Introduction To Entrepreneurship
IN THIS LESSON
Recommended Podcasts & Reading for Entrepreneurs & Start-ups
The following collection includes some of the most prized and timeless readings on the topic of start-ups and business. Although none of these books are required for your participation in the program, we encourage you to get in the habit of working through this list of books over the coming months and years. The knowledge, tools, and insight imparted by each of these books will add a wealth of value to your personal development and growth as an entrepreneur rising leader.
1. Entrepreneurs on Fire
John Lee Dumas created the wildly successful, award-winning Entrepreneurs on Fire podcast to help inspire and educate young entrepreneurs. The podcast has hosted over 2,000 interviews with industry heavyweights such as Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, Tony Robbins and Tim Ferriss. Aside from the credibility of featured talent, Dumas' podcast sets it apart from the rest in the fact that new episodes are rolled out every single day of the week.
2. Smart Passive Income
Pat Flynn hosts this award-winning weekly podcast. Smart Passive Income offers interviews, strategies and tactics on how to increase profits and grow your online business. If you're interested in learning about ways you can build atomic habits, create evergreen sales funnels, buy and sell businesses online, tap into niches or grow your YouTube presence, then this is going to be a great resource to take advantage of.
3. Youpreneur
Those of you who have enjoyed The New Business Podcast by British entrepreneur and bestselling author Chris Ducker will be excited to check out his newest venture in podcasting. Youpreneur is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs understand what it means develop their personal brand in the 21stcentury. Ducker covers every topic from delegating to launching online products and establishing industry authority in his weekly podcast and offers key insight, advice and tactics to help business owners succeed.
4. Ambitious Entrepreneur Show
Ambitious Entrepreneur Show is an award-winning business podcast hosted by Annemarie Cross to help young and struggling entrepreneurs on their journey towards achieving success and standing out in the crowded marketplace. Cross touches upon a variety of essential business topics such as leadership, online marketing, developing a money mindset, business management and branding.
5. As Told by Nomads
As Told by Nomads is hosted by digital marketing specialist Tayo Rockson, who offers up various insights to entrepreneurs looking to make their mark in the business world with the help of digital marketing. If you're looking for a creative, out-of-the-box approach to help build your business and develop your marketing strategy, then this is a great podcast to check out.
6. Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders
This inspiring andthought-provoking podcast is brought to you courtesy of Stanford University. It's weekly show features discussions and interviews with successful entrepreneurs and innovators and shares their personal stories to help others learn valuable lessons on "developing, launching and scaling disruptive ideas". While it was originally designed for Stanford entrepreneurs, individuals of all backgrounds can benefit from the valuable information provided by Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders.
7. Entrepreneur Effect
The Entrepreneur Effect is dedicated to those with a passion for innovation and entrepreneurship. The Entrepreneur Effect features thought-provoking interviews and monologues on a number of important strategic topics and helps entrepreneurs develop a successful mindset, giving them the tools and knowledge to achieve growth and sustainability regardless of the business landscape.
8. The Internet Business Mastery
Hosts Jeremy and Jason have been helping individuals learn how to escape the 9-5 office drudge in the pursuit of entrepreneurship since 2006. Their successful Internet Business Mastery podcast teaches entrepreneurs everything they need to know to create "automated online income streams" and offers actionable advice and tips on how to readjust your mindset and learn the latest strategies to create a sustainable income online.
9. eBay Radio
If you're interested in e-commerce and looking to learn more about selling on eBay, then this weekly eBay Radio podcast is going to be a valuable resource for you. It offers listeners key tips, strategies and tools for establishing, running and growing an online business through eBay and answers the week's top questions submitted by listeners on each episode.
10. The Introvert Entrepreneur
This award-winning podcast hosted by Beth Buelow was named one of the "Top 25 Business Podcasts for Entrepreneurs" by Entrepreneur.com in 2014. The Introvert Entrepreneur features exciting conversation, insight and advice on how to successfully promote your business, raise productivity, achieve success and tackle your fears in the world of business from an introvert perspective. If you're looking to learn how to better tap into your personal power, improve relationships and establish leadership in your industry, then this is a great podcast to check out.
11. RISE Podcast
RISE is a weekly podcast which features "bold conversations" with business heavyweights and industry leaders that help its audience gain "real-life takeaways" and actionable information they can use to help grow their business. The show is hosted by Rachel Hollis, a New York Times Best Selling author and motivational speaker.
