A Top Ten Reading List Plus One for Entrepreneurs

I recently received an email proclaiming February as National Entrepreneur Month. I always thought it was Black History Month. I googled the term and couldn’t find anyone else celebrating entrepreneur’s month. But I did find a site proclaiming February 19-26 as National Entrepreneurship Week ( www.entre-week.org). I also found out that last November 19th was National Entrepreneur’s Day.

Getting back to the email, it contained a list of books billed as the Top 10 books for entrepreneurs. Looking more closely at the sender, though, I realized that all the books were being marketed by a company called Impact Books. I was wondering if this was a company that wrote and produced its own books. The marketing message was: Buy one of our Top 10 Books for Entrepreneurs and customize it with your company logo right on the cover and your personal message on the first page.

When I visited the site (www.impactbooks.com), I found out that the company will do this type of customization for virtually any book on the market. They even allow you to completely redesign the cover of the book.

The email didn’t mention the criterion for selecting the books on the Top 10 list, but here they are in order of rank:

1. The Right to Lead by John C. Maxwell
2. Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big by Bo Burlingham
3. Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win by William C. Taylor & Polly LaBarre
4. Innovation: The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want by Curtis R. Carlson & William W. Wilmot
5. Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality—How Six Essential Qualities Determine Your Success in Business
6. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
7. Kiss Theory Goodbye: Five Proven Ways to Get Extraordinary Results in Any Company by Bob Prosen
8. E Myth Mastery: The Seven Essential Disciplines for Building a World Class Company by Michael E. Gerber
9. Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose by Tony Hsieh
10. Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras

To this list, I’ll add a book that I am reading called Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle by Dan Senor and Saul Singer. This book was recommended to me by Amnon Aliphas, founder of VentureOnLine. The book really opened my eyes to the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship that exists in Israel and how industry giants, like Intel Corp. and Cisco Systems, have benefitted from this country’s talents. I recommend it.