Since I started my business in 1995 I have read very few books, maybe 3 or 4 at most. Instead I constantly read business magazines, online blogs and news websites. There is so much info out there to digest it is hard to keep up. But, sometimes it helps to take a step back and try to look at things differently. I recently read 4 books all in one month that helped change the way I look at the business world, so I thought I would share them with you:
1. Freakonomics – by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
2. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference – by Malcolm Gladwell
3. The Wisdom of Crowds – by James Surowiecki
4. Losing My Virginity – by Richard Branson
I won’t go into detail about the topic of each book, because you can view them on Amazon.com for that, but they are all bestsellers and have received wide critical acclaim so I am not the only one recommending them. I think Freakonomics would be of interest to almost anyone, and if you end up liking it you will probably also like The Tipping Point and The Wisdom of Crowds. They are all basically studies of human behavior and make you think more deeply about what is going on in the world around you. Another common theme is that they show experts tend to be wrong a lot, so you should not rely too much on what other people say.
When you run your own business you need to make dozens of decisions on a daily basis, and understanding how things work in life can help you to make the better decisions. Reading these books should help you with that.