A good book makes you think, and an excellent one changes you and inspires you to act in a new way. In this article, GetEssayEditor team offers you to review the collection of books that may seem to be not so famous, but which pushed the leaders of the largest companies in the world to new achievements. Our professional writers have already read those books and promise that these ones will blow you away!
1) Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) inspired by “The Rational Optimist”, Matt Ridley.
Zuckerberg, like many other CEOs of prominent companies, compiles lists of the best books that he read in a year. “The Rational Optimist” is one of the best books. The author of this book, Matt Ridley is convinced that a free market is the source of human progress. The less the government controls the economy, the faster progress grows.
2) Bill Gates (Microsoft) inspired by “Business Adventures”, John Brooks.
Bill Gates also often makes lists of books with interesting ideas and useful information. But when he is asked about his favorite book, he always refers to “Business adventure” by John Brooks, which was advised by Warren Buffett once. This is a collection of stories about Wall Street of the 50s. According to Gates, these stories will remind young entrepreneurs that the principles of business management do not change over the years, and the past can become the basis for the development of new ideas.
3) Elon Musk (Tesla) inspired by “Benjamin Franklin. Biography”, Walter Isaacson.
Elon Musk is an engineer, inventor, entrepreneur and programmer. Therefore it is not surprising that he finds inspiration in the life of such a versatile person. Biographer Walter Isaacson tells the fascinating life story of Benjamin Franklin. He was not only a politician, but also a writer, inventor, scholar and talented diplomat.
4)Steve Jobs (Apple) inspired by “The Innovator’s Dilemma”, Clayton Christensen.
Once, in a speech to the graduates, Jobs expressed an important idea: “Stay hungry. Stay stupid”. Clayton Christensen’s book is just about the fact that the innovator should always be in search. The book about the technologies that changed the world, had the strongest influence on Jobs, who was the most well-known innovator in the world.
5) Tim Cook (Apple) inspired by “Competing Against Time”, George Stalk Jr., Thomas M. Hout.
The book by George Stalk Jr. and Thomas M. Hout is devoted to the old truth: time in business is money. It is known that Tim Cook gives the copies of this book to his colleagues and all new employees of Apple Inc. But even if you do not work for Apple, the efficiency tips from this book will help you put things together and improve your career prospects.
6) Indra Nui (PepsiCo) inspired by “The Road to Character”, David Brooks.
Talking about the books that have the greatest influence on her personality, Nui mentioned “The Road to Character” by David Brooks. She admitted that after reading this book she got into an interesting dispute with her daughters about why is it important to work on the own personality, as well as creating a career.
7) Jack Dorsey (Twitter) inspired by “The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right”, Atul Gawande.
As well as Tim Cook, the founder of Twitter gives all newcomers of his company a copy of his favorite book “The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right” by Atul Gawande. Dorsey often quotes excerpts from this book, especially the part about venture investors who can choose the perfect start-ups for investing money.
8) Jeff Bezos (Amazon) inspired by “The Remains of the Day”, Kazuo Ishiguro.
Bezos draws inspiration not from business literature, but from fine literature. His favorite book is Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel about an old butler in post-war England. He made a comment about this book in one of his latest interviews: “If you start reading “The Remains of the Day”, you won’t be able to shrink into oneself to think over”.
9) Richard Branson (Virgin Group) inspired by “I know why the caged bird sings”, Maya Angelou.
On the company’s website https://www.virgin.com, Branson published a list of the 65 favorite books. Here you can find everything from children’s stories, such as “Where the Wild Things Are” and “The Hobbit” to novels that impressed him when he was at the age of reason. One of the books that were called “favorite” was “I know why the caged bird sings” written by Maya Angelou.
10) Ernie Sorensen (Marriott) inspired by “Sorrows of the moon”, Iqbal Ahmed.
The book “Sorrows of the Moon: In Search of London” by Iqbal Ahmed is a collection of notes about immigrant communities and people, who live their lives, trying to catch the rhythm of London and stay in touch with their Motherland. Sorenson was particularly impressed by this book, because it reminded him how important it is to notice people who surround you and listen to them: “Reading this book made me stop and listen… I will be eternally grateful for this.”
11) Marissa Mayer (Yahoo) inspired by “The Design of Everyday Things”, Donald A. Norman.
“I think a lot about design, production and how things should work”, - said Marissa in her interview and mentioned her favorite book “The Design of Everyday Things” by Donald Norman. The book is about the things that surround us. You will perceive the design differently when you find out why the usual things like teapots and doors were designed exactly like they are.
12) Dennis Yang (Udemy) inspired by “The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers”, Ben Horowitz.
Yang read Ben Horowitz’s book “The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers” when the Udemy Company began to grow fast and approximately 150 new employees appeared in a year. This book has helped Yang to realize how important it is to take responsibility for the final decision, even if it is a tough sell.
13) Craig Barrett (Intel) inspired by “The Martian”, Andy Weir.
The bestseller of Andy Weir reinforced Barrett’s confidence in the strength of the individual. Here’s what he said about this book: “We are increasingly relying on large institutions to solve business and social difficulties, although the real solutions to problems arise from the actions of an individual. Finally, Google, Facebook, Uber, microcredits and countless other stories of success did not come by virtue of the government.”
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