6 Books for the Aspiring Entrepreneur
6 books that contain innovation and entrepreneurship lessons from the industry leaders that shape our world of business today.
Learn how to take the plunge on your latest business venture from the best and the brightest in world of innovation and entrepreneurship.
These 6 books present in-depth and easy to comprehend case studies from the industry leaders that continue to shape our world of business today:
Secrets of Silicon Valley: What Everyone Else Can Learn from the Innovation Capital of the World
by Deborah Perry Piscione
While the global economy languishes, one place just keeps growing despite failing banks, uncertain markets, and high unemployment: Silicon Valley. In Secrets of Silicon Valley, entrepreneur and media commentator Deborah Perry Piscione takes us inside this vibrant ecosystem where meritocracy rules the day. She explores Silicon Valley’s exceptionally risk-tolerant culture, and why it thrives despite the many laws that make California one of the worst states in the union for business.
Drawing on interviews with investors, entrepreneurs, and community leaders, as well as a host of case studies with technology and Internet companies, from Google to Paypal, Piscione argues that Silicon Valley’s unique culture is the best hope for the future of American prosperity and the global business community and offers lessons from the Valley to inspire reform in other communities and industries, from Washington, DC to Wall Street.
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How Stella Saved the Farm: A Tale About Making Innovation Happen
by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble
How Stella Saved the Farm is a simple parable about making innovation happen. Written by the authors of the New York Times bestselling Reverse Innovation: Create Far From Home, Win Everywhere, the story resonates in organizations of all types—public sector, private sector, and social sector, from mammoth corporations to small organizations employing just a few dozen people.
A story that can be enjoyed by anyone, How Stella Saved the Farm delivers eight simple lessons to guide innovation initiatives to success. It prepares business leaders to avoid some of innovation’s most toxic myths, teaches how to build the right kind of team, and shows how to learn quickly from experience.
Available for purchase at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple
Beyond the Idea: How to Execute Innovation in Any Organization
by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble
Companies stumble when they imagine that innovation is mostly about ideas. The reality is that ideas are only beginnings. Indeed, even a company with the world’s best idea still faces a devilish challenge: it must build the business of tomorrow without endangering the business of today. Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble are the world’s leading authorities on the successful management of innovation.
In Beyond the Idea, these New York Times bestselling authors of Reverse Innovation and How Stella Saved the Farm, distill more than a decade of research and insight into a practical, accessible, read-at-one-sitting handbook that offers invaluable guidance and specific action steps for anyone charged with making innovation happen: executives, managers, consultants, project leaders, and teams. Beyond the Idea is an essential book for any business that recognizes that innovation always has been, and always will be, the key to long term growth and vitality.
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The Intelligent Entrepreneur: How Three Harvard Business School Graduates Learned the 10 Rules of Successful Entrepreneurship
by Bill Murphy Jr.
In 1998, three Harvard Business School graduates—two men and one woman—turned down six-figure salaries at big corporations, bet on themselves, and launched their own new companies. By their ten-year reunion, their audacity had paid huge dividends. They’d made many millions of dollars, created hundreds of jobs—and left their mark on the world.
The Intelligent Entrepreneur tells the compelling and instructive story of how these three young founders developed ideas, assembled teams, built ventures, and achieved their dreams. Their hard-won insights—distilled into ten key rules—will help anyone become a successful entrepreneur.
Available for purchase at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple
The Startup Game: Inside the Partnership between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs
by William H. Draper and Foreword By Eric Schmidt
For more than 40 years, venture capitalist Bill Draper has worked with top entrepreneurs in fabled Silicon Valley, where today’s vision is made into tomorrow’s reality. From the VC who saw the value in Skype, Zappos, and many other companies, comes firsthand stories of success.
Draper explores how to evaluate innovative ideas and the entrepreneurs behind those ideas (lessons from Yahoo, Baidu, Tesla Motors, Activision, Measurex, and more); and the value of political leadership in creating opportunity, including on-the-ground accounts of how Deng Xiaoping brought China roaring into the modern world.
Available for purchase at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple
Jump Ship: Ditch Your Dead-End Job and Turn Your Passion into a Profession
by Josh Shipp
Jump Ship is a step-by-step guide through one of life’s most difficult—and most important—transitions. Leaving behind an unsatisfying job and embarking upon a new career can open up a world of fulfillment, but it isn’t easy.
As a role model and mentor to tens of thousands of young professionals, TV personality and motivational speaker Josh Shipp has seen the impact that a new career can have on a person’s life. In Jump Ship, he offers you the time-tested tools to get there. Filled with powerful stories and practical guidance, this is a book designed to help you face down your fears—and take the plunge.
Available for sale at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple