The 25 Best Business Books of All Time

 

Businesses vary by geographic regions, cultures, and much more. Each business can then be broken down into departments. A sales representative may not need nor want to read literature about supply chain management. This list of the 25 best business books of all time will provide readers with a business awareness and acumen which will far supersede 99% of his or her peers.These selections have been assessed based upon personal opinions alongside selections of several successful individuals. The titles will be broken down into the following categories:

• Investments,
• Personal Finance
• Entrepreneurship
• Professional Development
• General Business

Investments

*The Intelligent Investor – Benjamin Graham

This book kicks us off with our list of the 25 best business books of all time and is considered by many to be  the greatest investment book of all time. The Intelligent Investor was first published in 1949 and written by the father of value investing and Warren Buffett’s mentor, Benjamin Graham. Graham believed that all companies have an intrinsic value in which an investor can calculate in order to provide an adequate margin of safety. The Intelligent Investor has sole well over 1 million copies and is a must read for any investor.

*Common Stocks and  Uncommon Profits– Philip Arthur Fisher

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits was first published in 1958 and written by Philip Arthur Fisher. This publication serves as an excellent step-by-step guide on how an investor’s mind should work when selecting a common stock. Fisher is considered by many as a pioneer of growth stock analysis. His chapter on “Scuttlebutt” is less than ten pages long yet still is considered by many experts among the most important pages of investing ever written.

One Up On Wall Street  – Peter Lynch

Considered by many as the most successful money manager ever, Peter Lynch unfolds his methods and experiences that led him to be so successful from 1977 to 1990 while managing the Magellan Fund at Fidelity in which he averaged a 29% return.

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing– John C Bogle

This is a book was written in 2007 by the former CEO of The Vanguard Group about index investing. In this book he explains how average returns through index funds will beat the majority of investors due largely to their associated low management costs.

A Random Walk Down Wall Street – Burton Malkiel

This book was written by Princeton economist Burton Gordon Malkiel and first published in 1973. A Random Walk Down Wall Street popularized the the “Random Walk” theory that stocks take a random walk and the chances of a stock increasing in price is the same as it decreasing. This book will provide the investor with different ideologies of investing in which one will need to divulge into before deciding what kind of investor he or she will be.

Personal Finance

*Rich Dad Poor Dad – Robert Kiyosaki

This book is a must read for all ages. It tells a story of how a rich dad that barely had a eighth grade education amounted to become more successful than a highly educated dad. It is a great foundation for all young investors on the difference between assets and liabilities. Kiyosaki explains what the rich teach their children that the middle and lower classes fail to teach.

Total Money Makeover – Dave Ramsey

Total Money Makeover is a book about getting one’s personal finances in order. At one point, Ramsey compares saving money to losing weight. We all know what to do but most of us are not disciplined enough to do so. He explains how personal finance like most other things in life is predominately about behavior in comparison to knowledge.

The Richest Man in Babylon – George Clason

The Richest Man in Babylon is a collection of financial parables that was published in 1926. It is a story of Arkad which was the richest man in Babylon and how he attained the greatest fortune Babylon had ever seen.

Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill

Think and Grow Rich was first published in 1937 and as of 2015 had sold over 100 million copies worldwide. It was hard to decide whether to put this on the personal finance list or professional development list because it provides wisdom and insight to meet both requirements. Hill comprised a list of sixteen laws to be applied to achieve financial success. These laws can be applied to much more than just personal finance.

*The Millionaire Next Door – Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko

This book was written in 1996 by Thomas Stanley and William Danko. The Millionaire Next Door is based on years of studies of millionaires and their habits. Throughout their studies, Stanley and Danko found that the majority of millionaires live in middle-class communities and not luxurious white collared prestigious communities. It was also found that many of high income individuals are not as wealthy as their counterpart due to spending much of their wealth on luxurious goods. This is a great book in order to understand what it truly takes to be wealthy.

Entrepreneurship

*The 4 Hour Work Week – Timothy Ferriss

This is the pinnacle of all entrepreneurship books. Find a list of the best entrepreneurship books without this one on the list and you have found a writer that hasn’t read this book. This is a personal favorite of the entire list on the 25 best business books of all time. This is an awesome book about how to automate work, gain financial freedom, and identify what one truly wants.

The Lean Startup – Eric Ries

The Lean Startup is a book written by Eric Ries which was first published in the fall of 2011. It applies Ries’s experience in lean management to business startups and products. This is on our list of the 25 best business books of all time because it is an excellent book for those seeking to learn how to efficiently and effectively startup and run a company.

