an entrepreneur’s reading list
I like to read as much as I can. It’s not as much as I’d like, so when I do, I want to read something great. My pal @JoeYevoli is also an avid reader, and we share a lot of books back and forth, particularly about business.
A while back, we decided to start the “Overtime Media Library” - a collection of great books for our startup company that we would reference for new employees and such. Sure, we don’t really have any employees yet, but it’s now a part of our company culture moving forward.
Also, I get asked for advice on startups a lot, especially since Fred said I’m doing something right. I’ve found myself continually referencing and emailing this list, so I figured I’d just post it once and for all and I’ll update it when appropriate.
Books - there are a bunch that I love, but these are the ones that have helped me most in entrepreneurship.
Getting Real - mandatory at Overtime Media Inc
The Monk and the Riddle - career choices
Made to Stick - effective communication
Atlas Shrugged - capitalism, entrepreneurship, amazing story
Good to Great - how to build a great company
Purple Cow - marketing/product
Deep Survival - awesome book on survival mentality (great for startups)
Crossing the Chasm - business development/market strategy
Let My People Go Surfing - by Patagonia founder, a very different view on business and building a great company
Sway - ‘The irresistible pull of irrational behavior’ [Added 5/4/10]
Mastering the VC Game - by @bussgang - excellent insight into the VC world from the perspective of an entrepreneur turned VC. [Added 5/12/10]
Negotiation Genius - effective negotiation strategy/tactics. Good actionable advice. [Added 6/27/10]
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us - by Daniel Pink. Great read to help understand how to motivate your team. Another one with actually actionable advice. This video is a great teaser for it. [Added 8/25/10]
Blogs - there are tons of blogs out there, but these are the ones I return to most often.
AVC.com (Fred Wilson - arguably #1 VC in consumer web, and generally awesome blogger)
paulgraham.com (Paul Graham - entrepreneur, hacker, YCombinator founder)
feld.com (Brad Feld - entrepreneur/angel/VC, TechStars founder)
bothsidesofthetable.com (Mark Suster - entrepreneur/VC)
bijansabet.com (Bijan Sabet - entrepreneur/VC)
cdixon.org (Chris Dixon - entrepreneur/VC)
venturehacks (Nivi and Naval - entrepreneur/angels, AngelList founders)
We are human. Our attention is fragmentary. We get excited. We get tired. We get stupid. Of course, you can’t make adventure safe, for then it’s not adventure… But we want to go up. We want to conquer. I don’t mind dying. I just don’t want to do it today. And I’d hate like hell to have my gravestone read: “Here lies a moron.
It’s a known risk… But the odds against it are pretty good, especially when compared to the rewards of being an astronaut, so they’re willing to take the chance. In fact, they FIGHT for it… as would a lot of us. But getting the public to buy this is a lot tougher, especially a public that expects every risk in their lives to be mitigatable to zero. It will be interesting to see if NASA tries to take on this challenge, explaining to the public that doing bold things isn’t about engineering risk to zero. Shit happens, and if we just want to restrict ourselves to things where shit can’t happen… we’re not going to do anything very interesting.
Dan Canin, a Lockheed test pilot on the Columbia space shuttle accident
I’m reading Deep Survival and it is filled with great quotes like this that go beyond survival situations. I like this one as it relates to risk.
Where would we be without the risk-takers - the explorers, the pioneers the entrepreneurs - of our society?
…But he still thought it self-evident that one had to do what was right; he had never learned how people could want to do otherwise; he had learned only that they did. It still seemed simple and incomprehensible to him: simple that things should be right, and incomprehensible that they weren’t.
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Just started reading Atlas Shrugged and loved this passage, because I too, believe it.
