Reading List

The books for what you are building.

Tell us your business model, industry and stage, or how you invest, and get the books worth your time, picked from 30,000 on building and backing companies. Chosen by ratings and what they are about.

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Atomic HabitsJames Clear · 4.31★FreakonomicsSteven D. Levitt · 4.01★The Tipping PointMalcolm Gladwell · 4.01★Rich Dad Poor DadRobert T. Kiyosaki · 4.08★BlinkMalcolm Gladwell · 3.96★Thinking, Fast and SlowDaniel Kahneman · 4.16★The Art of WarSun Tzu · 3.94★
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The best matches for everything you told us, ranked.

  • 1

    The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

    Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

    Stephen R. Covey · 1989

    4.16843,480 ratings · Goodreads

    Focus and resilienceCompany building

    About the book

    In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 2

    The Ultimate Sales Machine

    Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies

    Chet Holmes · 2007

    3.979,181 ratings · Goodreads

    Focus and resilienceFirst salesCompany building

    About the book

    Chet Holmes has been called “one of the top 20 change experts in the country.” He helps his clients blow away both the competition and their own expectations. And his advice starts with one simple concept: focus! Instead of trying to master four thousand…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 3

    The Power of Consistency

    Prosperity Mindset Training for Sales and Business Professionals

    Weldon Long · 2013

    4.25644 ratings · Goodreads

    Focus and resilienceFirst salesCompany building

    About the book

    How to achieve wealth, happiness, and peace of mind through personal responsibility The Power of Consistency is based on the fundamental premise that private declarations dictate future actions. In other words, we tend to take actions with the thoughts and…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    80/20 Sales and Marketing

    The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More

    Perry Marshall · 2013

    4.191,904 ratings · Goodreads

    Focus and resilienceFirst salesMarketing and growth

    About the book

    Stop "Just Getting By" ... Master The 80/20 Principle And Make More Money Without More Work. When you know how to walk into any situation and see the 80/20's, you can solve almost ANY marketing problem. 80/20 can demolish any sales and advertising problem.…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 5

    Mindset

    The New Psychology of Success

    Carol S. Dweck · 2006

    4.09182,500 ratings · Goodreads

    Focus and resilienceCompany building

    About the book

    A newer edition of this book can be found here. After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this brilliant book, she shows how…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 6

    Business Made Simple

    60 Days to Master Leadership, Sales, Marketing, Execution, Management, Personal Productivity and More

    Donald Miller · 2021

    4.192,054 ratings · Goodreads

    Focus and resilienceFirst salesMarketing and growth

    About the book

    Is this blue book more valuable than a business degree? Most people enter their professional careers not understanding how to grow a business. At times, this makes them feel lost, or worse, like a fraud pretending to know what they're doing. It's hard to be…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 7

    Millionaire Success Habits

    The Gateway To Wealth & Prosperity

    Dean Graziosi · 2016

    4.063,061 ratings · Goodreads

    Focus and resilienceCompany building

    About the book

    Millionaire Success Habits is a book designed with one purpose in mind: to take you from where you are in life to where you want to be in life by incorporating easy-to-implement "Success Habits" into your daily routine. Legendary business coach Dean Graziosi…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 8

    How to Think Bigger

    Aim Higher, Get More Motivated, and Accomplish Big Things

    Martin Meadows · 2015

    4.042,148 ratings · Goodreads

    Focus and resilienceCompany building

    About the book

    How to Get More Motivated, Set Bigger Goals, and Achieve More by Thinking Bigger Have you ever wondered what separates people who think bigger from people who set their bar low? What makes one person accept low standards and another person to constantly raise…

    On AmazonAudible

The books most about focus and resilience.

