10 The Best Business Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read

Published September 15, 2023 | 13 min read

This is a detailed list of the best business books that will help develop your success mindset and increase your business sense in all areas.

It was my 6th-grade teacher, Mr. Bryan Devine, who was the first to instill a love of reading in my psyche as a young child.

Fast forward a few decades, and we’ve built a culture at Red Stag Fulfillment that not only encourages but requires consistent reading within our management team.

In the same way that our company aggressively pursues continuous improvement in our fulfillment operations, we equally value improvements for the individual.

Below are the 10 best business books whose concepts reach far beyond the boardroom.

I consider these a must-read for anyone looking to grow and improve in business.

1. Great by Choice, Jim Collins

This is one of the best business books because it outlines a scientific, data-driven approach to discovering and proving how some leaders thrive through—not on—chaos.

In the book, chaos is defined by instability—particularly in the first decade of this century when terrorists attacked, wars ensued, markets crashed, and technology powered forth with relentless advances we had to catch up to.

Some of us, including companies, didn’t just survive all this—we thrived on it.

My favorite concept explained in the book that we can all apply to tough situations is “bullets before cannonballs.”

It’s strikingly simple: “wise leaders take small steps before making giant leaps.”

Bullets are cheap, easy to make, and easy to shoot.

By testing out “bullets” or ideas in a low-risk way, you will lose less in desperate times.

You also get the chance to see what worked and what didn’t before you break out the big guns—or cannons.

Use this in business and life to leverage more out of tough situations, and know when it’s time to fire a big investment.

Quotes from this business book:

“Great vision without great people is irrelevant.”
― James C. Collins

“Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.”
― James C. Collins

“When [what you are deeply passionate about, what you can be best in the world at and what drives your economic engine] come together, not only does your work move toward greatness but so does your life.”
― James C. Collins

2. The 4-Hour Work Week, Tim Ferris

best business books — The 4-Hour Work Week, Tim Ferris

This is a book that’s been touted as a life-changer because it does more than explain how the “new rich” are doing it.

This book takes you by the shoulders and shakes you—waking you up from your 9-to-5 nightmare—and shows you how you can live your financially stable dreams.

Quotes from this business book:

“Being busy is a form of laziness–lazy thinking and indiscriminate action” might be one of the best takeaways from this read.

Ferriss explains that it’s about getting away from the busy work and maximizing your time and potential by focusing on the bigger picture.

I think we could all use this reminder in our daily business and personal lives.

Quotes from this book:

“A person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have.”
― Timothy Ferriss

“Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct course along the way.”
― Timothy Ferriss

“But you are the average of the five people you associate with most, so do not underestimate the effects of your pessimistic, unambitious, or disorganized friends. If someone isn’t making you stronger, they’re making you weaker.”
― Timothy Ferriss

3. Good to Great, Jim Collins

This made the list of best business books because it is the summation of a major scientific study incorporating 1,435 companies.

However, this book isn’t just analysis—it’s groundbreaking research that’s tearing down barriers and debunking myths.

What Collins figured out is that money can’t buy greatness.

Instead, it’s: “Disciplined Thought, Disciplined People, and Disciplined Action” that leads to not just successful, but truly great companies.

Collins explains that it’s not extraordinary moments, but down-to-earth pragmatics and commitment from everyone on the ladder that makes a company great.

So, get your head out of the clouds, because the answer to greatness is right here in front of you.

Quotes from this business book:

“Think of the transformation as a process of buildup followed by breakthrough, broken into three broad stages: disciplined people, disciplined thought, and disciplined action. Within each of these three stages, there are two key concepts, shown in the framework and described below. Wrapping around this entire framework is a concept we came to call the flywheel, which captures the gestalt of the entire process of going from good to great.”
― James C. Collins

“The good-to-great companies made a habit of putting their best people on their best opportunities, not their biggest problems. The comparison companies had a penchant for doing just the opposite, failing to grasp the fact that managing your problems can only make you good, whereas building your opportunities is the only way to become great. There is an important”
― James C. Collins

4. Think & Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill

This book is an inspirational powerhouse.

Packed with sharp points and secrets to success, Think & Grow Rich helps you realize that you’ve actually had the power inside you all along.

So pick it up and read it; then reread it, because the principles of this book are timeless and sure to help you out of any rut.

“If you think you are beaten, you are, if you think you dare not, you don’t.

If you like to win but think you can’t, it’s almost certain you won’t.”

Take this advice to heart, and then run with it.

Quotes from this business book:

The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat.”
― Napoleon Hill

“Before success comes in any man’s life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and, perhaps, some failure. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to quit. That is exactly what the majority of men do. More than five hundred of the most successful men this country has ever known told the author their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them.”
― Napoleon Hill

More amazing business books

5. Seven Laws of Higher Prosperity, Cecil Kemp

Set in the inviting tone of a story, rather than a manifesto, the Seven Laws of Higher Prosperity challenges you to examine the characters at hand to figure out which one you are, and why success may be eluding you.

This book captures the heart, intrigues the soul, and ignites the mind.

