Well… I guess I gave the answer away from my title… Books!

You can learn any skill you can imagine by reading books.

You can pick any subject and I can guarantee you, there is an expert who wrote a book about it.

You can come up with the most obscure of subjects and chances are it’s been written by someone.

In this article, I’d like to share with you some of the books that I’ve read (and still reading) that have taught me a lot about business and life in general.

Some of these books were written recently, while others are classics that have affected in a positive way millions of entrepreneurs and business owners around the world.

These books will teach not only how to become a successful business owner, but also how to create positive habits in business and personal life.

Here are the 7 books that every business owner (or aspiring entrepreneur) ought to be reading

1. “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie

This is a classic; if you haven’t read anything by Dale Carnegie it’s high time you did it! He manages to use common sense advice masterfully and helps you notice things most people overlook every day. And his solutions are so simple and efficient that they always work!

In How to Win Friends and Influence People¸ Dale Carnegie provides indispensable advice on how to improve your people skills, which represent a must for any business owner and after all, for anyone.

As a business owner, you probably know how important networking is, and this book shows you how to relate to people efficiently and create win-win situations.

Just some extra information: this book was published in 1937 stood the test of time and has sold more than 15 million copies!

2. “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill

If the previous book on my list has cultivated you a taste for business and personal development classics, you should also consider Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

Think and Grow Rich is considered the first most important financial book in history and comes with a very interesting background.

On a side note, you can find an article I wrote about “Think and Grow Rich” here. It’s titled “How to Think and Grow Your Business”.

Napoleon Hill was a poor journalist who had to withdraw from law school for financial reasons. Fortunately, in 1908, he had the chance to interview the famous industrialist Andrew Carnegie, who was at that time one of the most powerful men in the world.

Hill managed to impress Carnegie, who proposed him to write a book about his formula for success after also interviewing several other successful businessmen.

Think and Grow Rich was also written at Carnegie’s suggestion and describes the philosophy needed to succeed in work and business; this book sold 70 million copies worldwide and is often included in Lifetime Must-Read Books Lists even today.

3. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

Let’s move to more recent titles, and I am sure you will also appreciate Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. This 2008 book describes the factors leading to personal success by examining the stories of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, The Beatles, and famous Canadian ice hockey players among others.

What all these people have in common is thehard work they were willing to do in order to achieve advanced expertise.

A particularly fascinating aspect of this book is the comparison between people with extraordinary intelligence, who end up having different fortunes.

This book will attract you if you’re like me, someone who likes reading successful people’s biographies and discovering how they’ve accomplished big things.

This is definitely a book you need to read!

4. Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek

If leadership is one of your major interests, consider reading Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek. You don’t have to be a big corporation leader to inspire people around you and enjoy personal and professional success.

Bonus: Simon Sinek has one of the most watched Ted Talks of all time. Watch it below…

The biggest takeaways from this book are the brilliant central concept, the success principles it provides to entrepreneurs, and the idea that you should inspire instead of manipulate people.

Those who like Sinek’s approach and ideas can see him in TED talks and follow him on Twitter at @simonsinek.

5. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Businessby Charles Duhigg

Have you ever heard that saying “How we spend our days is how we spend our lives”? Why do we do the same things every day and, moreover, how can we analyze our and other people’s habits in order to become more productive and conduct more successful businesses?

These are the main questions that Charles Duhigg is trying to provide an answer to in The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. The author’s interest in habits emerged when he was sent as a newspaper reporter in Baghdad and found out about an experiment conducted by the army.

What he discovered from this experiment was that all human habits and their consequences work in a similar way.

By reading the examples and the practical advice included in this book, you can get rid of your own bad habits or understand your customers’ (or other people’s) habits and implement successful business strategies.

6. MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedomby Tony Robbins

Would you like to get practical advice from an experienced coach who knows how finance really works?

Tony Robbins’s book MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom is putting emphasis on an objective that we all have in mind but often fail to achieve…

Securing financial freedom for ourselves and our families.

This 7-step guide on gaining financial freedom was inspired by a series of interviews with finance experts from all over the world and manages to explain to the average readers some of the most complex financial concepts.

Beware, this is a big book… I’m still reading it… 🙂 

Are you afraid this book may be too technical for you? Not a chance – the metaphors and storytelling techniques used by Robbins make the contents accessible to anyone and give every reader a chance to get rid of the bad habits that have been preventing them from enjoying financial freedom.

If you do a search on YouTube for this book, you’ll find he has a series of videos going over the major concepts from the book. I highly recommend you check it out…

7. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Futureby Ashlee Vance

Some of the most valuable pieces of advice come from the stories of extremely successful businessmen. What do PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla, Zip2, and SolarCity have in common? It’s the major role that Elon Musk played or is currently playing in these businesses, either as a founder or as a CEO.

If you ever wondered what’s inside a business magnate’s mind, read Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance; having success in three different industries (Internet, electric cars, and spaceship) definitely is a great achievement and any business owner can learn valuable lessons from this brilliant entrepreneurial mind.

What to do now?

Reading these books will not necessarily transform you into a successful business owner or at least not overnight, but all 7 titles in my list will definitely entertain you with the success stories of many talented and hard-working people. You may just become one of them!

So, stop what you’re doing now… go to Amazon.com or the library and get these books!

One last thing… apply what you learn from these books… don’t believe in the “knowledge is power” idea…

Tony Robbins says…

“Knowledge is only potential”

What he means is that you can know everything there is to know about a particular subject, but if you don’t take action, it won’t do any good to you.

You must take action to reap the rewards!

What are your thoughts? Don’t be shy and write your comments below. I’d like to hear from you.