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Ask HN : What are some great books an aspiring entrepreneur should read?

7 points by kaahne ↗ HN
Over the summer, I've read several great books including "The Lean Startup", "Thinking, fast and slow", as well as design and marketing books.

During the next year, i'll try to follow up with a "challenge" : A book per week. Above all, I want to learn stuff concerning startups, computer science, design and marketing, but I'm willing to read just about anything as long as i'll learn something.

I've found several great lists, and started to cross-compile them for the best references. However, I felt like asking might yield interesting results.

So, what are, in your mind, the best books any aspiring entrepreneur should read ?

12 comments

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dmix
Pricing for Profit

Startup Owners Manual

Made to Stick

Getting Real (37signals first book)

dglassan
Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston

It's a collection of interviews with founders who started successful companies.

mindcrime
There are several other good books in the "X at work" series as well. CIOs at Work, Venture Capitalists at Work, Coders at Work, etc.
mindcrime
The Four Steps to the Epiphany - Steve Blank

The Art of the Start - Guy Kawasaki

Crossing The Chasm - Geoffrey Moore

Business Model Generation - Alex Osterwalder

The Personal MBA - Josh Kaufman

Blue Ocean Strategy - W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne

Also, see:

http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-must-read-books-for-entre...

http://www.quora.com/Business-Books/What-business-books-must...

http://www.quora.com/What-are-3-books-you-would-suggest-any-...

and

http://personalmba.com/best-business-books/

murz
Have you checked out the handful of books listed on the YCombinator "Startup Library" page (http://ycombinator.com/lib.html)?:

Dale Carnegie: How to Win Friends and Influence People

Edward Tufte: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

Paul Graham: Hackers and Painters

Jessica Livingston: Founders at Work

adetayo
Dale's book is definitely a must read. Matter of fact, I would argue that you should read that first before anything else
kaahne
Nope, didn't check that, Thank you for the tip !
vermasque
MJ DeMarco: The Millionaire Fastlane

Regardless of what you read, you'll prove that you learned something if you do something with this stuff beyond reading.

maheshguruswamy
Surprised no one mentioned these..

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