Insider asked seven entrepreneurs for their book recommendations.
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Insider has compiled a list of seven books recommended by entrepreneurs.
They include founders and C-suite-level execs from top startups like Silicon Valley’s UserZoom.
The books cover topics such as the culture at Netflix and the financial crisis.
This is an edited, translated version of an article that originally appeared on August 18, 2022.
Insider spoke with seven entrepreneurs from top startups about what they’d been reading over the summer.
Here is a list of seven books they recommended.
1. ‘Chasing Perfection: The Principles Behind Winning Football the De La Salle Way’
Amazon
Authors: Bob Ladouceur and Neil Hayes
Recommended by: Joaquim Lecha, the CEO of Typeform
Ladouceur became the head football coach at De La Salle High School in 1979. By the time he retired in 2013, he’d built one of the greatest high-school teams ever. The book gives an insight into Ladouceur’s philosophy and includes “lessons as valuable in a board room as in a locker room,” Goodreads says.
2. ‘Too Big to Fail: Inside the Battle to Save Wall Street’
Amazon
Author: Andrew Ross Sorkin
Recommended by: Pablo Fernandez, a cofounder of Clicars
Sorkin, a financial columnist for The New York Times, offers a detailed account of the 2008 financial crisis. His book provides insight into the crash from the point of view of Wall Street CEOs and the US government as it tried to contain the crisis.
3. ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’
Amazon
Author: Robin Sharma
Recommended by: Pedro Clavería, a cofounder and co-CEO of Playtomic
Sharma was a lawyer who quit his job to become a writer. “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” is a self-help book that describes itself as “a fable about fulfilling your dreams and reaching your destiny.” It tells the fictional story of Julian Mantle, a lawyer who faces an existential crisis after a heart attack. Mantle decides to move to India, where he meets Himalayan gurus who teach him important, practical lessons about life.
4. ‘No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention’
Amazon
Authors: Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer
Recommended by: Alister Moreno, a cofounder and the CEO of Clikalia
Hastings is a cofounder, the chair, and a co-CEO of Netflix. In this book, which he wrote with the business-school professor Meyer, Hastings talks about the “unorthodox” culture at the company, his leadership philosophy, and how this works at Netflix.
5. ‘Atomic Habits’
Amazon
Author: James Clear
Recommended by: Alfonso de la Nuez, a cofounder and the chief visionary officer of UserZoom
“Atomic Habits” is a New York Times bestseller that offers the reader multiple self-improvement strategies.
“James Clear, one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results,” Goodreads says.
6. ‘American Dirt’
Amazon
Author: Jeanine Cummins
Recommended by: Pablo Viguera, a cofounder and co-CEO of Belvo
“American Dirt” is novel about the ordeal of the many unauthorized immigrants who make the dangerous journey to the US, seen through the eyes of Lydia Quijano Perez, a bookshop owner who’s forced to flee Mexico.
7. ‘The Bonfire of the Vanities’
Amazon
Author: Tom Wolfe
Recommended by: Rob Cassedy, the CEO of Wallapop
Wolfe’s most famous novel is about “ambition, racism, social class, politics, and greed in 1980s New York City,” Goodreads says.
The story follows Sherman McCoy, a bond trader in 1980s New York, as his life undergoes a spectacular fall.