12. The $100MBA
The $100MBA is a successful, award-winning podcast has consistently been listed as one of the top podcasts available on iTunes for business training and education. The show is hosted by Omar Zenhom, whose zero-fluff approach provides listeners with "straight-to-the-point", actionable lessons and insight with the help of top experts in the industry.
13. HBR Ideacast
For those of you who can't get enough of Harvard Business Review, you'll be excited to learn about their popular HBR Ideacast which features interviews and discussions from "leading world thinkers" in both business and management. The show is hosted by senior editors Alison Beard and Curt Nickish and airs weekly episodes on pertinent issues and affairs affecting both entrepreneurs and the business world at large.
14. School of Greatness
School of Greatness is the brainchild of New York Times Best Selling author, entrepreneur and former pro athlete Lewis Howes. Howes created the podcast to share inspiring stories and ideas from some of the most brilliant business minds in the industry. Howes has interviewed successful entrepreneurs such as Tony Robins, Jay Shetty, Michael Beckwith and Russell Simmons and offers pointed life advice to help entrepreneurs maintain the balance and proper mindset necessary to be their best selves.
15. The GaryVee Audio Experience
The irreverent-yet-lovable host of this insanely popular podcast perhaps needs no introduction. CEO, investor and public speaker Gary Vaynerchuk has successfully solidified himself as one of the leading entrepreneurs of our generation and hosts The GaryVee Audio Experience to offer insightful information in the world of marketing and business to his listeners. The show contains a mix of his popular #AskGaryVee episodes, DailyVee video episodes, as well as speeches, interviews and fireside chats he's conducted.
16. How I Built This
NPR's business podcast, How I Built This hosted by Guy Raz, provides listeners with insight into the lives and stories of some of the most popular business leaders behind leading companies in a number of industries. Raz's weekly podcast has featured interviews with the likes of Jet Blue Airways founder David Neeleman, Canva founder Melanie Perkins, as well as the minds behind the SoulCycle franchise and Kickstarter.
17. My Wakeup Call
Dr. Mark Goulston created his inspirational podcast, My Wakeup Call, to help individuals on their journey towards greater personal growth and achievement. Everyone has life-defining moments that shake them to their core and Goulston's guests discuss the wake-up calls in their lives that prompted change, growth and development in them. Their tales of overcoming struggle and seemingly insurmountable obstacles inspires listeners to become their best selves and live the successful and prosperous lives they're meant to lead.
18. The Rise to the Top
David Siteman Garland's Rise to the Top podcast offers a behind-the-scenes look into his multi-million-dollar business and offers uncensored, captivating and uncut interviews from colleagues and other successful entrepreneurs in the industry. The inspiring stories and valuable insight offered by DSG and his guests are created to help entrepreneurs of all backgrounds, shapes and sizes learn essential strategies and tools they need to achieve growth and long-term sustainability.
19. Masters of Scale
Masters of Scale is an award-winning podcast hosted by Reid Hoffman, who made his name in the business world by co-founding LinkedIn. The podcast offers its listeners in-depth insight, analysis, advice and tested theories on how to operate, scale and grow their businesses with the help of interviews and discussions from legendary industry leaders.
20. Startup Nation
Brothers Jeff and Rich Sloan created Startup Nation Radio as a way to inspire and lead individuals on their journey of entrepreneurship. The show airs twice per month and features interviews on "everyday people" who have taken extraordinary measures to build successful and thriving businesses. The show has garnered an audience of millions due in part to the expertise of the cohosts and the in-the-trenches wisdom they offer their listeners.
BOOKS:
1. The Power of Broke
Author: Daymond John
Daymond John is an influential voice for founders who don’t have a ton of money to get their small business started. In his bestselling The Power of Broke, he discusses how being broke and on a tight budget can motivate you to achieve great things—as long as you’re hungry for success.
2. Behold the Dreamers
Author: Imbolo Mbue
Behold the Dreamers inspires with its timeless plea for courage. Set during the 2008 financial crisis, this New York Times bestselling novel is told through the eyes of a young Cameroonian woman and shines a light on the immigrant experience with a wit and compassion that’s lacking in today’s political conversation. The story feels more relevant than ever, as equality movements redefine what it means to be an immigrant living in the United States.
3. The Virgin Way
Author: Richard Branson
Richard Branson was just 16 years old when he dropped out of school and started working for himself. Nearly 50 years later, his Virgin Group is an international brand. This is the playbook for leadership, showing how family, fun, passion, and listening are key to creating a successful, worldwide team of employees.
