The 4-Hour Workweek
Timothy Ferriss
Tim Ferriss argues that time and mobility are the real wealth, and lays out a four-step plan to cut waste, automate a small business and work from anywhere.
First published 200711 books in this topic
Mindset and Habit Books for Entrepreneurs
Running a startup tests your habits, your judgement and your nerves more than your business plan. This shelf collects books on how habits form, how people make decisions, how to stay steady under pressure and how to design a working life that you can keep up for years.
Pick one book that matches your current problem: Atomic Habits for routines, Thinking, Fast and Slow for decisions, The Obstacle Is the Way for setbacks, or Company of One if you want to stay small on purpose.
The oldest book here is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989); the newest is The Almanack of Naval Ravikant (2020).
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Stephen R. Covey
Stephen Covey's classic sets out seven habits that move people from depending on others to standing on their own and then working well with others, grounded in character over quick tricks.
First published 1989The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Eric Jorgenson
Eric Jorgenson collects the tweets, podcasts and interviews of AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant into one short book on how to build wealth and how to be happy while doing it.
First published 2020Atomic Habits
James Clear
James Clear shows how tiny, repeated improvements add up, and gives a simple four-step system for making good habits easy to start and bad habits hard to keep.
First published 2018Company of One
Paul Jarvis
Paul Jarvis questions the idea that every business must grow, and shows how small companies can stay profitable, independent and calm by choosing better over bigger.
First published 2019Ego Is the Enemy
Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday draws on Stoic philosophy and history to show how ego trips people up at three stages: when they aspire, when they succeed and when they fail.
First published 2016Mindset
Carol S. Dweck
Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck explains how believing your abilities are fixed or can grow changes how you face challenges, criticism and failure, at school, at work and at home.
First published 2006The Obstacle Is the Way
Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday turns an idea from Marcus Aurelius into a playbook for hard times: see problems clearly, act on what you control and accept what you cannot change.
First published 2014The Power of Habit
Charles Duhigg
Journalist Charles Duhigg explains how habits form through a loop of cue, routine and reward, and how individuals, companies and movements change them.
First published 2012The Power of Meaning
Emily Esfahani Smith
Emily Esfahani Smith argues that a meaningful life does more for us than a happy one, and shows how belonging, purpose, storytelling and transcendence give work and life weight.
First published 2017Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman
Nobel-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman explains the fast, intuitive mind and the slow, effortful one, and shows the predictable errors they produce in judgment and choice.
First published 2011Free Fe/male Switch tools for this topic
- Confidence moduleFree F/MS Startup School module
- Mental Health moduleFree F/MS Startup School module
Other startup book topics
Startup methodsLean Startup, customer development, design sprints and business model tools.Customer validationCustomer interviews, experiments and proof that people will pay.StrategyWhere to compete, how to win and how platforms and monopolies work.Disruption and technologyDisruption theory, AI-era companies, DevOps and creative confidence.Founder storiesMemoirs and histories that show what building a company feels like.Leadership and managementHiring, goals, culture and leading a team through hard calls.Money and fundingCash flow, term sheets, investors and selling your company.Marketing and salesPositioning, messaging, word of mouth and building a sales process.Product and growthProduct discovery, habit-forming products, traction channels and scaling.Women and inclusive foundersAdvice, stories and money talk for women and underrepresented founders.Business skillsHow a business works, negotiation, persuasion and startup ecosystems.
Or browse the full directory of 100 startup books.