7 best books that every single entrepreneur must read

7 best books that every single entrepreneur must read

1. The Lean Startup. This is one of my favourite books. It talks about a structured process of building a startup. So many of us think of a cool technology or a solution in mind and then try building a business out of it, only to realize that no one wants it and definitely no one would pay for it. This book talks about a structured approach of talking to customers, getting their feedback and then working backwards to build what they want. So many startups won't fail if only their founders read this book before starting up.

2. The Mom Test. This is another excellent book that talks about a structured process of customer discovery. When we interact with our prospects, we are so much tempted to talk about our startup idea rather than trying to understand the prospect's pain area. The book talks about why this is the worst way to do customer discovery. The book also explains how to ask the right questions which will truly help you discover insights about the pain area.

3. Blue Ocean Strategy. So many of us are worried about the "competition". Look, Lamborghini is a great car. But then you cannot drive it on Kanpur roads and so, for someone in Kanpur who has a million dollars to spend on a car, they'd rather buy a car with a higher ground clearance. Does that make Lamborghini a bad car? No. Customers don't care what product is "better". They care about the product that solves their problem. This book talks about what I just said, in great detail.

4. The Hard Thing About the Hard Things. Social Media influencers have glamourized entrepreneurship. We all keep hearing stories about 21-year-olds who made millions of dollars with some shortcut. This book talks about the real struggles of entrepreneurship which we don't really here. The stress that a founder goes through in day-to-day life. The anxiety. The pressures of investors. The deadlines. Running out of cash. Layoffs. The book talks about many such issues and also explains solutions to some of them.

5. Atomic Habits. This is one of my favourite books and should be read by everyone, whether or not they are an entrepreneur. We all are fascinated about doing BIG things in life like building a BIG business or making a BIG change to our life habits. But the reality is that when we actually start to execute our BIG plan, we all fail miserably. Why? Because taking too many BIG steps in life makes life difficult. The book talks about how small, consistent steps can help us achieve similar goals in a sustainable manner.

6. Think and Grow Rich. This book talks about the principle of autosuggestion, which, according to me, is one of the most powerful things that anyone can learn. Thoughts lead to belief. Belief leads to action. Action leads to behavior and behavior leads to identity. So, whoever we are, or whomever we want to become, starts with our thought process. If we can master controlling our thoughts, we can control our destiny. This is what the book explains.

7. Rich Dad Poor Dad. Every single entrepreneur must read this amazing book that explains how money really works. We all want to earn money, but we won't be able to do that at scale if we don't understand how money really works. This book talks about that in great detail with an interesting story of a guy, his dad (poor dad) and his friend's dad (rich dad).

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