"There is no skill called 'business,'" Naval Ravikant says. That's… an odd thing to say for a businessman.
Naval briefly worked as a consultant before founding and eventually selling his own business, Epinions. He's an investor in many businesses, from Uber to Twitter to AngelList, a company he runs and that helps other people start...businesses. So what's with that statement?
What Naval means is that "business" is actually a composite activity, a mix of engineering, research, product development, marketing, sales, psychology, ethics, mathematics, finance, leadership, management, creativity, and a lot more.
That's why there's no single course called "Business" that you can take to ensure you'll succeed with your venture — and why an MBA won't necessarily make you a great CEO. What you'll need is a broad variety of skills — and that's why business books come in many shapes and colors!
"The only thing that prepares you to run a company is running a company."
— Ben Horowitz
Rather than try to find the one perfect book that teaches us everything, we should read business books widely and pull from as many sources as we can to assemble the skill set we need.
That's why today's list comes in 17 categories, most of which contain 3-4 great books each. Depending on where you are in your business journey, which role you hold, or what you're interested in, you can click on any category below and jump straight to the few best picks in that section:
"There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else."
— Sam Walton
This list took me 14,000 words to complete. It's been in the works for almost 2 years. I hope you'll take a look!
Whether you're a recent graduate, young professional, early manager, senior leader, CEO or entrepreneur, I guarantee you there's at least one book on this list that'll teach you something new and valuable.
If you want to succeed in the world of business, explore these books.
PS: If you enjoy the list, would you mind sharing it with someone you think will also find it interesting? You can forward them this email or let them know on social media via the following links:
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