AudiobookSTORE.com Blog The AudiobookStore.com Blog is dedicated to providing audiobook consumers with the most comprehensive database of audiobook reviews on the web!
What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur?
Many people might say it takes a great idea, tenacity, and even a little (or a lot of) luck.
While all these components play their part, one important key to successful entrepreneurship is continual education.
Education can help business owners start a business, learn new skills, train their team, and make their business grow year after year. How can entrepreneurs focus on education, though, when they’re so busy running their business? That’s easy – they can take advantage of a multitude of business books.
The best business audiobooks on the market are from some of the top names in business. When entrepreneurs listen to these books, it’s like having a mentor by their side, guiding them step-by-step to ultimate success.
Read More to Ensure Success: 6 of the Best Business Audiobooks
Here are just six of the best business audiobooks on the market right now. Some are older than others, but they’ve proven their usefulness over the years – sometimes even over decades of time.
1. The Art of War for Small Business: Defeat the Competition and Dominate the Market with the Masterful Strategies of Sun Tzu by Becky Sheetz-Runkle
Sun Tzu was a Chinese military strategist. His main lesson in The Art of War was that, ultimately, size doesn’t matter. What does matter?
- Planning
- Leading
- Strategy
- Positioning.
Taken out of the military context, these principles are the basis for success for running a profitable business.
In The Art of War for Small Business, author Becky Sheetz-Runkle explains how to use these strategies in the business arena. Top lessons include:
- Go where the enemies aren’t
- Build (and leverage) alliances that are strategically beneficial
- Strike at a competitor’s weakest points
- Learn how to leverage strengths
- Learn how to overcome weaknesses.
2. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Dale Carnegie was one of the most famous influencers of all time. He was a writer, lecturer, and course developer, creating courses in corporate training, self-improvement, public speaking, and salesmanship.
One of his most influential books was, aptly titled, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Nearly every list outlining the best business audiobooks and books will have this book listed front and center. Although it was first published in the mid-1930s, it’s had some definite staying power.
The reason for this is simple: The principles within are timeless, and some might even call them life-changing.
Some things entrepreneurs will learn from Carnegie:
- How to make people like you
- How to get people to accept your ideas and way of thinking
- How to change people without making them resent you.
3. The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss
Tim Ferriss is a serial experimenter. He’s constantly looking for ways to get the most out of life, business, and even his body.
Ferriss’ goal is efficiency. He doesn’t just want to lose weight, for example. He wants to find the fastest (and safest) way to lose weight.
He takes a similar approach in one of his best business audiobooks, The 4-Hour Work Week. Ferriss has studied dozens of successful entrepreneurs, those that have not only developed a successful business but who have also been able to make millions and live a life of luxury.
He then takes what he’s learned and turns it into actionable steps that entrepreneurs can exercise so that they, too, can take their business to the ultimate levels of success. The steps he recommends helps entrepreneurs run a thriving, efficient business.
4. Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin
What does it take to create a business that sees unprecedented growth? It takes being remarkable. Stick to the so-called tried-and-true sales game and entrepreneurs can find themselves destined for invisibility.
Sales and marketing aren’t the same as they were decades ago. To find success today, entrepreneurs need to find ways to stand out. Doing this can feel extremely uncomfortable, especially at first, because it means going outside the traditional mold and embracing outside-of-the-box thinking.
Thankfully, Godin’s book is the inspirational manifesto every entrepreneur needs to seize the day and create products and services that really matter.
5. Crushing It: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence – and How You Can, Too by Gary Vaynerchuk
Crushing It is a great complement to Purple Cow in that it explains how things are different in the business world and how successful entrepreneurs of the 21st century are those who have gone beyond the typical corporate path.
The interesting thing about Crushing It is that Vaynerchuk doesn’t claim that everything that was done in the past is moot. He knows that there are still some time-tested steps to getting a business off the ground and making it work. His book explains what steps – both old and new – work and what steps don’t.
Vaynerchuk backs up his claims with proof – real-life examples of entrepreneurs that have pursued their passions and done so successfully.
6. How Successful People Think: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life by John C. Maxwell
Prosperity in business doesn’t simply rely on following certain steps. It also requires the right mindset. Without that, even the most basic steps toward a thriving business can be difficult.
How Successful People Think encourages creative problem-solving. It shows readers/listeners how to go after their big-picture goals while focusing in on the details that will help them achieve those goals.
The goal here is to question popular thinking (Sound familiar? These were ideals also outlined in Crushing It and Purple Cow.) and creatively come up with solutions to problems and steps toward building a profitable business.
Education Is an Important Key for Continued Growth in the Business World
The Audiobook Store’s list of the best business audiobooks is not the be-all-end-all of business books. Rather, it is the foundation that will help entreprenerds start walking progressively down the path of success.
To remain on that path, continuing education is vital. Education can mean different things for different people. Some will invest in mentorship or courses that can teach them invaluable skills. Others will continue their education by investing regularly in the best business audiobooks.
Whatever course an entrepreneur decides to take, they can be sure that if they are dedicated to learning, they’ll continually set themselves up for success.
Looking for even more business book options? Check out our business audiobooks section and explore the long list of titles we have to offer.
