You have probably seen a number of ‘best books on entrepreneurship’ lists on the interwebs. This list is a little different. As a modern day entrepreneur or one in the making, this is a list I think your need to read. Being a solopreneur, these books are highly relevant to you. These are the books I have read over and over again. Books that I own and they sit proudly on my bookshelf for everyone to see.
Each recommendation comes with a few handpicked quotes. I think quotes from books are like appetizers. They are delicious morsels of food that set the tone for the rest of the meal. Instead of giving you an overview of the book, I’ll let the quotes do the heavy lifting for me.
I hope you enjoy these inspirational quotes.
#1 Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
“People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe”
“There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.
“Studies show that over 80 percent of Americans do not have their dream job. If more knew how to build organizations that inspire, we could live in a world in which that statistic was the reverse – a world in which over 80 percent of people loved their jobs. People who love going to work are more productive and more creative. They go home happier and have happier families. They treat their colleagues and clients and customers better. Inspired employees make for stronger companies and stronger economies.”
“As anyone who starts a business knows, it is a fantastic race. There is a statistic that hangs over your head – over 90 percent of all new businesses fail in the first three years. For anyone with even a bit of competitive spirit in them, especially for someone who defines himself or herself as an entrepreneur, these overwhelming odds of failure are not intimidating, they only add fuel to the fire. The foolishness of thinking that you’re a part of the small minority of those who actually will make it past three years and defy the odds is part of what makes entrepreneurs who they are, driven by passion and completely irrational.”
#2 The Personal MBA: A World-Class Business Education in a Single Volume by Josh Kaufman
“Every successful business (1) creates or provides something of value that (2) other people want or need (3) at a price they’re willing to pay, in a way that (4) satisfies the purchaser’s needs and expectations and (5) provides the business sufficient revenue to make it worthwhile for the owners to continue operation.”
“You can’t make positive discoveries that make your life better if you never try anything new.”
“Every time your customers purchase from you, they’re deciding that they value what you have to offer more than they value anything else their money could buy at that moment.”
“A good salesman, as the old (and politically incorrect) saying goes, can sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo. It’s a cliché, but there’s some truth to it: Inuit who live above the Arctic Circle use insulated refrigerators to keep their food from freezing in subzero temperatures”
#3 Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk
“Love your family, work super hard, live your passion.”
“Live your passion. What does that mean, anyway? It means that when you get up for work every morning, every single morning, you are pumped because you get to talk about or work with or do the thing that interests you the most in the world. You don’t live for vacations because you don’t need a break from what you’re doing—working, playing, and relaxing are one and the same. You don’t even pay attention to how many hours you’re working because to you, it’s not really work. You’re making money, but you’d do whatever it is you’re doing for free.”
“It’s never a bad time to start a business unless you are starting a mediocre business.”
“The Internet makes it possible for anyone to be 100 percent true to themselves and make serious cash by turning what they love most into their personal brand.”
“Storytelling is by far the most underrated skill in business.”
#4 The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau
“You don’t have to live your life the way other people expect you to.”
“1. “What do you really want to get out of life?”
2. “What can you offer the world that no one else can?”
“Never despise small beginnings, and don’t belittle your own accomplishments. Remember them and use them as inspiration as you go on to the next thing. When you venture outside your comfort zone, wherever the starting point may be, it’s kind of a big deal.”
“Value is created when a person makes something useful and shares it with the world.”
#5 The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
“For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks. Waiting for a good time to quit your job? The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. “Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct course along the way.”
“What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.”
“The question you should be asking isn’t, “What do I want?” or “What are my goals?” but “What would excite me?”
“Information is useless if it is not applied to something important or if you will forget it before you have a chance to apply it.”
#6 Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World by Michael Hyatt
“Perfectionism is the mother of procrastination.”
“Write down your dream. This is the act that transforms a dream into a goal. Wonderful things happen when you commit something to writing.”
“When we are young, parents and teachers tell us we can do anything and become whatever we want. But as we grow older, these same people tell us we must be more realistic.”
