If you have a few books next to your bed, waiting to be read, add five more to the pile. Each of these books is written by a legendary technology CEO, and offers unique insights into everything from the motivations behind successful entrepreneurship to the secret to building a loyal team. The technology sector is one of the most lucrative, powerful and fast-paced in the world… and many would argue that the CEO's of the companies that dominate, are able to offer uniquely useful lessons and ideas. Whether you want to start your own company or build the one you work for, you may want to check out these bestselling books.
1. Peter Thiel - Zero to One
Written by: Peter Thiel, the former CEO/founder of PayPal, cofounder of Palantir and an early investor in Facebook and many other successful companies
The low down: “Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies. Zero to One shows how,” says Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and Space X.
This New York Times bestseller is supposedly only a 3.5 hour read, but yet a pivotal one for all those interested in developing new products or creating successful start-ups. The basic premise of the book is that doing what someone else already knows how to do takes the world from 1 to n. It just adds more of something familiar. But when you do something new, you go from 0 to 1. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace. They will escape competition all together, because their businesses will be unique.
2. Ed Catmull - Creativity, Inc.
Written by: Ed Catmull, cofounder and president of Pixar
The low down: This is another New York Times bestseller, and has been named one of the best books of the year by the Huffington Post and Financial Times. It is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights, a manual for anyone who strives for originality, and the first-ever, unadulterated insight into the center of Pixar Animation (the meetings, postmortems, and Braintrust sessions where some of the most successful films in history are made). This book is at heart, a book about how to build a creative culture, but it is also as Pixar co-founder and president Ed Catmull writes, “an expression of the ideas that I believe make the best in us possible.”
3. Reid Hoffman - The Startup of You
Written by: Reid Hoffman, founder and ex-CEO of LinkedIn, investor at Greylock Partners
The low down: This book tells you how to apply the strategies of successful entrepreneurship to your career: in other words, how to run the 'start-up of you'.
The thinking goes like this: in a world where wages are virtually stagnant, creative disruption is affecting every industry, global competition for jobs is fierce, and job security is a thing of the past, we are essentially alll on our own when it comes to our careers. In the face of such uncertainty, the key to success is to think and act like an entrepreneur: to be nimble and self-reliant, to be innovative, and to know how to network and stand out from the crowd. And this is precisely what Hoffman and Casnocha show you how to do in a book that has been deemed both inspirational and supremely practical.
4. Marc Benioff - Behind the Cloud
Written by: Marc Benioff, CEO/cofounder of Salesforce
The low down: In this book Marc Benioff explains how any business can go against the grain, rapidly change the game, and achieve lasting success using the strategies that have inspired his own employees, turned his customers into evangelists, leveraged an ecosystem of partners and allowed innovation to flourish.
As Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum wrote, "Reading, but also afterwards, practicing the 111 plays described by Marc Benioff opens the door for entrepreneurial success much better than any MBA program."
And it is surely a lot cheaper.
5. Ben Horowitz - The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Written by: Ben Horowitz, cofounder and partner at VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, former CEO of Opsware
The low down: While many people talk about how great it is to start a business, very few are honest about how difficult it is to run one. In this book Ben Horowitz analyses the problems that confront leaders every day, sharing the insights he has gained developing, managing and selling technology companies.
Filled with both humour and straight talk, The Hard Thing About Hard Things is said to be an invaluable resource for veteran and new entrepreneurs alike. And according to the Economist, “There is more than enough substance in Mr. Horowitz’s impressive tome to turn it into a leadership classic.”
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