entrepreneur Book Summaries

Traction explains an 'operating system' that can help entrepreneurs achieve more control and organization in your business. Gino Wickman has assembled many practical management tools including: a 10-year vision, a people-grading chart, a data dashboard, a systems documentation method, and 90-day priorities called "Rocks."

Elon Musk is a biography of the man who led Tesla, SpaceX and PayPal. Musk inspires many people with his futuristic plans for new technologies, and his seemingly unstoppable ability to overcome all obstacles. But his employees are often pushed to their limit, trying to reach impossible deadlines.

Steve Jobs is the official biography of the co-founder of Apple and Pixar. He had an intense passion to create revolutionary products like the iPhone, iPad, iPod, iTunes, and Macintosh computers. His personality was an unusual mix of Zen hippie and brash business visionary.

Shoe Dog is an inspiring story of entrepreneurship from Nike's founder Phil Knight. He started as a regular kid who loved running and built the largest sportswear brand ever. But there were many challenging times that Nike barely survived.

Made in Japan is the autobiography of Akio Morita, who co-founded Sony and grew it to become one of the largest electronics companies in the world. Akio shares his advice for management, leadership and innovation. He also explains many differences in the working culture between Japan and the West.

The 4-Hour Workweek is about escaping the default 9-5 rat race and designing your ideal lifestyle. Tim Ferriss says we can improve our productivity by eliminating, automating and outsourcing the work we don't enjoy. He also shows how to build a passive income business to fully liberate our time.

Zero to One is a guide for business startup founders. Peter Thiel shares many unconventional ideas such as why entrepreneurs should avoid competition and instead build (legal) monopolies. He also offers fascinating predictions about the future of technology.

Sam Walton: Made in America shows how Walmart grew from one small store into the largest retail business in the world. Sam Walton is often seen as one of the greatest entrepreneurs ever. His journey was filled with risk, obstacles, adversity, failure... but also fun, discovery, passion and persistence.

Blue Ocean Strategy is about how to escape competition and create breakthrough business strategies. Kim and Mauborgne say we should look outside our traditional industry boundaries so we can truly innovate for our customers. We can find entirely new market demand, rather than fighting over old market share.