Hello, my entrepreneur friends. I love reading, and I’m sure many other entrepreneurs do too, which is why I’ve created this list of the best self-help books for entrepreneurs. The books here don’t just focus on business but also on your mind and on rewriting the script so that you can create your dream life. I’ve gathered these books from other entrepreneur reading lists, and I expect to be making more lists like this in the future, so stay tuned.
Best Self-Help Books for Entrepreneurs
Rework – Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Rework talks about different ways that entrepreneurs can succeed in today’s world while challenging common methods. There are steps you can implement right now when it comes to starting, running, and growing your business in a smarter, more efficient way. This book’s goal is to provide alternatives to the outdated business practices that are still being used. The main principle is that success comes from doing less, not more, and by focusing on what will truly grow your business.
Rework is a good book for entrepreneurs who:
- Are looking to defy traditional business models
- Are starting from scratch
- Want to improve their current strategy
- Are comfortable with practical advice instead of theoretical advice
- Are able to see the unnecessary in common business trends
- Want to start with the resources they have now instead of waiting for everything to be perfect
- Want their business to be as productive as possible
- Need to get comfortable with letting go of ideas that don’t serve them or their business
Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill
Think and Grow Rich is a very good book for entrepreneurs. It doesn’t focus on business strategy; it focuses on how you think about money. Napoleon Hill shares principles about wealth consciousness, the result of research done over 20 years on 500 entrepreneurs. The principles include topics such as desire, faith, imagination, the subconscious mind, persistence, and so many others. The main argument of this book is that success first starts in the mind. With clear direction, strong desire, and belief in yourself, success is inevitable.
Think and Grow Rich is a good book for entrepreneurs who:
- Are having trouble with their mindset around money
- Want to develop a wealth consciousness
- Need guidance on how to transmute their energy into their work
- Need help getting clear on their path to wealth
- Are ready to stop fearing their success and doubting themselves
- They feel they have to get ready mentally before attracting wealth into their life
- Know they are doing everything right business-wise but feel challenged with the more spiritual side of building wealth
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success – Carol S. Dweck
Mindset is an amazing book for entrepreneurs, as it focuses on how your mindset can make or break you. Carol Dweck created this book from 20 years of research to explain how you can understand your mindset and the effects it has on your life. This book talks about how mindsets can always be changed and how most people have both fixed and growth mindsets but generally lean toward one. Overall, with this book you’ll learn why your mindset is so important, how to detect the ways your mindset is affecting you, and how you can change it.
Mindset is a good book for entrepreneurs who:
- Feel their mindset could be improved
- Want to learn more about how mindset affects their life
- Lead others and want to ensure their counterparts are thinking most effectively
- Want to approach challenges with the most helpful mindset
- Would rather focus on what they’re learning while building their business instead of showing off or proving themselves to others
- Don’t want failure to impede their progress
- Want to stop backing away from challenges out of fear
Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur—Derek Sivers
Anything You Want is an amazing book for entrepreneurs because of its focus on how your business can be molded into anything you want. Derek Sivers was originally a musician who started a CD business that eventually sold for $22 million. The book revolves around the fact that your business is entirely made by you, so it can be absolutely anything you want. A lot of people spend their lives doing things they honestly don’t care about, so make sure your business is everything you’ve ever wanted. Another idea this book revolves around is that everything you do business-wise should be in the customer’s best interest.
Anything You Want is a book for entrepreneurs who:
- Started their business to create their dream work environment
- Would rather handle the creative side of their business instead of the logistic side
- Feel drained after hearing mainstream business advice
- Have trouble executing ideas
- Don’t see themselves running a billion-dollar business, but feel pressure to think they need to in order to be truly successful
- Want to create a business that nourishes them and makes them feel excited
48 Laws of Power—Robert Greene
The 48 Laws of Power is an amazing self-help book for entrepreneurs as it shows how you can be respected and admired by clients and business connections. Many people believe this book supports manipulating others, but in the world of business, everyone is using some kind of technique to seem superior. This book helps you protect yourself from any type of tactic or manipulation that may be used on you. The laws in this book were determined from 3,000 years of history to reveal how power actually works in all areas of life.
The 48 Laws of Power is a good book for entrepreneurs who:
- Want to protect themselves against any kind of manipulation tactic
- Are being put into complex business environments
- Want to have a leg up
- Feel a bit naive when it comes to handling business
- Would rather know what the laws are and apply them accordingly instead of completely ignoring them
- Would never use these laws to hurt others or manipulate them from a negative place
- Want to feel more confident and powerful as they work on their business
The Psychology of Money —Morgan Housel
The Psychology of Money is a book for entrepreneurs that focuses on how your relationship with ego, risk, and patience can hinder or nourish your success. Morgan Housel is a finance expert, and he wrote this book to look at people’s financial decisions from a psychological standpoint. He writes about how everyone approaches their financial decisions differently based on their own unique personal experiences, beliefs, and biases. He advises readers on securing their financial futures by investing, diversifying their portfolios, letting compound interest do its thing, and saving wherever possible.
The Psychology of Money is a good book for entrepreneurs who:
- Want to understand how their subconscious beliefs affect their finances
- Understand how important compounding is for their wealth
- Want freedom and control over their life
- See the value in making well-informed decisions
- Tend to focus on negative circumstances more than positive ones
- Literally want to learn the psychology behind money
Hell Yeah or No – Derek Sivers
I chose Hell Yeah or No as a self-help book for entrepreneurs because of its stance on getting rid of distractions and simplifying your environment. You probably got this from the title, but this book preaches that you should only say yes to something if it absolutely excites you. If not, then it’s a no. A common theme in this book is that you should always live authentically and intentionally. In this book, Sivers shows you how to identify your core values, reject things that don’t excite you, why and how you should disconnect, and how to pursue things that bring you real joy.
Hell Yeah or No is a good book for entrepreneurs who:
- Are struggling with people-pleasing
- Have trouble saying no
- Can’t decide what is worth their time and what isn’t
- Want to get clear on what they value as a person
- Are worried about what others will say if they pursue what they really want
- Need to get comfortable with change
- Procrastinate and want to start getting comfortable with delayed gratification
- Want to stop wasting time on things that don’t serve them or their business
Conclusion
There are different varieties of books. I did not want all of these books to be solely about business or entrepreneurship because I want you all to be well-rounded and learning from different types of environments. You may read these books and think they’re not all that, and that’s fine, but I believe there is something to learn from each one. Take what feels important to you and leave the rest.
I really hope the information I found in these books was helpful. If not, please tell me how I can improve, and come back for more! xoxo
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