Once in a while you may read a book that changes you–helping you to clarify your goals, follow your calling, or simply to appreciate life. The right book can give you the courage to start a business and to provide that quite affirmation that you’re not alone in your fears or ambitions.
Here is Blackenterprise.com’s list of six books that are not necessarily about starting a business but have most influenced and inspired entrepreneurs to forge ahead on the path to success.
Instinct
Bishop T.D. Jakes’s latest book, Instinct: The Power to Unleash Your Inborn Drive was inspired by his trip to South Africa. The book outlines how to get in sync with opportunities presented in life. Jakes has been able to forge incredible deals and to go into ventures because as he says, “I live between intellect and instinct.†Instinct will tell you why and when to do something while intellect will show you how and what to do.
The Power of Full Engagement
“The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal” is a reminder that being successful is about having a well-rounded existence on all fronts. If you focus all of your energy exclusively on your business, then you’ll end up letting your health and relationships atrophy, and that will eventually hurt your business. It’s about balance.
The Design of Everything
What makes great products and services? The answer is Design. The Design of Everyday Things helps you recognize the flaws in the world around us, and that creates the inspiration for great design, solutions and entrepreneurship. After reading this book, you will the world–even cups, phones and door handles–in a whole new way.
Long Walk to Freedom
You can gather inspiration and confidence from biographies and autobiographies about leaders that garner admiration worldwide. A great go-to book is Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela. He was truly considered to be one of the greatest moral and political leaders of our time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country.
Steve Jobs
The authorized autobiography of the brain behind Apple shows that inspiration is derived from adventure and story. The extreme ups and downs of Steve Jobs’ life story and his erratic behavior in Steve Jobs help characterize a true American entrepreneur and the challenges he faced. There are countless takeaways from Jobs including these two gems–to push yourself and others to do the impossible now and to make stuff you believe in.
Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun?
Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun? is the inspiring story of Reginald Lewis: lawyer, Wall Street wizard, philanthropist – and the wealthiest black man in American history. He capped his career with the leveraged buyout of conglomerate Beatrice International Foods for $985 billion in 1987 and amasses a personal fortune of $400 million. His life story reflects the need to possess intense energy and a willingness to take risks to achieve success.
A portion of this story appeared on the Young Entrepreneurs Council’s Startup Collective.