57 Takeaways from the

World’s Best Business Books

The Four-Hour Workweek Catchy title but not realistic, at least at the onset. Don’t expect to only work 4 hours a week. When you have a business or side hustle you love, you won’t be able to stop working -- because it won’t feel like work! The biggest takeaways from this modern classic are:

Rethink your life plan. Are you living according to someone else’s agenda? Life’s too short to live on anyone else’s terms but your own.

There will never be a “perfect time” to take the leap. If you keep putting it off and putting it off, that “someday” you’re waiting for might never come.

Focus your energies on what drives the most results.

SETTING THE

STAGE

Rich Dad Poor Dad This was one of the first “business books” I ever read and I can honestly say it was an eye-opener. Despite its criticisms, it will give you a new perspective from which to look at money and personal finance. There’s a reason it’s been on the best-seller list for 15+ years. Takeaways:

Acquire or build income-producing assets.

Focus on cash flow.

The only way to escape the “rat race” is to have monthly cash flow from assets that exceeds your monthly expenses.

The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle

Class This book hasn’t received the press or status that some other books on this list have, but it’s a worthy addition. It’s short, sweet, and will help get your mind in the right place for building your business. Takeaways:

Take calculated risks. What’s the best thing that could happen? What’s the worst thing that could happen? What’s the most likely thing to happen? If you can live with the worst thing, and the most likely thing is positive, maybe it’s a risk worth taking.

Work for profits. Unless you’re a neurosurgeon or a high-powered lawyer, trading hours for dollars won’t get you ahead in the long-run.

Develop multiple income streams. Just like a diversified portfolio is key to hedging risk in the stock market, cultivating multiple streams of income reduces your dependence on any one source (like a job, for example).

SETTING THE

STAGE

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People This self-help classic is as pertinent to entrepreneurs as it is to employees. Takeaways:

Be proactive. In your side hustle, motivation has to come from within. You have to take the initiative on your own. (Downloading this guide is a good start!)

Begin with the end in mind. With a clear picture of what success looks like, you can work backward from that point to figure out what you need to do to get there.

Put first things first. In starting your side hustle, prioritization of how you spend your time becomes a bigger issue.

Think win-win. No one will do business with you unless they’re getting some value out of it.

Seek first to understand, then to be understood. In the context of entrepreneurship, this means researching the market and analyzing your potential position in it.

Synergize. How can you complement the strengths of others so that the combined output is greater than the sum of its parts?

Sharpen the saw. Take time for physical and mental renewal. I also like to think of saw-sharpening in the context of building better processes so you are more efficient and effective in the future.

DEVELOPING THE

SIDE HUSTLE MINDSET

The Other 8 Hours This book is a great primer for first-time side hustlers and part-time entrepreneurs. Author Robert Pagliarini discusses why you should start, when to find the time, and some successful strategies you can use. Takeaway:

Everyone is given the same 24 hours in a day, yet some people produce dramatically different results. This book is about how to become one of those people.

The $100 Startup I liked The $100 Startup for its focus on small, one or two-person businesses. This is the read for the “lifestyle entrepreneur,” with dozens of case studies proving it’s possible to support themselves and their families without relying on a company for a paycheck. These are inspirational stories about regular people, with the message: if they can do it, you can do it too! Takeaway:

Your business doesn’t require a ton of startup capital. You may not have the money to invest or may not feel comfortable putting your nest egg at risk to start a business, and this book shows that you absolutely don’t have to.

DEVELOPING THE

SIDE HUSTLE MINDSET

Turning Pro If you have hobby and are reasonably good at it, odds are you could be getting paid for it. One of the main differentiators between the hobbyists and the pros is simply a “buy now” button. Takeaway:

"The difference between an amateur and a professional is their habits." Think about what daily habits you can implement that will help get you where you want to go.

The Go-Giver This is one of my favorite business books of all time, and I highly recommend you read it. It’s quick and told in parable so it’s easy to understand. Takeaways:

Be helpful. The money will follow. Give away as much value as you can and the world will reward you.

Scale that help to reach as many people as possible

DEVELOPING THE

SIDE HUSTLE MINDSET

Escape from Cubicle Nation Author Pamela Slim is one of the leading voices for a generation of employees disillusioned with their careers. This book is a step-by-step guide on what to consider when building your side hustle into a full-time gig. Takeaways:

It’s not easy. But you can do it.

You really gotta want it!

