Amazon recently released their annual list of “100 Leadership and Success Books to Read in a Lifetime.” I’ve read 50 of these books. It’s hard to choose a favorite, but The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz is one of my current favorites. I’ve read the book several times, and will be reading it several more times. It is so, so relevant to what I’m going through with my own business right now.
How many have you read? Which is your favorite? Please post in the comments below.
#GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso
A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw
Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Business Adventures by John Brooks
Change Your Brain, Change Your Life by Daniel G. Amen
Chicken Soup for the Soul by Amy Newmark, Jack Canfield, Terri Elders
Choose Yourself! by James Altucher, Dick Costolo
Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk
Do Over by Jonathan Acuff
Drive by Daniel H. Pink
Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy
Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance
Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Essentialism by Greg Mckeown
Execution by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan
Find a Way by Diana Nyad
First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham, Curt Coffman
Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Flying Without a Net by Thomas DeLong
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
Getting More: How You Can Negotiate by Stuart Diamond
Getting Things Done by David Allen, James Fallows
Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher, William L. Ury
Give and Take by Adam M. Grant
Good to Great by Jim Collins
How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton M. Christensen, James Allworth, Karen Dillon
Influence by Robert B. Cialdini
Leadership on the Line by Ronald A. Heifetz, Marty Linsky
Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, Nell Scovell
Made to Stick by Chip Heath, Dan Heath
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, William J. Winslade
Meditations Dover Thrift Editions by Marcus Aurelius, Marcus Cornelius Fronto
Mindset by Carol S. Dweck
Misbehaving by Richard H. Thaler
Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Personal History by Katharine Graham
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
Quiet by Susan Cain
It Worked for Me by Colin Powell
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Start with Why by Simon Sinek
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath
Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Todd Gilbert
Superforecasting by Philip E. Tetlock, Dan Gardner
Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries, Jack Trout
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective by Stephen R. Covey
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World by Dalai Lama, Howard Cutler
The Art of Stillness by Pico Iyer
The Art of Strategy by Avinash K. Dixit, Barry J. Nalebuff
The Art of the Start 2.0 by Guy Kawasaki, Lindsey Filby
The Art Of War by Sun Tzu, Sun Tzu
The Big Short by Michael Lewis
The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The Charisma Myth by Olivia Fox Cabane
The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
The Confidence Code by Claire Shipman, Katty Kay
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker
The Essays of Warren Buffett by Warren E. Buffett, Lawrence A
The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins
The First Tycoon by T. J. Stiles
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick M. Lencioni
The Four Agreements by Janet Mills, Don Miguel Ruiz
The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown
The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen
The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, Jason Zweig, John C. Bogle
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondō
The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod
The Now Habit by Neil Fiore
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
The Prince (Dover Thrift Editions) by Niccolò Machiavelli, Niccolo Machiavelli, Sam Vaseghi
The Prophet A Borzoi Book by Kahlil Gibran
The Road Less Traveled, Timeless by M. Scott Peck
The Road to Character by David Brooks
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Titan by Ron Chernow
Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith, Mark Reiter
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Turn the Ship Around! by L. David Marquet, Stephen R. Covey
Uncertainty by Jonathan Fields
Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith, Mark Reiter
Willpower by Roy F. Baumeister, John Tierney
Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes
Zero to One by Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
Hi Josh,
I’ve read 40 of the the list. It’s an interesting mix of business, biography, psychology and other topics. Do you intentionally seek out a certain amount of each genre per year?
1 Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins
2 Choose Yourself! by James Altucher, Dick Costolo
3 Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk
4 Do Over by Jonathan Acuff
5 Drive by Daniel H. Pink
6 Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance
7 Essentialism by Greg Mckeown
8 Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
9 Getting Things Done by David Allen, James Fallows
10 Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher, William L. Ury
11 Give and Take by Adam M. Grant
12 Good to Great by Jim Collins
13 How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
14 Influence by Robert B. Cialdini
15 Made to Stick by Chip Heath, Dan Heath
16 Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, William J. Winslade
17 Meditations Dover Thrift Editions by Marcus Aurelius, Marcus Cornelius Fronto
18 Mindset by Carol S. Dweck
19 Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
20 Quiet by Susan Cain
21 Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
22 Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
23 The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries, Jack Trout
24 The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
25 The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
26 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective by Stephen R. Covey
27 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
28 The Big Short by Michael Lewis
29 The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
30 The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker
31 The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins
32 The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick M. Lencioni
33 The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
34 The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, Jason Zweig, John C. Bogle
35 The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
36 The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod
37 The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
38 Titan by Ron Chernow
39 What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith, Mark Reiter
40 Zero to One by Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
What I read is often determined by current events within my business, so I don’t target anything specific on a yearly basis, it’s more like something comes up in my business, and the next day I need to read a new book so I look through my library and see something and think “Hey, that’s relevant to what I’m experiencing right now, I’ll read that.”