Must-read for founders
by BookSloth Team
Many top entrepreneurs make reading an essential part of their lives, like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg (to name a few). Reading exposes you to new ideas an gives you access to diverse knowledge, regardless of your background.
We’ve made a diverse list of 27 books to help founders expand their thinking and learn from other people’s successes or failures. Regardless of which industry you’re in, these books contain different lessons and tools to help you succeed in your business endeavor.
The full list can be found in the BookSloth App, but here are our top 4.
1. The Hard Thing About Hard Things
In ‘The Hard Thing about Hard Things’, Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z) and one of Silicon Valley’s most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, shares his experience of being a founder-CEO and the hard decisions he has had to make. He offers advice on managing tough problems, which business schools do not cover. Most management books focus on doing things right, Ben offers insights into what you must do after you have screwed up.
“Until you make the effort to get to know someone or something, you don’t know anything.”
2. High Growth Handbook
High Growth Handbook covers key topics including the role of the CEO, managing your board, recruiting and managing an executive team, M&A, IPOs and late stage funding rounds, and interspersed with over a dozen interviews with some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley including Reid Hoffman , Marc Andreessen, and Aaron Levie. It presents crystal clear guidance for navigating the most complex challenges that confront leaders and operators in high-growth startups.
“All startup advice is only useful in context, and I am a firm believer that the only good generic startup advice is that there is no good generic startup advice.”
3. Option B
Resilience comes from deep within us and from support outside us. Even after the most devastating events, it is possible to grow by finding deeper meaning and gaining greater appreciation in our lives. Option B illuminates how to help others in crisis, develop compassion for ourselves, raise strong children, and create resilient families, communities, and workplaces.
“We find our humanity — our will to live and our ability to love — in our connections to one another.”
4. Radical Candor
Radical Candor is the sweet spot between managers who are obnoxiously aggressive on the one side and ruinously empathetic on the other. It is about providing guidance, which involves a mix of praise as well as criticism, delivered to produce better results and help employees develop their skills and boundaries of success.
“Make sure that you are seeing each person on your team with fresh eyes every day. People evolve, and so your relationships must evolve with them. Care personally; don’t put people in boxes and leave them there.”
You can see the rest of the list on the BookSloth App. Check out our curated lists, and bookish community!
Happy Reading! 📚
