these are the books that really matter, in my mind, to make you a thoughtful and competent person in business. The order is random within a section; all the books mentioned here have value.
A Simpler Way
Margaret Wheatley
If you have struggled with the “work of organizing” whether it be children’s soccer or large business organizations, Wheatley’s premise of “let it all work itself out” is compelling. It’s a divergent view that seems utopian. That said, apply this thinking to your urge to compulsively over-manage and you’ll end up as a saner soul.
Blink
Malcolm Gladwell
This book focuses on the human trait of snap or gut level judgment. Gladwell identifies that the most important attribute of good decision-makers isn’t how fast or slow or how much information is available – it is the skill of the decision-maker to identify what to include or not in the decision-making process, and the move against that information. Marvelously intriguing book with strong implications for marketing and leadership.
First Break All the Rules
Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
The premise is that managing people and yourself using your existing strengths not improving weaknesses is both better for you and for your work. The data to support this counter-intuitive claim is compelling. An important book, not just for the manager or the HR professional (although it is essential for them), instead think about this as a key insight into managing your own life.
Freakonomics
Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner
Part of being good at business is being able to shift your mental model – and the faster the better. This book is entirely about that: forcing your mind to view “economic fact” differently. That’s why you must read it and keep it around for further rereading to make sure you’re staying fast, open to change, diversion, loss, fear, and the gaping hole of the unknown.
Good to Great
Jim Collins
Collins believes that he can research history and apply the findings to today. I believe findings gleaned from business models in which a letter took 7 days to get to someone bordering on the ridiculous. However, I do believe that humans are pretty much the same as they were 40 years ago; it is the societal and business environment that has changed. There are some great findings here – but be careful. History would not indicate that the companies identified are as great s they should have been post-publication.
In Search of Excellence
Tom Peters and Bob Watterman Jr.
The first pop culture business book is now a great read because you can see what companies where chronicled, and why, and then look up on the Web and see what became of them…and learn from that as well.
Into Thin Air
Jon Krakauer
When I worked at The Coca-Cola Company, I went to a meeting and this book was sitting on my chair. It was a summertime meeting, which I remember because for several years afterward I reread this book each summer. This is a horrifying book, all about bad assumptions, poor leadership, and even poorer followership. Its also about attaining dreams…or not. Find a copy, read it, and read it again. The layers of learning for any business discipline are many.
Outliers
Malcolm Gladwell
Malcom digs deeper than most, but even that comment needs explanation. When Yuval Noah Harari wrote Sapiens he was working within an area of expertise for him. When Jim Collins wrote Good to Great he was sharing research he’d been conducting for 10 years. When Gladwell writes a book he selects a topic and looks inward into that topic and provides a point of veiw from the side, not from the middle. Writers who do this range from those who do cursory overviews to those who dig very deep and are capable enough to understand topics for which they have not received specific training. Gladwell sits in that latter group; he’s good enough to understand enough and then write fluidly enough to introduce us to complex topics. Another writer who is brilliant at this is Michael Lewis, if this type of writing intrigues you.
In Outliers, his premise is simple: Outliers aren’t. What we perceive as outliers – which are what he calls those of supreme performance well above any expected level of norms – are simply lots and lots of iterations of performance. We don’t see those iterations, we just see the resultant brilliance and attribute it to outside the norm behavior. The assertion that current research indicates 10,000 hours of practice are required to obtain “brilliance” has come under significant fire after the publication of this book. Like anything written by anyone, challenge it. Is it “a whole bunch of non-obvious work went into looking this capable” or is it “the number of hours exactly leads to your capability in an area”. I presumed as I read it it was the former and therefore don’t find the positing offensive…only you know as you read it if the same is true for you.
The Goal
Eliyahu Goldratt
Goldratt has written several books, this was the first and arguably most impactful. It’s the keys and insights of operations management told through stories. We all need a perspective and insight into this area; more is better, so consider this book as a starting point and move forward from there.
The Ornament of the World
Maria Rosa Menocal
This is the story of Spain during the rule of Islam. Set aside your stories and “Western” philosophy that it was the ruthless Moors or Barbs who messed up the country, and read how Islamic rule was in fact tolerant of Jews and Christians who co-inhabited the country. I am not saying this interpretation is “right” but I do believe that in today’s working world you will work with people of all of these faiths, and it is instructive to review historical potential misconceptions and see how they color our world today.
The Tipping Point
Malcolm Gladwell
This book focuses on the idea that trends, activities, social change all progress, but well below the surface, until the next “step” causes the “tipping point” – when the trend or idea or bug moves rapidly from that point forward. Lot’s of implications of this finding – how to get to the Tipping Point, recognizing there is one. This book explains why David Halberstein’s The Fifties made so much intiutive sense about how the 60’s came about in USA, Canada, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand (with impact beyond those countries): He chronicles what was happening before the tipping point.