Inside the pages, you’ll be inspired by lessons on life and finance that will change your outlook, and hopefully your actions.

This book is a mixture of your spiritual guru and your wise, accountant friend telling you how to pull it together, in an inspirational way, of course.

6. The Science of Success, Charles Koch

If you enjoyed your socioeconomics classes, then you’re sure to enjoy The Science of Success.

Renowned businessman, Charles Koch, introduces and explains his principles of Market Based Management (MBM) to help readers develop a new way of thinking that will help them make good decisions in life and business.

Business books such as this one are always instant classics.

Based on the “Science of Human Action” (vision, virtue, knowledge, decision rights, and incentive), this is by no means a how-to book.

Koch instead takes his readers on an observational and philosophical journey to see what has fascinated him and shaped his mindset.

This is the guy whose mind you want to get into.

Quotes from this business book:

“My lessons weren’t specific to business, but they were fundamental values—integrity, humility, responsibility, work ethic, entrepreneurship, a thirst for knowledge, the desire to make a contribution, and concern for others—that profoundly influenced the way I do business and live my life to this day.”
― Charles G. Koch

“To succeed, a business must not only develop profit and loss measures, but also determine their underlying drivers, in order to understand what is adding value, what is not, and why. This knowledge informs its vision and strategies, leads to innovations, creates opportunities to eliminate waste, and guides continuous improvement.”
― Charles G. Koch

7. Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki

Kiyosaki’s book provides a unique perspective that will help you think differently about your finances, and education itself.

You’ll walk away from this book still gripping the last pages, and clutching onto the new, but simple idea that: “The poor and middle-class work for money.

The rich have money to work for them.”

You’ll soon learn that it’s all about assets and letting your money work for you, instead of working for it.

You’ll also put it down cursing not just our education system, but our society, for putting the value on the now rather than the future.

Okay, I’m not giving any more away.

Pick up this best-seller and see for yourself.

Quotes from this business book:

“In school, we learn that mistakes are bad, and we are punished for making them. Yet, if you look at the way humans are designed to learn, we learn by making mistakes. We learn to walk by falling down. If we never fell down, we would never walk.”
― Robert T. Kiyosaki

“Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.”
― Robert T. Kiyosaki

“You’re only poor if you give up. The most important thing is that you did something. Most people only talk and dream of getting rich. You’ve done something.”
― Robert T. Kiyosaki

8. Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing, Robert Kiyosaki

A real guide, and the third in Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad” trilogy, this book aims to guide readers to financial freedom with active investing.

Once again using the stories of his main protagonists, Rich Dad and Poor Dad, Kiyosaki helps readers realize their full potential by understanding the basic rules for investing.

Not a guarantee, but definitely a guide to achieving financial freedom, this book helps us laymen understand how and why the rich are getting richer.

Quotes from this business book:

“He said it was better to work years at creating an asset rather than to spend your life working hard for money to create someone else’s asset.”
― Robert T. Kiyosaki

“As Winston Churchill said, “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
― Robert T. Kiyosaki

“It’s not what we say out loud that determines our lives. It’s what we whisper to ourselves that has the most power.”
― Robert T. Kiyosaki

9. Economics in One Lesson, Henry Hazlitt

Did you sleep through economics in school?

Or did it just go over your head?

Well, picking up this book is going to help fill in the gaps about the free market.

This book has been hailed as the saving grace for us laymen the world over, teaching us about the free market and how political actions influence it.

Spoiler alert: the one lesson is that economics is more than policy or action, but how its consequences affect us all.

This insightful read will help you not only better understand the free market, but our society and the actions we take as well.

Quotes from this business book:

“Practically all government attempts to redistribute wealth and income tend to smother productive incentives and lead toward general impoverishment. It is the proper sphere of government to create and enforce a framework of law that prohibits force and fraud. But it must refrain from specific economic interventions. Government’s main economic function is to encourage and preserve a free market. When Alexander the Great visited the philosopher Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for him, Diogenes is said to have replied: “Yes, stand a little less between me and the sun.” It is what every citizen is entitled to ask of his government.”
― Henry Hazlitt

“The question is not whether we wish to see everybody as well off as possible. Among men of good will such an aim can be taken for granted. The real question concerns the proper means of achieving it. And in trying to answer this we must never lose sight of a few elementary truisms. We cannot distribute more wealth than is created. We cannot in the long run pay labor as a whole more than it produces.”
― Henry Hazlitt

10. The Intelligent Investor, Benjamin Graham

This book aims to create intelligent investors out of average investors by breaking down complicated jargon and providing actionable tips.

While Graham sprinkles the book with timeless inspiration, when it comes down to it, the book is about checking your emotions at the door to making sound decisions.

While this rule applies miraculously to investing, you might also find truths that you can apply elsewhere in your life.

Graham says that a disciplined approach will prevent consequential errors, and that’s sound advice I’ll take any day.

Quotes from this business book:

“An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and an adequate return. Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative.”
― Benjamin Graham

“In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.”
― Benjamin Graham

“The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists.”
― Benjamin Graham