11 Books That Influenced The Career Paths Of 3 Small Business Owners

The other day, I was thinking back to my teenage years and realised that one of the books I read as a teenager influenced me becoming an author many years later. This book was Time Changes Yesterday by Nyengi Koin. I wondered what books, if any, influenced other small business owners, so I posed the question on Reddit. I was pleasantly surprised by the replies I got and had to share it on my blog.

So here’s the list of 11 Books That Influenced The Career Paths Of 3 Small Business Owners in my network

1 Prinslp

For me there are a few books that I read at quite a young age (15-18) which had a huge impact on me:

My list would be:

1.) Rich Dad Poor Dad – Robert Kiyosaki

2.) The seven habits of highly effective teens – Sean Covey (actually never the book by his father Stephen Covey but the principles are the same, this one is just written in a way that is easier to understand for young people)

3.) How to win friends and influence people – Dale Carnegie

4.) Who moved my cheese – Spencer Johnson

5.) Screw it let’s do it – Richard Branson

These are the ones that come to mind immediately, there are probably others which I cannot remember now.

 

2 Allboolshite

What an interesting question! I read a lot as a kid and can’t think of a single book that made me think, “that’s it!” But I did particularly enjoy SciFi books that introduced me to new concepts and ways of looking at the world. Books like A Wrinkle in Time or The Girl with the Silver Eyes helped feed my curiosity. And whatever I’ve done in my career, I’ve been a puzzle-solver, approaching problems from several perspectives so I think those types of books might have influenced me more than I realized.

 

3 Hotbreadz, founder of Findlay Hats.

4 hour work week was the one that originally set me off to pursue entrepreneurship over just my photo career. Funny how I work 80 hour weeks right now and have not heavily implemented a lot of the core concepts into my life, but a handful of great takeaways and I will always credit that book with wiring my brain towards pursuing this path. That said, I have always been business minded and sold vegetables to my neighbours, melted my parent’s candles to make skateboard wax, and had built an office in my parent’s basement for the operation all before middle school…so I had the bug, but was mostly interested in my photo career.

Past that, Shoe Dog has had a major impact on me. I have loved Nike for years and been inspired by them as an Oregon based company. One huge thing that made me a Nike Lifer was my photo career. I took photos for Nike Football, Nike Global Football (soccer) and Nike Running. Every single shoot I did they paid me a fair wage, treated me well and were easy to work with – few and far between in the commercial photo game. Past that, the story of Phil Knights struggles and battles really gave me a heavy spark to keep pushing, and comprehend that these problems we encounter daily are just part of the journey, and to keep pushing.

Never Eat Alone was an early one that simply taught me the power of networking. While I don’t heavily network in my business or personal life, the key takeaways come in handy for a lot of my important connections.

Power of Broke is another one. While it wasn’t influential to us as a start, I highly recommend it. We started this company with like $1400, and due to having such a tight budget, it forced us to think creatively and work hard to make noise in other ways than simply advertising to get our product in front of people. The Lean Startup is a great one for a similar topic. I see companies with insane funding and it blows my mind how much they waste.

I listen to a lot of audio books and have played the majority of the most popular ones. All of em have some takeaways that I have learned, and I am sure I could ramble on. I recently downloaded the Blinkist app, which has basic book summaries in 15 minutes or less. That has been a great addition to my morning routines and I highly recommend it. Not nearly as good as the full book, but pretty solid summaries most of the time.

Hope this helps!

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Phewww what an inspiring list of 11 Books That Influenced The Career Paths Of 3 Small Business Owners. What books have influenced you? Do you know any other books that need to be added to this list? Please leave a comment below