4. Steve Jobs
Author: Walter Isaacson
Anyone involved in business has heard at least a few stories about Apple founder Steve Jobs. Walter Isaacson’s riveting biography of the Silicon Valley icon will inspire you to build and create products that people want, to test the boundaries of innovation, and to become an entrepreneurial success with a business plan to change the world.
5. Year of Yes
Author: Shonda Rhimes
Leading Hollywood producer Shonda Rhimes, best known for her hit series Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, lets readers in on her personal industry experiences in Year of Yes. Rhimes shares her journey from a shy and nervous introvert who turned down endless opportunities, to a confident public speaker and authoritative figure who said yes to everything that came her way. This book is for those who want to bust out of their shells and bring their voices into the world.
6. Beating the Odds
Author: Eddie Brown
Philanthropist and business magnate Eddie Brown walks you through how he built and maintained Brown Capital Management through hard times like 9/11 and the 2008 recession. In his autobiography, Beating the Odds, Brown offers a fascinating look at being born in the rural South to a 13-year-old mother who died shortly after his birth. Brown tells how, despite endless hardships, he created his own life path—graduating college, joining the Army, and becoming an engineer at IBM—and eventually built his billion-dollar company.
7. Female Innovators at Work
Author: Danielle Newnham
Female Innovators At Work is a must-read for all current and aspiring leaders of women-owned businesses. Danielle Newnham’s book is full of inspiring interviews and case studies from female CEOs, founders, and inventors from various different areas of tech, as they share their experiences, challenges, and lessons learned on their journeys through entrepreneurship.
8. In the Company of Women
Author: Grace Bonney
In the Company of Women shares and highlights inspiring advice and life stories from women entrepreneurs across various industries, careers, backgrounds, races, and places, showing how visibility is the key to success for women leaders today. If you want to gain new perspectives and soak up some inspiration, this is one of the best books for entrepreneurs available today.
9. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
Author: Angela Duckworth
Many of us know persistence and effort are key to success. Those who “make it” aren’t always the ones with the best ideas or resources. They’re the ones who work and improve every day—no matter what. This is what Grit is about. In this New York Times bestseller, Angela Duckworth teaches business owners how to cultivate the grit they’ll need to run a successful business, as well as how to inspire it in the people around them.
10. The Last Black Unicorn
Author: Tiffany Haddish
In this autobiography, actress and comedian Tiffany Haddish shares her rags-to-riches story. The Last Black Unicorn is a powerful and personal tale of how you can come from nothing and make it to the top by following your dreams and being true to who you are. If you want to have a good laugh and a dose of inspiration, this is your must-read book of the year.
11. Girl Code
Author: Cara Alwill Leyba
One of the many tough parts of being a female entrepreneur can be dealing with other women. But when women show up for and support each other, amazing things happen. In this powerful book for female entrepreneurs, Cara Alwill Leyba shares the secrets to building confidence and empowering other women. Girl Code helps you connect with why you do what you do in your life and business, handle jealousy, burn out, and self care, and find out what success means to you.
12. David and Goliath
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Each of Malcolm Gladwell’s books are riveting. In David and Goliath, Gladwell examines how we think about challenges and disadvantages while offering a new look at what it means to be discriminated against, lose a parent, attend a mediocre school, or suffer from any number of life setbacks. Learn about the success of the Impressionists, the history of the full-court press, and why you should avoid elite colleges like Harvard and Brown.
13. The 4-Hour Workweek
Author: Timothy Ferriss
If you follow the Shopify blog, you’re aware of entrepreneur Timothy Ferriss. In this book, Ferriss describes how he went from working 80 hours a week and earning $40,000 a year to earning $40,000 a month working only four hours a week.
14. All Marketers Are Liars
Author: Seth Godin
Great marketers don’t talk about features or benefits: they tell stories. In All Marketers Are Liars, Seth Godin shines some new light on this industry, discussing how marketers think and create stores—as well as lies and frauds—that have an impact on the lives of many, for better or for worse. His book will also teach you how to build a brand and craft your story.
15. Purple Cow
Author: Seth Godin
Purple Cow, another book by Seth Godin, showcases one of the key principles of marketing strategy: be remarkable. Godin discusses how the old way of building a business—making safe, average products then advertising them on TV—is long gone. Instead, he argues here, you need to stop advertising, start innovating, and build remarkable products.
16. The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Author: Ben Horowitz
Does the name Horowitz seem familiar? Ben Horowitz is one half of Andreessen Horowitz, one of the most respected VCs in Silicon Valley. Here, Horowitz offers essential advice on founding and running an online business, as well as practical wisdom for navigating the many challenges business schools don’t cover.