Small Giants
Bo Burlingham
Any book that singles out my favorite deli of Zingerman’s as an example of business learning wins my heart. This book is about fourteen businesses that Burlingham holds up as examples of business leadership. These stories are both an engaging read and an important learning experience.
Delivering Happiness
Tony Hsieh
Zappos.com is an amazing company. Tony is a large part of the reason why, and this book is a candid and intriguing look at what makes Zappos.com special. If you are an entrepreneur this book is a treasure, told compellingly from one who has succeeded in doing just what you will need to do.
A caveat: Tony shares over and over in this book how activities and events at Zappos are convened with alcohol, sometimes in copious quantities. My impression after reading the book is that Tony has an alcohol dependency issue, and has inculcated that trait into the Zappos culture. My endorsement of this book does not extend to the use of alcohol as a celebrant and thinking aid. I firmly believe those who abstain can be good team members too. It’s a sad element of an otherwise compelling book.
The Knack
Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham
Entrepreneurs should all read this book. No, it isn’t about high tech. All the more reason to read it. It’s a penetrating very real look at what it takes to be successful in a start-up mode of any type of business venture. The emphasis on sales (and marketing, although it’s the sales discipline which receives focus) is refreshing and real.
Writing; but more. Self-expression and self-improvement too.
Bird by bird
Anne Lamott
Julia Cameron’s Right to Write is my go to book for process help when I’m stuck. Lamott’s bird by bird is more about a wide range of potential techniques to validate and support your “writer inside”. Its less about process and more about headset, which is exactly what I need to go back and reference sometimes.
Writing Down the Bones
Natalie Goldberg
My copy is riddled with pink underlines of key passages. If Lamott validates my mind and Cameron gives me an exercise to do, Goldberg’s 2 page observations speak to my soul. Rereading and revisiting brings new insights into my writing and thinking as well as sparking new moments of creativity in other areas.
The Right to Write
Julia Cameron
This is an easily digestible book on techniques and exercises to increase your comfort with the art of writing. She’s also a very insightful writer herself, and the mini-chapters that take you to the exercises are often small treasures in and of themselves. I like it because its “doing” focused without being a bunch of complex hard to complete assignments.
The Artist’s Way, Walking in This World, The Vein of Gold
Julia Cameron
All 3 are on my bookshelf. They’re more complex in than her more writing focused book above. As such, I find them less useful for thought starters or “re-engagers”. However, everyone should “have to go through” a course of mindfulness and directed creativity as these books outline at some point no matter what your craft or profession. I personally find more out of Walking and Gold than the initial book The Artist’s Way, but all 3 have merits. Find a good used copy of any and try it out.
Presenting, Visualization of information
The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs
Carmine Gallo
A lot has been written about Jobs’ presentation skills, and this book duplicates articles you can find online with one exception. Gallo creates detailed charts of how Jobs actually presents – pauses, visuals, vocals, demos, timing, presented in a very clear and easy to understand style. These detailed “tear downs” of key speeches are some of the best resources I’ve found to understand the nuances of Jobs’ delivery.
In addition, Gallo creates a readable reference in terms of breaking apart the elements of what to do. His three “Acts” of Create the Story, Deliver the Experience, and Refine and Rehearse which are further broken into 18 “scenes” make the information easily digestible. This book is worth the read.
Resonate, Slideology
Nancy Duarte
Resonate focuses on storytelling. Good presentations are good stories, and this book does an excellent job and providing insight and direction on how to create “presentation stories”. Since this art is relatively new – incorporating visuals and a standup presenter – this level of detail on how is both appropriate and important. Equally as impactful for podcasting or other video means!
Slideology was the first book, and focuses more on the visuals used to create compelling and communicative slides for presentation usage. Very readable, excellent examples, and sage advice.
Presentation Zen
Garr Reynolds
This book contains simple, straightforward ideas on how to increase the impact of your presentation slides. The major content groupings of Preparation, design, delivery, and shows the stepwise journey of Reynolds’ direction. What makes his approach unique is the combination of his gift as a communicator with his multicultural approach. As an American living in Japan, he blends the simplicity of “eastern” design with the urgency and directness of an American businessperson in a compelling and effective blend.
Presentation Zen Design
Garr Reynolds
This companion book to the one directly above delves more deeply into particular elements of good slide design and delivery. The elements of the book I found most useful are those with Type, color, image usage, and data delivery. It is a colorful book with many visual examples to explain the concepts.
