My Reading List - so far.

I'm excited to share a curated list of books that have significantly influenced my thinking and approach to business, innovation, and personal development over the past year. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a business leader, or someone looking to grow personally and professionally, these books offer valuable insights and practical advice.

To be clear, I am not an avid reader. In fact, before 2021, I had only read two books cover-to-cover: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (because it was required reading in school) and Dave Grohl's The Storyteller. Dave's book actually gave me the confidence to pick up more books and start reading, so thanks, Dave!

I'm also in the process of finishing my own business book—so watch this space!

Enough about me, here’s a brief summary of each book to help you decide which ones to add to your reading list.

Books

1. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries: This book introduces a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in an age when companies have to innovate more than ever. Ries emphasises the importance of building a minimum viable product (MVP), measuring its success, and learning from the results to pivot or persevere.
2. Scrum by Jeff Sutherland: An introduction to the Scrum framework for agile project management. It offers practical advice on how to implement Scrum in various business contexts to increase productivity and innovation.
3. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight: This memoir chronicles the journey of Nike's co-founder, from his early days selling shoes from his car to building one of the world's most iconic brands. Knight shares the challenges, risks, and triumphs of entrepreneurship, offering insights into business, innovation, and perseverance.
4. Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard: Chouinard shares the story of how he built Patagonia into a successful, environmentally conscious business. The book details his personal journey and the philosophies that guide Patagonia’s business practices.
5. Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss: A collection of over 100 mini-interviews with some of the world’s most successful people, sharing their ideas on habits, learning, money, relationships, failure, success, and life.
6. Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss: This book compiles the tactics, routines, and habits of billionaires, icons, and world-class performers, offering actionable advice for improving your life and work.
7. The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss: Ferriss outlines a blueprint for escaping the 9-5 grind, living anywhere, and joining the new rich. The book focuses on lifestyle design and optimizing productivity.
8. The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer: This book explores the concept of self and offers practical advice on how to achieve inner peace and freedom by letting go of the thoughts and emotions that limit us.
9. The Surrender Experiment by Michael A. Singer: Singer shares his journey of letting go of personal preferences and simply surrendering to life’s flow. The book combines his life story with teachings on meditation and spirituality.
10. Living Untethered by Michael A. Singer: This book continues the themes from "The Untethered Soul," offering deeper insights into how to live a life free from the constraints of the mind and ego.
11. Zero to One by Peter Thiel: Thiel explores how to build companies that create new things. He argues that true innovation comes from creating something entirely new (going from "zero to one") rather than making incremental improvements (going from "one to n"). The book challenges conventional wisdom about competition and monopolies.
12. The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz: Horowitz shares his experiences of managing startups and offers advice on navigating the toughest challenges that leaders face. The book covers topics such as dealing with layoffs, demotions, and managing the psychology of being a CEO.
13. Hooked by Nir Eyal: Eyal explains how successful companies create products that people can’t put down. The book introduces the Hook Model, a four-step process that companies use to build customer habits: trigger, action, variable reward, and investment.
14. Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore: Moore discusses the challenges tech companies face when transitioning from early adopters to the early majority. He provides strategies for successfully crossing this "chasm" and achieving mainstream market success.
15. The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen: Christensen explains why successful companies often fail when confronted with disruptive innovations. He provides a framework for understanding and managing disruptive technologies to avoid becoming obsolete.
16. The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki: Kawasaki offers a guide to starting a company, covering everything from getting the right people on board to building a brand. He emphasises the importance of creating meaning rather than just making money.
17. The Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank: This book outlines a practical approach to launching successful products by focusing on customer discovery, validation, creation, and development. Blank emphasises the importance of understanding customer needs before developing a product.
18. The Startup Owner's Manual by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf: A comprehensive guide for building a startup, this book covers the customer development process and provides practical advice for validating ideas and creating demand for new products.
19. Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares: Weinberg and Mares discuss how startups can achieve explosive customer growth by focusing on 19 different traction channels. The book emphasises the importance of testing and iterating to find the most effective ways to gain traction.
20. The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber: Gerber explains why most small businesses fail and how to avoid common pitfalls by building a business based on systems rather than relying on individual skills. He advocates for a franchise model approach to ensure consistency and scalability.
21. Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur: This book provides a comprehensive guide to developing business models that match customer needs with product capabilities. It covers key components such as value propositions, customer segments, and revenue streams.
22. The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen: Olsen offers a step-by-step guide to achieving product-market fit using the Lean Product Process. The book emphasises the importance of iterating based on customer feedback and building products that meet specific customer needs.
23. Sprint by Jake Knapp: Knapp introduces the design sprint process, a five-day method for solving big problems and testing new ideas. The book provides a detailed blueprint for running sprints to quickly validate ideas and reduce the risk of launching new products.
24. The Toyota Way by Jeffrey K. Liker: A comprehensive look at Toyota's management principles and production system. It provides valuable lessons on continuous improvement, respect for people, and long-term thinking that can be applied to any business.

Rather than write a long list of people that have either recommended, gifted or forced these books on me, instead I'm going to plug myself.

So, if you're interested in not destroying our planet please check out:

www.iambornslippy.com - Showcasing the brands, people and organisations focussed on ocean conservation and the surfing community. Featuring interviews with Fabien Cousteau , Finisterre WWF and more!

www.thelojas.com - Promoting and helping conscious brands build relationships with new audiences offline; with an aim of creating lifelong online customers.

www.cogadhd.com - COG ADHD is a comprehensive digital solution designed to support individuals with ADHD through a combination of self-help tools and professional coaching. Available on iOS and Android.