5 ms·

Ask HN: Inspirational books on entrepreneurship

12 points by heelhook 12y ago

I've been struggling lately with finding inspiration to pursue what I've always been very fond of, startups, entrepreneurship, building things just for fun, etc. I got quite burned out with my last startup, which I winded down about a year ago. Since then I've taken a regular job, been doing well at it, but I have yet to feel the fire-in-the-belly urge to build awesome things. I thought about reading some books about stories that could help me rekindle that passion. Thoughts? Thanks!

willdayton 12y ago
I enjoyed Randy Komisar's "The Monk and the Riddle." The core message I took away from the book is that that your passion should not be just for "entrepreneurship" or "start-ups" but rather how an idea or company can make a real difference to people.
- heelhook 12y ago
  That's an interesting pick, as it touches on exactly the issue I ran into in my last startup: getting customers, getting traction but finding myself unmotivated by the problem being solved. Not seeing myself doing that for another year, let alone the rest of my life. While I was working on my previous startup I actually started asking myself how other founders kept themselves motivated while dealing for really long periods of time with the same industry and similar set of problems (even if they are approached with multiple hats, like engineering, marketing, finance, etc.) Thanks!
bitonomics 12y ago
A couple that were quite entertaining for me were: 1) Hatching Twitter 2) The Everything Store (Amazon Story) 3) Mindset: The New Psychology of Success --This one was particularly interesting when thinking about employees and recruiting and what to look for in people that you are working with. After the author introduces the concept it gets a little dry for a chapter or two, but then really interesting after that. 4) The Hard Thing About Hard Things - this one was inspiring from a management/CEO perspective. When thinking about building a company that people enjoy working for (and all the tough stuff that comes with it) this is a great read.
athashri 12y ago
Atlas Shrugged novel by Ayn Rand
- hackerboos 12y ago
  Poor recommendation in my opinion. It's less 'inspiration' and more 'political dogma'.
NameNickHN 12y ago
I liked "Founders at Work".
sunseb 12y ago
"Rework", Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson.
esdailycom 12y ago
I am the author of the book, "How We Did It". For the book, I interviewed 100 entrepreneurs from all walks of life. From the tech world, people interviewed include the founders of companies like Freelancer, Udemy, Fiverr, Tagged.com, Unroll.me, PluralSight and Grooveshark. Other people interviewed include consultants, Yoga trainers (YogaFit),bakers, jewelry makers, etc. Writing the book was a huge experience for me thanks to the inspiring stories that these entrepreneurs told me. You can find it on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/How-Did-entrepreneurs-struggles-experiences/dp/149759975X/ http://www.amazon.com/How-Did-entrepreneurs-struggles-experi...
joerich 12y ago
You can also listen to radio programs like "entreprenuer on fire", you can get podcasts from the app "Tune in radio", you'll hear lots of stories. There are other programs about entrepreneurship in that app.
theblackswan 12y ago
Just a suggestion before i tell you a book/s: > dont look for that urge..Someday you will get some idea which will compel you to build it into an awesome product.. Now here is my reading list: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/11742965-abhinav-srivastava https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/11742965-abhinav-sriva... The list is not updated since a long time. Will do this weekend. Grab anything except biographies, will surly add value... Work on your failure quotient before your start again.. Instead of drawing an urge by reading stories/biographies work on fundamentals, economics, business and strategy. I want to learn what was your last start-ups and what could be possible reasons of failure. If you are comfortable do share with me here or in PM. I hope to see you soon on something new and amazing!
deleted 12y ago
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12 points by heelhook 12y ago

willdayton 12y ago

I enjoyed Randy Komisar's "The Monk and the Riddle." The core message I took away from the book is that that your passion should not be just for "entrepreneurship" or "start-ups" but rather how an idea or company can make a real difference to people.

heelhook 12y ago
That's an interesting pick, as it touches on exactly the issue I ran into in my last startup: getting customers, getting traction but finding myself unmotivated by the problem being solved. Not seeing myself doing that for another year, let alone the rest of my life. While I was working on my previous startup I actually started asking myself how other founders kept themselves motivated while dealing for really long periods of time with the same industry and similar set of problems (even if they are approached with multiple hats, like engineering, marketing, finance, etc.) Thanks!

bitonomics 12y ago

A couple that were quite entertaining for me were: 1) Hatching Twitter 2) The Everything Store (Amazon Story) 3) Mindset: The New Psychology of Success --This one was particularly interesting when thinking about employees and recruiting and what to look for in people that you are working with. After the author introduces the concept it gets a little dry for a chapter or two, but then really interesting after that. 4) The Hard Thing About Hard Things - this one was inspiring from a management/CEO perspective. When thinking about building a company that people enjoy working for (and all the tough stuff that comes with it) this is a great read.

athashri 12y ago

Atlas Shrugged novel by Ayn Rand

hackerboos 12y ago
Poor recommendation in my opinion. It's less 'inspiration' and more 'political dogma'.

NameNickHN 12y ago

I liked "Founders at Work".

sunseb 12y ago

"Rework", Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson.

esdailycom 12y ago

I am the author of the book, "How We Did It". For the book, I interviewed 100 entrepreneurs from all walks of life. From the tech world, people interviewed include the founders of companies like Freelancer, Udemy, Fiverr, Tagged.com, Unroll.me, PluralSight and Grooveshark. Other people interviewed include consultants, Yoga trainers (YogaFit),bakers, jewelry makers, etc. Writing the book was a huge experience for me thanks to the inspiring stories that these entrepreneurs told me. You can find it on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/How-Did-entrepreneurs-struggles-experiences/dp/149759975X/ http://www.amazon.com/How-Did-entrepreneurs-struggles-experi...

joerich 12y ago

You can also listen to radio programs like "entreprenuer on fire", you can get podcasts from the app "Tune in radio", you'll hear lots of stories. There are other programs about entrepreneurship in that app.

theblackswan 12y ago

Just a suggestion before i tell you a book/s: > dont look for that urge..Someday you will get some idea which will compel you to build it into an awesome product.. Now here is my reading list: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/11742965-abhinav-srivastava https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/11742965-abhinav-sriva... The list is not updated since a long time. Will do this weekend. Grab anything except biographies, will surly add value... Work on your failure quotient before your start again.. Instead of drawing an urge by reading stories/biographies work on fundamentals, economics, business and strategy. I want to learn what was your last start-ups and what could be possible reasons of failure. If you are comfortable do share with me here or in PM. I hope to see you soon on something new and amazing!

deleted 12y ago

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