best entrepreneurial books

homeless student

hi, just looking for opinions on good entrepreneurial book recommendations, biography's or guides.

highlandseoghan

I enjoyed Duncan Ballantyne - Anyone can do it. I thought it was a good read.

homeless student

any other suggestions?

homeless student

anyone

Graham

Perhaps those that are doing it are too busy to be reading about it. That's not intended to be glib btw, I genuinely suspect that's the reality.

Peterdalkey

Tiny Rowland By Tom Bower
Billionaire ( James Goldsmith) by Ivan Fallon
Barbarians at the Gate ( Ross Jonson) by Bryan Borogh and John Haylar.

None of your rose tinted lovey dovey stuff in these. These is all about down the down and dirty, dog eat dog side of business.

homeless student

Graham wrote: »

Perhaps those that are doing it are too busy to be reading about it. That's not intended to be glib btw, I genuinely suspect that's the reality.

im sure even the best entrepreneurs can use a little inspiration from others sometimes.

lucky john

Alan Sugar's book "what you see is what you get" is a very interestins rags to riches book.
Like wise Theo Paphitis " enter the dragon"

As mentioned above Duncan Ballantyne - "Anyone can do it" is a good read.

I prefer books based on real life rather than "how to set up a business and make a million in 10 easy steps" type books

there is also a book by a Tipp guy called George Mordaunt called "shepherd's pie". its a real life riches to close enough rags story based on his experience of Irelands boom and bust. worth a read just incase you might think everyone makes it big.

Lobby Con Shine

Bannatyne's book is good. However, and as was intimated by a poster above, if you need to learn how to become an entrepreneur then you're not an entrepreneur.

lucky john

Lobby Con Shine wrote: »

Bannatyne's book is good. However, and as was intimated by a poster above, if you need to learn how to become an entrepreneur then you're not an entrepreneur.

I'm not sure thats stricty true. Absolutely, some people are born entrepeneurs eg. Alan Sugar. Some end up in that roll because they were unemployable eg. Duncan Ballantyne and others work a job for most of their life untill they realise they know more than their boss, get made redundant or want a different life.

Most of the books above were writen by true entrepeneurs. they took the time to encourage, motivate or teach others(as well as make that extra buck). I think you will also find that the majority of entrepeneurs do read these type of books.There arent to many "Entrepeneur" courses in college so its no bad thing to read for motivation or even to learn a bit.

IpreDictDeatH

Born entrepreneur, what a silly thing to say. I hate that word anyway. Self righteous egotistical word. If anyone asks me, i run a business, or i'm a business man even. Entrepreneur.....euuugh!

Was Duncan Bannatyne a born entrepreneur? He only started in business in his 30's. Most of his time before that was spent drinking and lazing around.

On the other hand you have someone like Alan Sugar who was making a few quid from an early age.

The idea that there is one 'type' of person who is or isn't an entrepreneur is a joke. It takes all sorts. Some are good with numbers, some are useless, some are good at managing people, some are not.

Most of them however have and do take inspuiration from other business people. Just look at BIll Cullens book, he had his own heroes as he started up in business. The difference nowadays is that we hav it at our finger tips. Books can be bought at a click, podcasts too. If Alan sugar was a reader, and had the opportunity to tap into all the knowledge that is out there today, when he was starting out, i bet h would have embraced it.

I do get the argument, if your running a business you're too busy to read about how others are running theres but that's not to say if your starting out that you're wasting your time trying to get a bit of inspiration from a book. Sure, i dont read any books on how to start up a business anymore, but i do try and read up on certain leaders in my field to see how they are doing it. What i am reading has changed, but im still trying to better myself in business.

lucky john

IpreDictDeatH wrote: »

Born entrepreneur, what a silly thing to say. I hate that word anyway. Self righteous egotistical word. If anyone asks me, i run a business, or i'm a business man even. Entrepreneur.....euuugh!

Was Duncan Bannatyne a born entrepreneur? He only started in business in his 30's. Most of his time before that was spent drinking and lazing around.

On the other hand you have someone like Alan Sugar who was making a few quid from an early age.

I think you should re read my post. Its exactly what you are saying.

I dont think I have ever heard anyone introduce themselves as an "entrepreneur". Its a term used by others to describe a risk taking business person. And to be honest I have no problem with the word.
If you are a person who invests, employes, builds, creates, manages.....
all by the sweat of your own brow and out of you own pocket. well thats what you are.

Joseph

I made a thread on this awhile back, it's now part of this sticky

sozbox

Cold, Hard, Truth by Kevin O'Leary was a good read.

lucky john

http://www.bookbuzz.biz/blog.html

this blog has only business book reviews. Alot of the books seem like heavy going but it depends what your looking for i suppose.

IpreDictDeatH

IpreDictDeatH wrote: »

Born entrepreneur, what a silly thing to say. I hate that word anyway. Self righteous egotistical word. If anyone asks me, i run a business, or i'm a business man even. Entrepreneur.....euuugh!

Entrepreneur - A person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on financial risk to do so.

Why on earth is it a self righteous or egotistical word? To describe the thing your doing by its very definition?
In fact an entrepreneur is a much better descriptive word then businessman. Entrepreneur tells people what kind of a person you are -a risk taking businessman.

jt_dublin

Depending on what you are looking for, this one is about setting up an online business. It was published last year so it's fairly uptodate.

The Digital Business Start-Up Workbook: The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide to Succeeding Online from Start-Up to Exit by Cheryl Rickman.

homeless student

thanks for all the recommendations guys, ill be buying some of the books, feel free to keep the suggestions coming.

TylerIE

Richard Bransons Screw Business as Usual is particularly good... Losing my Virginity is good for the aspiring entrepreneur etc!