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
Envisioning Information
Visual Explanations
Edward Tufte
The first named book was on many lists as one of the best books of the 20th century. I was blown away by the books as well as the one day course I took led by Tufte based on his techniques and ideas. All should be “must reads” if you present data to anyone. If you are short of cash and have a desire to learn, www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/posters has essay “The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint”. For $7 plus shipping you’ll get a full view of Tufte’s power and insight. Even better, copies of the 1st edition of Visual Display are ridiculously low online and can serve as your opening step into Tufte’s world. Artists should explore his essay “Seeing Around” based on his art.
Leadership
Leadership Jazz
Leadership is an Art
Max DePree
DePree has it going on. Don’t miss these books just because they are not on a lot of business reading lists. DePree ran Herman Miller with distinction and style – his family housed the creative geniuses of the Eames – and did so from a principled, ethical, and very human space. It isn’t theory, its reality, and a special read.
Nickel and Dimed
Barbara Ehrenreich
Eight percent of all Americans work in Food Service. Read this book to see what an undercover reporter for Vanity Fair found it was like to do two stints in Food Service, and then finish up with a job at Wal-Mart. This is the reality of what a lot of people live every single day – its honesty is compelling. Do not lead until you’ve read this.
Flow
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Flow is a concept that we all know. It’s the moment when things are effortless, when time passes without notice, when things seem at once sped up and slowed down. There is happiness and contentment and fulfillment – all at once. That is Flow. The first couple of chapters are what this book really is all about, you can safely skip most of the rest and be ok. The concept is important and worth the read. This came to my shelf in the mid 1990’s and is more important now.
Investing
The Intelligent Investor
Benjamin Graham
Revised Edition, Commentary by Jason Zweig
Get the revised edition noted above. This is a gem, my copy has highlights and notes throughout. This is the bible that taught Buffett. I resisted reading it assuming that Graham would be difficult to read. Bad assumption, he’s a delight and Zweig takes a book first issued in the 40’s and last revised in 1976 fully into the current day. If you want an advanced primer on investing, this is it.
One Up on Wall Street
Peter Lynch
Lynch and his stewardship of The Magellan Fund was the “thing of legends” in the 1980’s with good reason. His book is a celebration that everyone can be an investor…and how to do so. This is the book to read – skip his Beating the Street as it’s less helpful. Also note: I have followed Lynch not only because he was a legendary investor when I started investing on my own, but because he left his role “at the top” and focused his life on coaching others and philanthropy. Those two themes resonated with me strongly, and that bias leads I’m sure to the inclusion of this book in the list. He’s an interesting human, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Lynch for more details.
The Money Culture
Michael Lewis
If you’ve ever wondered what really happened in the financial world during the 80’s, this book is the only comprehensible description I’ve read. It is a story as well as an education, and an engaging read.
The Big Short
Michael Lewis
Leave it to Lewis (I’ve read every book of his and think he’s amazing) to provide an understandable, readable, engaging, and ultimately horrifying look at the financial meltdown of the 2008. This is not an easy read. It is, however, an essential read.
Your Money or Your Life
Joe Dominguez and Vicki Rubin
This is the book on thinking about your money and financials. The authors advocate getting to the point where income from your investments covers your basic needs, providing you with the freedom to then live your life free from the need to do a job to cover these expenses. The premise of the book is difficult to attain now with low interest rates, but the principles are sound.
NOTE: for the many Millennials and Gen Z folks that may read this, I know you think FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) is “your” generation’s finding. As it turns out, other generations prior to yours also had this as an objective, just without the catchy acronym. Step back and insert a few of the books in this list into your reading. They are valuable, the provide much needed multi-decade perspectives, and will simply enhance your current readings from writers within your generations. The mix of perspectives strengthens your knowledge.
The Millionaire Next Door
Thomas Stanley & William Danko
It is almost like the next book after Your Money or Your Life, although this would recommend staying working in business for yourself. The most inspiring part of the data is that the truly rich people in your neighborhood are likely the ones who drive the old cars and don’t live lavishly. The “don’t spend all you earn” advice cannot be overstated as a powerful career and life management imperative.
Fooled by Randomness
The Black Swan
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Malcolm Gladwell wrote a brilliant article in The New Yorker April 22 & 29, 2002, which is free online. Read that article first. Then reflect upon how much money Taleb has now post-2008. Then determine if you want to dig deeper in Taleb’s significant talent. Both of his books are dense, challenging reading. They are also essential, for their message of how our brains interpret and expect “sameness” is critical for investing, leadership, and marketing, my 3 favorite topics.