There is no shame in finding trading tips and tricks on Tik Tok, but if you want to follow in the footsteps of your favorite businessman or a tech giant – consider Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett Or Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, for example, you might want to open one of the books from which they learned some of their most valuable life lessons.
Zuckerberg wrote in a 2015 Facebook post that he loves reading new books regarding how people build great companies.
In another post, the 37-year-old billionaire said he turns to those books for insight into “what causes innovation – the types of people, questions and environments”.
Here are 4 entrepreneurs whose books have shaped their careers, business strategies, and in a few cases “the way they think”:
Mark Zuckerberg
In 2015, Zuckerberg read Creativity: Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand in the Way of True Inspiration, written by Alice Wallace and Edwin Catmull, co-founder of Pixar, as it tells the story behind the animation studio that has become a giant of entertainment innovation.
And Zuckerberg seems to have taken at least one lesson from the book.
In the book, Catmull wrote: “Don’t wait for things to appear before you share them. Show early, show often… Ideas will be beautiful when we achieve them, but they won’t always be beautiful.”
Facebook’s parent company Meta has written this wisdom to “do better than wait for perfection” at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California.
Zuckerberg wrote that he was also shocked by John Gertner’s movie “The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and Great Age of American Innovation,” which tells the history of Bell Labs – founded by Alexander Graham Bell and now owned by Nokia.
Diamond John
Shark Tank investor Diamond John told CNBC Make It in 2018 that a handful of books have changed his life, including Stephen Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” and Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter’s Rich Dad Poor Dad.
John also recommended Think and Grow Rich, the 1937 business book containing interviews with Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, and Charles M. Schwab, and explaining the psychology behind people making fortunes—and why.
The idea of the book is that “If you can imagine an idea, you can do it.”
It also teaches you how to hire people with talents that you don’t have.
Warren Buffett
Buffett also knows that the best business advice comes from people who know the industry.
In the documentary “Becoming Warren Buffet,” the 7-year-old billionaire investor said he “virtually memorized” FC Menaker’s A Thousand Ways to Make a Thousand Dollars, which told tales of retailer James Cash Penney and JC Penney fame. and other successful entrepreneurs.
In 1988, Buffett told Fortune that it was a book that revealed practical business lessons regarding compound interest, sales and investing that inspired him to start selling Coca-Cola, newspapers, and chewing gum door-to-door.
To develop business acumen, prominent businessmen Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have also recommended “Business Adventures,” journalist John Brooks’ analysis of iconic moments in the history of iconic American companies such as Ford and General Electric.
Emma Grady
Emma Grady’s career has seen her become the CEO of Good American Jeans, co-founder of SKIMS shapewear and the first black investor in Shark Tank by the age of 40.
Last year, she told CNBC, one of the most influential books she’s read of her career is What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School: Notes from a Street-Smart CEO, by Mark McCormack — who is credited with Founding the modern sports marketing industry with his company IMG – Grady notes that the book gave her the confidence and negotiation skills to strike deals with high profile clients like Kris Jenner.
Grady also said that she re-read Ray Dalio’s “Principles: Life and Work” “constantly.”
