A book that changed your life as a solo entrepreneur

I don’t think reading a book will make you succesful. You might be able to take different pieces from different sources including books and put them together in your mind. Then you apply that knowledge and improve it with practical feedback (e.g. did this work or not).

For me it seems that his indie business is actually selling this very book :)

I knew this was coming when I ever wrote a book so I opened up my revenue stats before that.

My book was 2% of my revenue last year, and now since it’s launched about 7.5% of my revenue. It’ll drop down to 1% probably within a year. See https://levels.io/open

90%+ of my revenue is Nomad List and then Remote OK.

(very similar to "I'll teach you to be rich" - sell a book which its title is "I'll teach you to be rich"!)

I feel a bit offended to be put in the same category here. I'm not an info products person. I've never tried to sell people some sleazy online course that promises riches. And I don’t need to write a book to pay my bills.

I kept getting the same questions on Twitter, and people asking me to write a book to consolidate what I know. I did that. Put a price on it to recoup the time and work I put into it.

There’s not a single promise anywhere my book will teach you anything to become successful. Nowhere. Ever. In fact, I have a giant one-page disclaimer in the book that literally explains survivorship bias and how it's highly related to these books.

Most entrepreneurship books are written by people with no experience in entrepreneurship. I have some experience so I wrote a book that explains what worked for me and share that with the world. Especially since most startup books relate to VC-funded startups, and there's hardly anything proper written about indie startups.

So I did that.

How to Win Friends and Influence People. For real. Changed my life and formed the foundation what made me successful as a freelancer, then employee, then consultant, now product biz.

Anything You Want by Derek Sivers & The War of Art by Steven Pressfield are both books that I read at least once a year. They've both helped change the way I think about work, and business.

Hey guys,

Great thread. I've started compiling the recommendations into a Google Sheet. The purpose is to aggregate the scattered recommendations. My eventual goal is to develop it into a more presentable list.

Feedback appreciated. Please add to the list and modify as you see fit.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_jG03AXbCPAGlUlEGMev_JYsSM8sRfvBbRKarVpqbnI/edit?usp=sharing

Here's my take: don't read generic business books. They gloss over so many details that it's more like entrepreneurporn than a useful guide.

I have gotten some useful info from more focused books about subjects I'm not great at: user experience design, marketing, and even some software development books.

But, I really try to read something way outside the business realm because I'm suspicious of all business books. So I'll read history mostly because I find that putting all this in context is more useful than whatever tidbit you pick up from a business book. Blogs give you all that info for free anyway!

Hey ChrisT, I have definitely read my share over the years (although personally I prefer just finding out the hard way and then looking for answers as I go), but the one that I have shared quite a few times is "Built To Sell" by John Warrillow.

It's a very quick read and it works well because it's set as a fictional story. If you have ever worked in agency/pitch type industries where you are constantly working hand-to-mouth it explains neatly why a product company has more value and ways to transition.

Also if you like podcasts: "How I Built This", "Mixergy", and about a million others 👍

But also - soooo important IMHO - give yourself time and space to think. It's the single most important lesson I have found. Thinking is not being lazy!

One book I can vouch for is "88 - The Narrow Road"by Felix Dennis. The reason I recommend this book is because Felix had become a multimillionaire LONG BEFORE he wrote the book. He built a magazine and print media empire the old fashioned way - hardwork and dedication. I've used his book as a roadmap since 2015. I build five businesses from what I learned. 3 of them failed miserably :) Two businesses clicked well. I'm not a millionaire yet. But I'm making enough to live a decent and comfy life since last two years. My most recent success is Whiskey Clothing (www.facebook.com/whiskeyclothing). Felix helped me become aware of the hardships I would face while walking the narrow road to riches - making me mentally stronger and capable of handling (almost) anything.

Thanks everyone for your valuable input! If anyone has more to add, please do :)

Hey, I don't have a successful business (hopefully one day!) but I do love reading. You set a high bar, but I guess what you are asking for is a distilled set of essentials.

I imagine Lean Startup has changed the way a lot of people think and a lot of the language around startups stems from that book. The language is now a bit buzz wordy but I think a close read of that book has a lot of value.

Lean Startup itself borrows a lot of its ideas from a book called Innovator's Dilemma, which is definitely a classic, though a little dry.

Tech/dev wise, a little bit dated but Clean Code is probably a good one to read, especially if you're a solo founder and haven't coded before. If you ever plan to have someone else develop in your codebase, a read through of this book will probably make them hate you that little bit less. If you're developing on the web for the first time then the classic in that field is JavaScript: The Good Parts, again probably a bit dated now if you're using React/Angular but it gives you a grasp of what might go wrong under the hood and what those frameworks were designed to achieve.

The one I read recently that made me straightaway go and redraw my business plan was 'Talking to Humans', which is free and I guess is a good practical introduction to user testing. It's a really quick read as well, so a lot of condensed knowledge.

Hope that helps.

3 Books really changed the way I look at everything in business. Interestingly, I was talking to a PM at Google and he said something that I think is particularly true about these books -

"All business and management books are bullshit, until you have run a business for some time. Go back and read them then. Don't waste your time."

I say that because most of the people who haven't really read these books and applied the things in them, will thing they are spammy/ lies. Until you have built a business with a team of people that you don't like, selling a service that drains you, it's really hard to relate to these books.

Also, if you have spent most of your time working for someone, it's hard to really grasp the perspective they provide. Based on conversations I have all the time, it's also hard to grasp just how simple it is to put these ideas into affect. It seems to be a result of of your education and work experience telling you to do the opposite.

Overall, the books I have selected are trying to get you to think about what you want to be doing on a daily basis for years to come, then setting the foundations to build that. Most people who I've met in the startup world completely overlook this because they want to end up talking on a stage with a multi-million-dollar valuation, with no idea as to what they will be doing on a daily basis.

Please ignore the terrible titles of these books. They have no relation to the quality of the content. Also, I would recommend you read the books in the order I have listed them below.

1. Emyth
   This book talks about the 3 types of people in a business and, how you should see yourself in relation to those types of of people based on your goals.

Do you want to be an Owner, Manager or Technician? ...if you don't know. Don't start a business, yet.

(Most of the people in this forum are technicians and it's why they are struggling to figure most of the business/ marketing stuff out.)

1. 4 Hour Work Week
   This book is legendary so I don't know if it needs too much of a break-down.

What I took away from it was: you can have what you want, if you are willing to sacrifice and test your way to it. You've got to become the type of person whos routines are based on trying things normal people wouldn't. Also, it exposed me to the idea of a business that you can automate.

1. Millionaire Fastlane
   This book is poorly written, but the content is golden in my opinion.

The underlying premise is, first you need to take risks and work really hard serving a basic need in the market to get "rich". Once you become rich you need to switch to maintaining your wealth. 'Rich" is based on your desired lifestyle. There are probably specific numbers you should be shooting for. Put those numbers first, then create a plan around them.

Also, don't take shortcuts - if all of your leads come from an SEO hack and Google change the algorithm, you lose your business overnight.

As a bonus - Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller.

It made me realise the business you create is partly a consequence of the type of person you are. Most people don't have the mixture of discipline and insanity to build a Walmart or Standard Oil. I don't want to become that person either. Maybe, it's worth thinking about the person you'd be happy to be, then build a business around that.

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