5 books to rock your Startup

Have you got a few special books on your bookshelf? You know the ones I’m talking about.

The ones which felt like an epiphany when you read them. The ones whose lessons changed your life in some significant way.

I want to share 5 of my special books for entrepreneurs with you today. They are ones that will truly make a difference to you and your startup in 2015.

And I’m going to give away a copy of each of them to one person. But more about that later…

Update: The giveaway has finished. Congrats to the winner, Hima Tk.

Here’s the books:

Hack your way to a better business and a better life

The Book: The 4 Hour Work Week – Tim Ferriss

Why you should read it: Because you will learn lots of smart strategies and hacks to finding a business idea, testing the market for it and automating to sales process to free up your time. Tim is really great at cutting through to the essence of what you need to focus on to build a business that works and have a life. Reading this has helped me make smarter decisions about my business.

Change the World

The Book: How to Change the World – David Bornstein

Why you should read it: If you want to explore social entrepreneurship, this book is a must read. Even if you don’t want to build a social business, learning about how these men and women have built their businesses will give you lots of great strategies you can apply.

This book really inspired me with great stories entrepreneurs around the world who were building social businesses on a large scale that impact lots of people. The author also pulls out some of the common threads about what social entrepreneurship is and who makes a good social entrepreneur.

Find your perfect Customers

The Book: The Startup Owner’s Manual – Steve Blank  & Bob Dorf

Why you should read it: Steve Blank is the grandfather of the Lean Startup movement. This book is the Bible for how to find your perfect customers and develop a product they will buy. It has step by step instructions which I have used to validate product ideas with success.

Work out how you will make money with your idea

The Book: Business Model Generation – Alex Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur

Why you should read it: Contrary to it’s really boring title, this book is not at all boring either in it’s content or readability. It’s the book the Business Model Canvas comes from and it gives you powerful but simple tools for understanding and creating business models that work. And if you are not sure what business models are, you definitely should read it.

Develop the superpower of overcoming obstacles

The Book: Learned Optimism – Martin Seligman

Why you should read it: i have to say, this is my favourite book on the list even though it’s not about entrepreneurship per se. It’s one of the most life changing books I have ever read. It will teach you to become resilient with very simple and do-able techniques. No matter what you are facing, this book will help you overcome it.

Win all 5 books

Update: The giveaway has finished. Congrats to the winner, Hima Tk.

I would love to be able to give away a copy of these to each one of you, but unfortunately I can’t do that. However, in the Spirit of Christmas, I am giving away a copy of each of them to one lucky person. If you’d like to enter the draw, click through to win 5 books to rock your startup in 2015. Once you enter, don’t forget to share your link to gain more entries into the draw.