25 Business Books to Read in 2019

Did you resolve to read more during 2019? If so, you’re not alone.

According to statista.com, almost one in five of those making New Year’s resolutions in 2018 chose to read more. If you’re an entrepreneur, you can meet your resolution and become a better business owner by reading books from this list, which we curated from several sources, including Lifehack, Inc.com and Goodreads.

Here’s our list of the 25 business books to read in 2019:

1. How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie. This book should be required reading for everyone – not just entrepreneurs. First published in 1936, it contains sound advice on building relationships that still rings true today. Its pages are filled with valuable information on managing people, persuading colleagues and getting people to like you.
2. Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell. The first of two books on this list by Gladwell, he ponders the question: What makes people great? He argues that we need to look at where great people come from – how and where they grew up, when they were raised – cultural factors instead of their habits and work ethic.
3. The 4-Hour Work Week – Tim Ferriss. Okay, so you may not be able to whittle down your work week to four hours, but Ferriss has plenty of ideas for being more productive so you may not have to work as much: Automating tasks, outsourcing others and doing only the things that matter are some of what he covers in this book that’s perfect for digital nomads.
4. When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink. When are you at your best? What time of day do you get the most work done? In When, Pink uses the latest scientific research to help you determine when your most productive time of day is – so you can get the most done.
5. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport. Another reason we don’t get a lot done during the day is due to lack of focus. Deep Work teaches you how to get focused and drill down into those seemingly impossible tasks in a world that demands your attention.
6. The Lean Start-Up: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries. Ries uses the agile philosophy of software development to encourage entrepreneurs to get a minimum viable product out in the market, and then test it and modify it to save time and money.
7. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz. Created from his best blog posts and his experience as an entrepreneur, Horowitz gives essential real-world advice about starting a business, covering topics such as how to start a business with friends, dealing with layoffs, and hiring the best people.
8. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins. The title says it all; Collins and his research team have identified those companies that made the transition to greatness and identifies and determined what they did (and didn’t do) to become great. The results may surprise you.
9. Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg. Duhigg argues that we need to transform our decision-making process. Using real-world examples, he identifies eight productivity concepts that can help you get more done and be successful.
10. Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek. Why are some people more innovative, more influential, and more successful than others? Sinek shows that those successful leaders all act, think and communicate differently.
11. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell’s second book on this list focuses on that point in time in which a business idea or product begins to gain momentum and become big. He discusses how this happens and even gives tips on how people can create their own tipping point.
12. The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber. The follow-up to his surprise best-seller The E-Myth, this book goes through the steps in the life of a business and shows why 8 out of 10 businesses fail. He uses franchises as an example of how to run your business, regardless of whether it is a franchise.
13. Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…And Maybe the World by William H. McRaven. This book was spawned from a commencement speech given by McRaven, a naval admiral who presents 10 practical life lessons that will help you make tough decisions and do more.
14. The New One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson M.D. A classic among business leaders, The New One Minute Manager presents three secrets to becoming a leader – and it’s told through the eyes of a young man seeking a good manager. It’s been updated since its original publication in 1986.
15. Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk. In this book, Vaynerchuk shows you how you can make your hobby or passion your job. Using the power of the Internet, he goes through step by step on how to make your lifelong dreams a reality.
16. Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters. In this technological age, it’s hard to see new things being created. Yet Paypal founder Peter Thiel says just the opposite: there are new things waiting to be created. He argues that we must think for ourselves to come up with new ideas.
17. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal. In this groundbreaking book, Eyal studies why some products capture the public’s attention. His “Hook Model” is a four-step process that encourages customer behavior, bringing users back again and again without having to spend a lot on advertising.
18. Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World by Tim Ferriss. Ferriss’ second book in this list is a culmination of advice culled from his podcasts, in which he interviews great thinkers and leaders and asks them how they excel. The result is a compilation of tools, tactics and habits from more than 130 of the world’s top performers.
19. The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business by Josh Kaufman. Kaufman eschews the traditional MBA and instead advocates his thoughts on entrepreneurship, marketing, sales, negotiation, and more. He says that leaders aren’t created by business schools; instead, they create themselves, finding what they need to make their business succeed.
20. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini. Influence teaches you how to make people say “yes” – whether it’s persuading them to buy your product or changing their behavior,
21. Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin. How do you create successful marketing campaigns? It’s not by being boring and doing what everybody else does. Godin argues that you have to be different and exciting so that people will remember your product.
22. Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. This Nobel Prize winner in economics posits that there are two systems that govern the way we think: A fast, emotional state and a slower, more logical state. Only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions and learning to think more slowly can we succeed.
23. Rework by Jason Fried and David Hansson. Rework argues that you need a lot less than you think to start a successful business. In essence, you just need to prioritize and do stuff. Throw your plans and investors out the window, and ignore the competition. Focus on what it takes to get your business off the ground.
24. Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras. In this book, Collins and Porras looked at successful companies and their competitors and discovered what it was that gave the successful companies the edge over their competitors. They come up with a theory about what makes a visionary company. and give advice on how to build long-lasting organizations.
25. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Ending this list is another timeless classic. Written in 1937 and inspired by the career of Andrew Carnegie, Hill studied the habits of successful business people and came up with 13 principles that one can apply to their life in order to be successful.

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