The $100 Startup – Chris Guillebeau

In this narrative, Guillebeau does a great job of explaining how anyone can live out his or her dream by quitting their nine to five jobs and creating a business based on their individual passions.

The Hard Thing About Hard Things – Ben Horowitz

This piece of literature  rids one of the stereotypical assumptions about starting a business. This made itself on our list of the 25 best business books of all time because many other books on entrepreneurship focus exclusively on the perks of owning a business in order to sell books. The cruel reality is during the beginning phases of any startup, there will be more days filled with struggle than with joy. Horowitz does a great job of depicting how one can deal with such struggles.

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future – Peter Thiel

Zero to One is a book written by Peter Thiel who is a venture capitalist, cofounder of Paypal, and early Facebook investor. This book concentrates largely on startups that do not mimic other companies.The whole philosophy of zero to one means from nothing to something. It does not mean from something to something better. This is a great book for all innovative thinkers and entrepreneurs.

Professional Development

*How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie

This book was first published in 1936 yet to this day it still remains one of the best selling self help books. How to Win Friends and Influence People focuses on how to build relationships and convince others of your way of thinking. Carnegie lays out a set of fundamental ways in which to handle people, win them over, and make them like you. This book is highly recommended for all individuals on their journey of self improvement and professional development.

Never Eat Alone – Keith Ferrazzi

Never Eat Alone focuses on getting ahead in life by the power of building relationships. Ferrazzi argues that the main differentiating factor between a successful individual and an unsuccessful individual is the power of the successful individual’s relationships. This is a good book for individuals that are introverts or do not fully believe in the importance of a support circle.

*7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey

Stephen Covey does a wonderful job in this self-help book explaining how to be independent, how to become proactive, how to create synergy, and the traits which will make one successfull. Compared to most of the other books on this list, this book focuses numerous traits rather than singling out one individual characteristic.

The Power of Habit – Charles Duhigg

Ever heard the phrase “you are your habits”? In this book Duhigg explains the neurological pattern that is associated with any habit: a cue, a routine, and a reward.

The Power of Positive Thinking – Dr. Norman Vincent Peale

This piece of literature is about exactly what the title says, positive thinking. It is one thing to attempt to remain positive in bad situations but it is another to train your subconscious to remain positive at all times. Training your subconscious to remain positive is precisely what Dr. Norman Vincent Peale accomplishes through this book.

General Business

Our last section of the best 25 business books of all time is labeled general business. This is the section that allows individuals to gain a comprehensive business acumen.

*The Essays of Warren Buffett – Warren Buffett

This book is comprised of the letters to Berkshire Hathaway’s stockholders from one of the greatest business minds ever, Warren Buffett. Buffett goes into grave detail about various topics such as investments, economical turns, importance of management, and much more. This is a great book for anyone pursuing a holistic business mindset.

Competition Demystified – Bruce Greenwald

Written by renowned Columbia Business School professor Bruce Greenwald, this book reveals how to understand and judge the competitive structure of an industry while creating a winning strategy.

Rework: Change the Way You Work Forever – David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried

Rework: Change the Way Your Work Forever explores how innovative technology has changed the way individuals work and the lengths entrepreneurs must go in order to start a business. Many of the past necessities such as employees, office space, and large amounts of capital, are no longer necessary to start a business. Heinemeier and Fried focus largely on what one may do in order to start a easy yet profitable business.

Business Model Generation – Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur

Authors Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur describe their own updated “Business Model Canvas” that companies can easy implement in order to adapt to changes. This made our list of the 25 best business books of all time because it is an excellent book for those that are considering revamping their organization.

The Effective Executive – Peter Drucker

Published in 2007, Peter Drucker verifies the absolute necessity of the ability to “get the right things done”. Many individuals avoid or overlook processes that are outside of the normal day-to-day course of business. Drucker goes on to list elements and traits of an effective executive while focusing largely on becoming more efficient in day-to-day operations.

There are many classics that are not listed above. In choosing the 25 best business books of all time, we were able to condense our selections to be the books that have appeared to make the biggest impact on selected successful individuals. Everyone’s selections will vary but one thing remains certain; the above books have changed many lives and have been read by the majority of influential businessmen and businesswomen. If you want to soar with eagles do not surround yourself with crows. If you want to think like a successful business person, surround yourself with the foundation from which they derive their thoughts and ideas. 

I hope you enjoyed our list of the 25 best business books of all time and please keep a look out for more book rankings and reviews on our blog.