I would tend to think reading Steve Jobs' biography is much more helpful than reading what someone who runs a company called "Courageous Growth" tells you to do

I would tend to think reading Steve Jobs' biography is much more helpful than reading what someone who runs a company called "Courageous Growth" tells you to do. By seriously, when I did my first startup I read too many "MBA type" books, where all they talk about is "how to manage people by putting them first always and myself last", "how be come the servant CEO than a leader", etc. They are all valid pieces of advice, especially when your company grows large. However when it comes to early stage startups, this is exactly the opposite of what you should strive to be. From my experience, trying to be nice to everyone (aka trying to be "seen as" a nice guy) is extremely counter-productive from the company's point of view. My point is, if you're doing an early stage startup, don't try to "become a better leader". That's the worst and the most useless meta thing to try to do. Instead, focus everything on getting your product to work. Really that's the only thing you need to do. You don't need to be a "great leader". You can become one once you get to that point. Most startups don't even reach the point where you being a "great leader" is necessary. I see so many people making the mistake of thinking they're doing well when all they do every day is waste time doing meta things, like "networking" on Twitter about useless political stuff, meeting people for coffee "to pick their brain", learning about "how to be come a better leader", etc. They all don't mean shit. Just make the product work. Then decide if you want to be the lasting CEO or if you want to hire a CEO to handle all the management. If you're not the type to manage people and get bored doing that, just hire a good CEO, you don't have to be the greatest CEO in the world to change the world. But if you want to try being a better leader, then do it when you get to the point where you need to. Don't waste time at the beginning trying to do this. This is one thing I regret the most from my first startup.