‘The No BS Ruthless Management of People & Profits’ by Dan Kennedy
Dan is another author in this list that I’ve been fortunate enough to get to know well over the last few years (Gitomer is the other) and I believe this is his best work. It is somewhat ‘right wing’ in its approach but Kennedy tells it how it is and his teachings resonate very strongly with me. Much of my way of operating here at Botty Towers has been defined by this book.
6. ‘Becoming a Category of One’ by Joe Calloway
This book redefined competition with its lessons on how to truly differentiate yourself in a market full of sameness. I’ve talked about it many times and this book inspired me to really go for greatness and win by using our hearts as well as our minds. It really does, if you approach it properly, help you to properly differentiate yourself from others in your marketplace and to ensure that you are positioned optimally for what it is that you want to achieve.
7. ‘Ogilvy on Advertising’ by David Ogilvy
Too many people have their minds closed to lessons from the past but when it comes to advertising and crafting a marketing message, there is so much to be learned from David Ogilvy – the Brit who took America in the 50s and 60s and became established as the No.1 Ad Man in the World.
This book taught me so much about how to sell in print, how to use direct mail effectively (Ogilvy described it as “my first love and secret weapon”) and there are so many examples in here that I have swiped in one way or another over the last decade.
You know the old question: “If you could choose four dinner party guests, dead or alive, who would they be?” Well, I promise you, David Ogilvy would be on my list.
8. ‘The Sticking Point Solution’ by Jay Abraham
I think this is the most recently published book on the list and it is subtitled ‘9 Ways to Move your Business from Stagnation to Stunning Growth…’
What I got from this book in particular was how to ask the right questions about my own business and how to take real control over the future of my business today. I spent a very memorable evening in the company of Jay Abraham and Dan Kennedy a couple of years ago and their insights and sharpness of thinking were so impressive. Perhaps more than any other book on this list, this one requires you to think a lot as you are reading it. It is one best taken in small chunks with each one masticated several times in order to get the real benefits.
9. ‘Think Big’ by Donald Trump
Trump will always have a special place on my bookshelf, not least because of his answer to that question at that dinner in Cleveland, Ohio back in 2004 that essentially skyrocketed my entire business. This book is written in conjunction with Bill Zanker who, once he met Trump, turned his $5 million a year company into an enterprise that now generates well over $100 million a year in sales. The lessons are profound and insightful and if you’ve got serious ambition there are few better than Trump for you to study. This, in my humble opinion, is his best work.
10. ‘Delivering Happiness – A Path to Profits, Passion & Purpose’ by Tony Hsieh
A friend of mine had seen Hsieh speak at an event in America and he bought me this book at the airport on the way home. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t full of enthusiasm but OMG, what a book! It’s the story of how Zappos, the American online shoe retailer grew from nothing to over $1 billion in sales in less than 10 years and was then acquired for over $1 billion by Amazon. What’s staggering is they spent hardly any money on marketing. It was their customer service that essentially built the business and I don’t know of any other company in the world that has done this to quite the same extent that Zappos have.
A lot of the things we’ve done with the Entrepreneur’s Circle over the last couple of years have their roots in this book and it has the benefit, unlike many of the others on this list, of having, at its heart, a great story as well.
11.‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ by Stephen Covey
As with many ‘Self-Help’ books, much of what you read here is based on basic common sense and it can, at times, be irritatingly obvious. However, what Covey manages to do successfully is to break down the barriers that prevent us from taking a long hard look at ourselves and then gradually introduce new rules, which allow us to move from dependence to independence. It’s just a coincidence that this book was published around the same time that I started my business but one of the very first things I did was work really hard to put into practice these habits and I reckon this book is as good a place as any to start on the road to self awareness and self improvement.
What I find really interesting though is that over 15 million copies of this book have been sold in the last 10 years and the truth is that there are precious few people putting into practice what Covey preaches, which is a real shame.
So there you have it.
That’s my list, I hope it’s helpful. I have no doubt at all that many of you will have books that you feel should be on there but that missed the cut. If that is the case, please drop me an email at [email protected] telling me which book you would add to the list and why…
