Show Notes

1. Innovation and Entrepreneurship – by Peter Drucker. I don’t know if this guy was right about everything he said, but he sure does know business. The choice was between this book and his tome, Management. Management is a great book that will teach you a TON about the actual running of a company… once it is off the ground. It will teach you about growing and hiring and building teams and a bunch of other stuff about an existing company. If you’re serious about growing a sustainable company that will last more than a generation, Management is required reading. But, if you want to get into the meat of innovation as a systematic discipline, and innovation can be systematically done (look at Apple, Microsoft, and Intel) then Innovation and Entrepreneurship is where you start.
2. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People – by Stephen Covey will absolutely change your life. The very first chapter is the most profoundly revealing chapter in the whole book. This is where Covey tells the story of how he came to write the book. It’s fascinating. Seven Habits will, in a masterful way, get you to take stock of what is important to you. You’ll be surprised at what it is, and to take those things and zero in on why you should succeed. It will help you family and relationships… everything.
3. How to Build The [Your Name Here] Sales System – by Gil Wagner of honestselling.com. This is a book that is truly a hidden gem. I’ve never met anyone who has ever read it. I have read many sales books and, of them all, this one is the best, period. It is the very best sales book for Engineers. By the way this book is FREE.
4. Don’t Make Me Think – by Steve Krug. The subtitle of this book is “A common sense approach to usability.” This book is a classic. It is both an introduction to usability and a how-to for building a user interface so that real people can use it. The book starts off with the question/statement made by the author: “People often ask me: What’s the most important thing I should do if I want to make sure my Web site is easy to use?” The answer is simple. It’s not some rule about how many clicks away the info should be, or “speak the users language”, or even “be consistent”. It’s DON’T MAKE ME THINK!
5. The Art Of The Start – by Guy Kawasaki. Read this book first. This is the treatise for startups. Guy is the startup guy’s startup guy. Somehow, in a book of roughly 250 pages he manages to tell you everything you need to know about positioning your offering, pitching, how to avoid a BS business plan, and how to get money or funding. Read it.

Links

• Blog.GuyKawasaki.com – go and read the guy who introduced the Mac to the world. Enuf said.