PLOTTING YOUR

ESCAPE

The Art of Non-Conformity You don’t have to live your life the way other people expect you too, but you have to take the initiative yourself. If you’ve ever wondered “is this it?” Chris Guillebeau’s go-to guide will inspire you to a new unconventional outlook on life. Takeaways:

The easy thing and the best thing are not the same for everyone.

“Your competence is your security.” I love this line because to me, it’s all about self-reliance. If you can get by and earn a living on your own merits, all of a sudden it makes your employer unnecessary. And that opens up a whole new world of possibilities to you!

Crush It! Although it might be starting to get a little dated, the basic tenets of Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crush It! are still pertinent today. Takeaways:

Pour your heart and soul into your side hustle. People will notice.

If it sounds like real work, that’s because it is.

BUILDING A

PLATFORM

Tribes In Tribes, Seth Godin examines how our historical tendency to form groups of like-minded people is amplified online. There is literally an online group for just about everything you can imagine, and the most effective and interesting ones center on an individual personality. (Such as Seth Godin himself.) Michael Hyatt offers up a similar idea in Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. As an example, this site is my attempt to build a better platform myself. Takeaway:

The Internet is a great (and cheap) medium to rally an audience around a cause. But each cause needs a leader – that’s you! Building a tribe is a perfect way to get your message out (and reach a user-base who might eventually buy what you’re selling.)

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing This is an oldie but a goodie, and definitely worth a full read if you have the time. Takeaways:

It’s best to be first to market. But if you can’t be first, just claim a new market you can be first in. For example, Charles Schwab wasn’t just another broker; they were the first discount broker.

The Law of Sacrifice: you can’t be everything to everyone, so stop trying. Excellent advice on carefully defining and catering to your specific market niche.

MARKETING

Purple Cow No one will buy from you if they don’t know you exist, and in a world filled with overwhelming choices and noise competing for attention, the only way to stand out is to be truly different from everything else. The story goes like this: Imagine a field of cows grazing by the side of the road. They appear to be a regular bunch, but then you notice that one is bright purple. “Wow! I’ve never seen a purple cow before!” (And assuming the condition isn’t caused by some horrible disease), you want to position your side hustle as the purple cow in the marketplace. Takeaway:

The best way to get noticed is to be remarkable. That is, markedly different from every other option.

Attention! This book by Jim Kukral examines ways small businesses can go about marketing themselves on the cheap. I like it because it talks about real life examples, with actionable (and sometimes outrageous) ideas that worked. Takeaway:

To get noticed, do what your competition isn’t doing. Maybe it’s something they just haven’t thought of yet, maybe it’s a technology they don’t understand, or maybe they don’t want to go through the effort.

MARKETING

Influence Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion is the only book on selling you’ll ever need to read. Learn what makes people tick and what psychological triggers you can use to make them buy from you. It’s one of my all-times faves, and it’s all about how to sell anything to anyone, even for introverts like me. Read it. Learn it. Live it. Use these 6 principles and customers will be knocking down your doors. Takeaways:

Reciprocity: When you give someone something, they feel compelled to repay you. What can you give?

Commitment and Consistency: Seek small, safe commitments from customers and readers early. Then when you ask for something more substantial, they’re likely to agree to maintain consistency.

Social Proof: There’s safety in numbers so if you can offer testimonials from existing clients you’ll have an easier time attracting new ones.

Liking: Be likeable. Would you want to do business with you?

Authority: Authority is influential. Remember all the times you’ve heard stuff like “4 out of 5 dentists recommend xyz…” How can you communicate your authority to your audience?

Scarcity: We have a built-in fear of missing out on a deal, which is why you see messaging like “only two left at this price!” and “limited time only!” Scarcity is easy to manipulate but when done honestly can be a powerful purchase motivator.

SELLING

Anything You Want In Anything You Want, Derek Sivers recounts the story of his company CD Baby. Amidst his narrative on the mistakes and triumphs of entrepreneurship is an oft-cited observation about ideas and execution. Takeaway:

Ideas are worthless without execution. Do you have what it takes to turn your idea into reality?

EXECUTION

The Power of Habit You may have heard the famous Aristotle quote: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” This book expands on that notion and offers some great case studies on how powerful habits truly are. Takeaway:

Cultivate positive habits that move your business forward, and replace negative habits with productive ones. Make it routine.

The Thank You Economy In this book, Gary Vaynerchuk expands on his “best marketing strategy ever” from Crush It! It was one word: Care. Takeaways:

Customer service isn’t a department within a company. It IS the company.

Out-care the competition, online and in-person, and people will begin to take notice.