“Don’t underestimate the importance of great design. When it comes to selling your product, it can make you or break you.”
“Great marketing only makes a bad product fail faster”
“You will never see the full path. The important thing is to do the next right thing. What can you do today to move you toward your dream?”
#7 So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by Carl Newport
“If you want to love what you do, abandon the passion mindset (“what can the world offer me?”) and instead adopt the craftsman mindset (“what can I offer the world?”).”
“Passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before. In other words, what you do for a living is much less important than how you do it.”
“Start small and start immediately.”
“This is what you should experience in your own pursuit of “good.” If you’re not uncomfortable, then you’re probably stuck at an “acceptable level.”
“The good news about deliberate practice is that it will push you past this plateau and into a realm where you have little competition.”
#8 Body of Work: Finding the Thread That Ties Your Story Together by Pamela Slim
“No one is looking out for your career anymore. You must find meaning, locate opportunities, sell yourself, and plan for failure, calamity, and unexpected disasters. You must develop a set of skills that makes you able to earn an income in as many ways as possible.”
“Your body of work is everything you create, contribute, affect, and impact. For individuals, it is the personal legacy you leave at the end of your life, including all the tangible and intangible things you have created. Individuals who structure their careers around autonomy, mastery, and purpose will have a powerful body of work.”
“Your thoughts, beliefs, and assumptions drive everything in your life and career.
People who operate on a high level of creativity and mastery are rigorous about mental awareness and preparation. Top athletes, fighters, artists, writers, businesspeople, and scientists use different methods to stay clear, focused, motivated, and productive.
Not only are precise and motivating thoughts critical to maintaining momentum toward big goals, but the ability to look at things from new and critical perspectives is a fundamental skill in creating a diverse, interesting, and integrated body of work.”
#9 Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t by Jim Collins
“When [what you are deeply passionate about, what you can be best in the world at and what drives your economic engine] come together, not only does your work move toward greatness, but so does your life. For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work. Perhaps, then, you might gain that rare tranquillity that comes from knowing that you’ve had a hand in creating something of intrinsic excellence that makes a contribution. Indeed, you might even gain that deepest of all satisfactions: knowing that your short time here on this earth has been well spent, and that it mattered.”
“Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don’t have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don’t have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.”
“Perhaps your quest to be part of building something great will not fall in your business life. But find it somewhere. If not in corporate life, then perhaps in making your church great. If not there, then perhaps a nonprofit, or a community organization, or a class you teach. Get involved in something that you care so much about that you want to make it the greatest it can possibly be, not because of what you will get, but just because it can be done.”
#10 The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E Gerber
“Contrary to popular belief, my experience has shown me that the people who are exceptionally good in business aren’t so because of what they know but because of their insatiable need to know more.”
“With no clear picture of how you wish your life to be, how on earth are you going to live it? What is your Primary Aim? Where is the script to make your dreams come true? what is the first step to take and how do you measure your progress? How far have you gone and how close are you to getting to your goals?”
“I believe great people to be those who know how they got where they are, and what they need to do to get where they’re going. Great people have a vision of their lives that they practice emulating each and every day. They go to work on their lives, not just in their lives. Their lives are spent living out the vision they have of their future, in the present. They compare what they’ve done with what they intended to do. And where there’s a disparity between the two, they don’t wait very long to make up the difference.”
So there you have it. These are my 10 all-time favourites. My list of books in quotes. How many have you read from this list? Which one will you pick up next? What would you add to this list? Leave a comment!
Top 10 Books on Entrepreneurship Every Solopreneur Should Read (In Quotes) is a post from: GetResponse Blog - Email Marketing Tips
Related posts
7-Step Plan for Creating an Effective Content Marketing Strategy
How To Set Up A Goal In Google Analytics: Why It’s the Most Important Thing You’ll Do This Month
2 Startups from Web Summit 2014
The post Top 10 Books on Entrepreneurship Every Solopreneur Should Read (In Quotes) appeared first on GetResponse Blog - Email Marketing Tips.