17. Rework
Authors: Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
In Rework, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson convincingly show that most of what we regard as obstacles—hiring staff, dealing with paperwork, decision making, time management, renting an office—are simply excuses to not get started. With its direct language and simple-is-better technique, Rework is the best playbook for anyone who’s dreamed of running a successful business of their own.
18. Trust Me, I’m Lying
Author: Ryan Holiday
Do you want to know how the media really works? Ryan Holiday claims to know. As a media manipulator, he uses blogging to control and distort the news, as much as any one person can. Trust Me, I’m Lying shows you how he does it. But be careful—the information provided here is dangerous.
19. The Lean Startup
Author: Eric Ries
Rather than spend dozens of hours creating an exhaustive business plan, The Lean Startup offers companies of all sizes a new way to test their vision, adjust, and adapt—fast. Eric Ries provides a scientific approach to creating a successful startup—whether founded in a Fortune 100 boardroom or a garage, like Amazon—in a time when small businesses need to innovate to thrive.
20. The Startup Owner’s Manual
Authors: Steve Blank and Bob Dorf
The Startup Owner’s Manual is a 608-page, step-by-step guide on how take a business idea and turn it into a successful startup. If you like charts, graphs, diagrams, and unlocking the secrets to building a successful, scalable company, this is the business book for you.
21. Crush It!
Author: Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary Vaynerchuk discovered the possibilities of sales through the internet earlier than many. In Crush It!, you’ll learn his actionable advice for turning your web presence into a personal brand—just like Vaynerchuk did when he grew his family’s wine business from a $4-million venture to a $60-million one.
22. The Tipping Point
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
The Tipping Point is Malcolm Gladwell’s seminal book about how small changes can prompt big ones. In this bestseller, Gladwell explores and explains the “tipping point phenomenon,” which changed how people throughout the world think about selling products and sharing ideas. You’ve heard about it. Now it’s time to read it.
23. Good to Great
Author: Jim Collins
In Good to Great, Jim Collins profiles major companies such as Intel, Coca-Cola, and Merck to discover how they took quantum leaps ahead of their competitors. To find out what makes a company great, Collins and his 21-person research team read and coded 6,000 articles, produced more than 2,000 pages of interview transcripts, and created 384 megabytes of computer data over the course of five years. Their findings are presented in this intriguing business book.
24. Getting to Yes
Author: Roger Fisher and William Ury
Getting to Yes is based on the work of the Harvard Negotiation project, a group that deals with all levels of negotiation and conflict resolution. This book has been published continuously for 30 years, teaching business owners a step-by-step strategy for coming to mutual agreements in every sort of conflict. Not many business books can claim the same.
25. The Power of Visual Storytelling
Author: Ekaterina Walter and Jessica Gioglio
The Power of Visual Storytelling is one-of-a-kind guide to developing powerful marketing programs using visual storytelling. In this book, you’ll learn how to grow your business and strengthen your brand by leveraging photos, videos, infographics, presentations, and other rich media.
26. Hooked
Author: Nir Eyal
Looking for a product to sell and open to trying anything? Consult Nir Eyal’s Hook Model, a four-step process to build customer habits and learn how to create products that people can’t put down.
27. How to Win Friends and Influence People
Author: Dale Carnegie
Since 1936, How to Win Friends and Influence People has sold more than 15 million copies. This timeless Dale Carnegie bestseller is packed with actionable advice that has carried hundreds of thousands of successful people through their business and personal lives. It can teach you some new people skills and how to achieve maximum potential in a noisy and competitive age.
28. The Art of the Start
Author: Guy Kawasaki
Guy Kawasaki was one of the first marketers for Apple, where he cultivated the ability to put ideas into action. From raising money and hiring the right people to defining your position and building a brand to creating hype and fostering a community, this business book will guide you through the journey of starting a small business.
29. Start With Why
Author: Simon Sinek
Start With Why takes you inside the minds of business leaders who’ve had the greatest influence on the world. Simon Sinek explores how they think, act, and communicate. Pulling from real-life experiences, he brings together a clear playbook for what it takes to lead and inspire. If you want to inspire others, or learn how to find a mentor who inspires you, this book will show you how.
30. Zero to One
Author: Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, explores how to build a better future in his bestselling book, Zero to One. Thiel presents a positive look into the future of America’s tech world and offers a new way of thinking about innovation—learning how to ask the right questions that lead you to discover value in the most unexpected places.