  • 1

    High Performance Habits

    How Extraordinary People Become That Way

    Brendon Burchard · 2017

    4.1213,619 ratings · Goodreads

    Focus and resilience

    About the book

    THESE HABITS WILL MAKE YOU EXTRAORDINARY. Twenty years ago, author Brendon Burchard became obsessed with answering three 1. Why do some individuals and teams succeed  more quickly  than others and  sustain  that success over the long term? 2. Of those…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 2

    The Wealth Money Can't Buy

    The 8 Hidden Habits to Live Your Richest Life

    Robin Sharma · 2024

    4.206,440 ratings · Goodreads

    Focus and resilience

    About the book

    A groundbreaking book redefining success to show readers how they can create truly abundant and fulfilling lives by following Sharma’s model of the eight forms of wealth, growth, wellness, family, craft, money, community, adventure, and service, from the #1…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 3

    The Perfection Trap

    Embracing the Power of Good Enough

    Thomas Curran · 2023

    3.932,762 ratings · Goodreads

    Focus and resilience

    About the book

    A BLOOMBERG BEST BOOK OF 2023 “Offers a hopeful beacon and a steady path for anyone struggling to find their footing in a world of impossible standards.”, Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Drive and The Power of Regret In the…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    Drive

    The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

    Daniel H. Pink · 2009

    3.95127,465 ratings · Goodreads

    Focus and resilience

    About the book

    The New York Times bestseller that gives readers a paradigm-shattering new way to think about motivation Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money, the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 5

    The Thousand Weeks

    Time Management for Mortals

    Oliver Burkeman · 2021

    4.18123,505 ratings · Goodreads

    Focus and resilience

    About the book

    Simplified Chinese Edition of [Four Thousand Weeks ]

    On AmazonAudible

  • 6

    Change Your Habits, Change Your Life

    Strategies that Transformed 177 Average People into Self-Made Millionaires

    Tom Corley · 2016

    3.98458 ratings · Goodreads

    Focus and resilience

    About the book

    “Your daily habits determine if you will be rich, poor or stuck in the middle-class. Tom Corley’s book will set you on a path towards success for you and your entire family.” – Jack Canfield CEO Canfield Training Group and Bestselling Author of Chicken Soup…

    On AmazonAudible

Published in the last three years, newest first, for what you told us.

  • 1

    Slow Productivity

    The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

    Cal Newport · 2024

    3.6627,060 ratings · Goodreads

    Focus and resilienceCompany building

    About the book

    Do fewer things. Work at a natural pace. Obsess over quality. From the New York Times bestselling author of Digital Minimalism and Deep Work, a groundbreaking philosophy for pursuing meaningful accomplishment while avoiding overload. Our current…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 2

    Simple Marketing For Smart People

    The One Question You Need to Win Customers without Gimmicks, Hype, or Hard Selling

    Billy Broas · 2024

    4.35305 ratings · Goodreads

    Focus and resilienceMarketing and growthFirst sales

    About the book

    Why do so many smart people struggle with marketing? The answer is smart people love complexity, and complexity brews problems. Does your marketing feel like it has way too many moving parts? If so, Simple Marketing for Smart People is the solution you’ve…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 3

    Countdown to Riches

    21 Days of Wealth-Attracting Habits

    Rhonda Byrne · 2025

    4.17587 ratings · Goodreads

    Focus and resilienceCompany building

    About the book

    From Rhonda Byrne, author of the global phenomenon The Secret and the New York Times bestseller The Greatest Secret, comes Countdown to Riches, the book that can lead anyone to financial freedom. Financial struggle is caused by one thing, our thoughts. To…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    Rich AF

    The Winning Money Mindset That Will Change Your Life

    Vivian Tu · 2023

    4.0610,220 ratings · Goodreads

    Focus and resilience

    About the book

    When Vivian Tu started working on Wall Street fresh from undergrad, all she knew was that she was making more money than she had ever seen in her life. But it wasn’t until she found a mentor of her own on the trading floor that she began to understand what…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 5

    Lean Marketing

    More Leads. More Profit. Less Marketing.