CUSTOMER

SERVICE

The Ultimate Question The Ultimate Question introduces the “Net Promoter Score”, which is roughly calculated by the subtracting the percentage of customers who hate you or are indifferent from the ones that LOVE you. And obviously the higher the Net Promoter Score the better. Takeaways:

The Ultimate customer service question is: “How likely would you be to recommend Company XYZ to a friend or colleague?” More than any other question, this is the one that drives the most business. So naturally, the goal is to be recommendable.

Happy customers do your marketing for you. If people are truly wowed by your service, they become brand evangelists because they want other people to share in their awesome experience and help pay you back for the tremendous value you delivered.

The Lean Startup This book by Eric Ries will get you thinking about your minimum viable product. Takeaways:

Ship early, ship often. Get something out into the marketplace and gather feedback from real customers.

Launch, and then make quick incremental improvements. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the idea that everything has to be perfect before you launch. It doesn’t. Is the iPhone 5 better than the original? Absolutely. But how many Androids and Blackberries would have been sold if Apple had waited until 2012 to release it?

THINKING

LEAN

Rework Rework is the operating manifesto for 37 Signals, the makers of the popular Basecamp project management software. It will have you re-thinking everything in your business including product features, design, hiring, and much more. Takeaway:

Less is more. Leonardo da Vinci once said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” There’s a lot of truth to that.

Getting Things Done David Allen’s Getting Things Done is the go-to manual for productivity geeks everywhere, having even spawned its own “GTD” subculture. One of my favorite parts of the book was this observation: There are only two problems in life:

1. You know what you want, and you don’t know how to get it. 2. You don’t know what you want.

Takeaway:

Develop a 1-touch system for incoming items: Do it, Delegate it, Defer it, or Drop it. I’ve been trying to implement this in the way I handle email. With Defer, that admittedly is going to require another touch so I set up a specific calendar reminder to revisit it at a specific time in the future.

PRODUCTIVITY

Start With Why Sometimes you may hit a wall, or feel like you’re stuck in a rut just spinning your wheels. Start With Why is all about the underlying purpose of your business, and how to inspire customers, employees, and even yourself into action. Takeaways:

Customers don’t buy WHAT you do; they buy WHY you do it. For most non-commodity purchases, there is usually some element of WHY driving the buying decision.

Even if customers don’t care, develop a clear sense of WHY you’re doing what you’re doing. Whether it’s to make the world a better place or just to earn a little more spending money, having a well-defined purpose will help you find the motivation to work on your side hustle.

GETTING UN-STUCK

Jump Start Your Business Brain This book is filled with empirical studies and exercises to get your creative juices flowing. The first half is the strongest, when author Doug Hall introduces the 3 Laws of Marketing Physics (below). Takeaways:

Overt Benefit – What’s in it for the customer?

Real Reason to Believe – Why should the customer believe you’ll deliver on your promise?

Dramatic Difference – What sets you apart from the current solution and competition?

Capitalism at the Crossroads While this book is more academic than most on the list, it explains why capitalism is our best chance to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues. The innovations and profit motive of business have a unique opportunity to serve the world’s poor in ways non-profits and governments can’t hope to match. Takeaway:

Most businesses today are ignoring between 1 and 4 billion potential customers. What can you do to help our poorest citizens?

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Start Something That Matters This book tells the story of TOMS Shoes, which famously gives a pair of shoes to a needy child for every pair they sell. The social mission is engrained in their brand and their company culture. Takeaway:

You can do well by doing good.

The One Minute Entrepreneur This quick read from Kenneth Blanchard follows the same parable format as the other One Minute books. It won’t win any prizes for literature but should get you thinking about what it really means to be in business for yourself and the journey of entrepreneurship. Takeaway:

You are the CEO of your own life. Act like it.

TAKING CHARGE

The E-Myth Revisited Michael Gerber’s classic carries the subtitle, “Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It” -- and it delivers in a big way. The curse of the owner-founder is we are often too caught up in the day-to-day operations of the business. This book forces you to zoom out and examine your side hustle operation from a higher level. Takeaway:

Work on your business, not in it. There’s an important distinction between the two, and I’ve been as guilty as anyone for working in my business at the neglect of some more important strategic stuff.

What did you think?

I’m confident these “Cliff’s notes” of some of the world’s best business books will help fast-track your side hustle.

What do you think? Which of the points did you find the most relevant or important for your business?

Am I missing your favorite book? Let me know why it’s awesome and I’ll try and add it to the next edition!

Best,

Nick Loper SideHustleNation.com nick@sidehustlenation.com

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