List of books recommended by Silicon Valley pioneers and leaders (Part 2)

Silicon Valley gave the world a number of pioneers and scientists. History tells us that the major technological breakthroughs and inventions happened there.

Universities and enterprises work in tandems in the San Francisco Bay Area. Those mutually beneficial tandems generate world-changing innovations and mentality transforming books.  

Storist experts picked bestsellers out of 100 Best Silicon Valley Books of All Time. In Part 1 you could find ideas on creating and running startups. Now we introduce you to the books, which contain multiple tips for developing business.  

Entrepreneurship books – on the way to great success

Creativity, Inc. Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration, authors Ed Catmull, Amy Wallace.

The authors of this bestseller business book answer the questions like “What does it mean to manage something well?” and “How to build a culture of creativity?” Creativity Inc. is a great manual for those who strive for ingenuity. This book is about inspiring employees, discovering hidden talents and managing creative process using the example of Pixar, which produced animation films like “Toy Story”, “Finding Nemo”, “WALL-E” and others.

The co-founder of Pixar Ed Catmull opens up about secrets of succeeding and getting large profits. There are some of them:

• Give a good idea to a mediocre team, and they will screw it up. But give a mediocre idea to a great team, and they will either fix it or come up with something better.
• Be bold enough to hire unique personalities, the best specialists, even if they are more gifted than you.
• It’s not the manager’s job to prevent risks. It’s the manager’s job to make it safe for others to take them.
• You can always benefit from changes. Only through struggle you can reach awareness.

Catmull believes that creativity, as well as time and money, are all precious. You can’t neglect them and then expect good results. You should develop and stimulate creativity. How? You can find it in “ Creativity, Inc.”

The Four. The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google, author Scott Galloway.

Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are four biggest business influencers on the planet. How did the Four infiltrate our lives so completely that they’re almost impossible to avoid? Is there anyone to challenge them while they are competing to be the first trillion-dollar company in the world? Whether you want to compete with them, do business with them, or simply live in the world they dominate, you need to understand the Four.

Professor Galloway, who is known for his blunt and sharp style, breaks down the strategies of those companies. He believes that the Apple is perceived as Sex, the Google as God, the Facebook as Love and the Amazon is our Intuition. They have become so incredibly successful because they fit these roles in our lives.

You will learn how the Four manipulates basic emotional needs with unmatched speed and range. You will be able to apply their successful experience to building your own brand.

Galloway marks several features of a great company, which would be capable of becoming trillion-dollar worthy and challenge the Four:

• Best product,
• Production at a global scale,
• Positive image,
• Total control of clients’ experience,
• Using artificial intelligence.

The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, author Clayton M. Christensen.

The book is on how startups can prosper despite having big competitors as well as on how big companies might be losing their leadership on the market despite doing everything right.   

Christensen’s dilemmas:

• Dependency on customers and investors.
• Aiming to enter the “higher” market.
• Excessive quality.
• Analysis of the non-existent.

The author suggests keeping in mind not only successes, but also failures of big companies, which will form a certain rulebook for getting profit out of breakthrough innovations.

For example, how can managers avoid clashes between the lucrative and the promising?

1. They carry out the projects exactly where they found consumers. Even if it’s a small group of people.
2. They secure only inexpensive resources.
3. They use only procedures and values of the main organization.
4. They move into adjacent markets with their innovations – where technical characteristics will be appreciated.

Don’t expect the immediate bounce. Put your product on the market right away and observe what is happening with it.

By the way, you can already practice the exercises from Christensen’s bestseller on Storist platform. Interactive summary will help you understand and learn to use the key ideas from the book. In just 60 minutes.

Elon Musk. Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, author Ashlee Vance.

Elon Musk is a business influencer, a pioneer and the mastermind behind SpaceX, Tesla and SolarCity. He achieved success because of his patience and enormous ambitions. Space exploration and colonization by humans are his life goals. He devoted his energy and wealth to creating a new future more than any other entrepreneur. His example is inspiring like no other.

“…there’s an over allocation of talent in finance and law. Basically too many smart people go into finance and law,” he believes, – “We should have fewer people doing law and fewer people doing finance and more people making stuff.” 

• The journey of Elon Musk proves that you can achieve a great deal, if you start implementing even the craziest ideas with true passion.
• You should start any business by learning the basic principles.
• To assess the feasibility and the potential of your project, you need to clearly recognize your physical and technological capabilities.
• Broad knowledge is one the key aspects of success. If the person is familiar with various disciplines, he can look at things from a wider perspective, generate audacious ideas and find ingenious and effective ways to execute them. This kind of person is an epitome of the progress in the modern world.

The kind like Elon Musk.

Conclusion

Entrepreneurship books are capable of many things – whether they are inspiring you to open new business, giving great advice or becoming a guide for your business. The most important thing is to make reading your habit. How? First, try to read at least two hours a week. Secondly, use any opportunity to read – while standing in line, in the traffic jam, before going to sleep, etc.  

How do you choose the book you really need among all this diversity? Especially, if you don’t have spare time and you actually needed answers yesterday?

Storist will give you a hint, which bestseller business books are needed for solving certain tasks.

Storist interactive summaries will let you learn a book in just 60 minutes. You will be able to see 5-minute lessons with pictures and real-life examples. Special quizzes, audio and video will make the learning process more exciting.

You will practice newly acquired skills right away through real-life cases. Storist experts will provide you with feedback on every step. As a result, you will know which algorithm would be more effective in a real situation.

As a bonus – step-by-step plans, controlling lists and templates from the experts on topics from different books, which you can use in business immediately.

Darya