    Allan Dib · 2024

    4.31452 ratings · Goodreads

    Focus and resilienceMarketing and growthCompany building

    About the book

    Bigger Results with Less Marketing You keep being told to do more marketing―more complex, more aggressive, and more expensive marketing. Chasing the latest bright, shiny object is exhausting. Increased efforts keep leading to disappointment. The overwhelm…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 6

    Reset

    How to Change What's Not Working

    Dan Heath · 2025

    4.123,193 ratings · Goodreads

    Focus and resilienceCompany building

    About the book

    From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Made to Stick, Switch, and The Power of Moments comes a revolutionary guide to fixing what’s not working, in systems and processes, organizations and companies, and even in our daily lives, by identifying…

    On AmazonAudible

How companies like yours were actually built, from the people who built them.

  • 1

    Sam Walton, Made in America

    My Story

    Sam Walton · 1992

    4.1628,881 ratings · Goodreads

    Founder storiesCompany building

    About the book

    As Sam Walton himself said, this is "...a story about entrepreneurship, and risk, and hard work, and knowing where you want to go and being willing to do what it takes to get there. And it's a story about believing in your idea even when maybe some other…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 2

    Elon Musk

    Walter Isaacson · 2023

    4.3281,328 ratings · Goodreads

    Founder storiesCompany building

    About the book

    From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era, a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles,…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 3

    Theodore Roosevelt

    An Autobiography

    Theodore Roosevelt · 1913

    3.912,337 ratings · Goodreads

    Founder stories

    About the book

    By the 26th President of the United States, popularly known as T.R. or Teddy. He was also a widely respected historian, naturalist and explorer of the Amazon Basin; his 35 books include works on outdoor life, natural history, U.S. Western and political…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    The Big Rich

    The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes

    Bryan Burrough · 2009

    4.093,394 ratings · Goodreads

    Founder storiesCompany building

    About the book

    In The Big Rich, bestselling author and Vanity Fair special correspondent Bryan Burrough chronicles the rise and fall of one of the great economic and political powerhouses of the twentieth century, Texas oil. By weaving together the epic sagas of the…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 5

    Shoe Dog

    A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

    Phil Knight · 2016

    4.45389,310 ratings · Goodreads

    Founder storiesCompany building

    About the book

    In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 6

    Never Finished

    Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within

    David Goggins · 2022

    4.3850,509 ratings · Goodreads

    Founder stories

    About the book

    This is not a self-help book. It's a wake-up call! Can't Hurt Me, David Goggins' smash hit memoir, demonstrated how much untapped ability we all have but was merely an introduction to the power of the mind. In Never Finished, Goggins takes you inside his…

    On AmazonAudible

What founders at seed keep coming back to, if you have not read them yet.

  • 1

    Inspired

    How to Create Tech Products Customers Love

    Marty Cagan · 2008

    4.2226,350 ratings · Goodreads

    Company buildingFinding product-market fit

    About the book

    Learn to design, build, and scale products consumers can't get enough of How do today's most successful tech companies–Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Tesla–design, develop, and deploy the products that have earned the love of literally billions of…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 2

    Crossing the Chasm

    Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers

    Geoffrey A. Moore · 2002

    4.0332,109 ratings · Goodreads

    Marketing and growthCompany buildingFirst sales

    About the book

    Here is the bestselling guide that created a new game plan for marketing in high-tech industries. Crossing the Chasm has become the bible for bringing cutting-edge products to progressively larger markets. This edition provides new insights into the realities…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 3

    To Sell is Human

    The Surprising Truth About Moving Others

    Daniel H. Pink · 2012

    3.8726,914 ratings · Goodreads

    Company buildingFirst sales

    About the book

    From the bestselling author of Drive and A Whole New Mind comes a surprising--and surprisingly useful--new book that explores the power of selling in our lives.According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, one in nine Americans works in sales. Every day…

    On AmazonAudible

  • 4

    The Long Tail

    Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More

    Chris Anderson · 2006

    3.8330,263 ratings · Goodreads

    Company buildingFirst sales

    About the book

    The New York Times bestseller that introduced the business world to a future that s already here -- now in paperback with a new chapter about Long Tail Marketing and a new epilogue. Winner of the Gerald Loeb Award for Best Business Book of the Year. In…

    On AmazonAudible

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