Entrepreneurship Library

Welcome to the Entrepreneurship Library at the BUild Lab IDG Capital Student Innovation Center!

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Book List

“Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones” by James Clear
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving—every day. James Clear, one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

“Collywobbles: How to Negotiate When Negotiating Makes You Nervous” by Moshe Cohen
Negotiations are challenging and sometimes scary. You prepare and know what you want, but then things go terribly wrong. Your emotions get in the way. Sometimes you don’t even try, or lose your way and fail to achieve your objectives. This book helps you get out of your own way, manage your emotions, and negotiate effectively“Disciplined Entrepreneurship” by Bill Aulet

“Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us” by Daniel H. Pink
Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does—and how that affects every aspect of life. He examines the three elements of true motivation—autonomy, mastery, and purpose-and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into action in a unique book that will change how we think and transform how we live.

“Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage” by Laura Huang
Laura Huang, an award-winning Harvard Business School professor, shows that success is about gaining an edge: that elusive quality that gives you an upper hand and attracts attention and support. Some people seem to naturally have it. Now, Huang teaches the rest of us how to create our own from the challenges and biases we think hold us back, and turning them to work in our favor.

“First Pitch Book” by Debi Kleiman
In this book, you will learn how to confidently tell your story using a simple framework to engage your audience and create the materials to support your pitch.

“Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days” by Jessica Livingston
Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days is a collection of interviews with founders of famous technology companies about what happened in the very earliest days. These people are celebrities now. What was it like when they were just a couple of friends with an idea? Founders like Steve Wozniak (Apple), Caterina Fake (Flickr), Mitch Kapor (Lotus), Max Levchin (PayPal), and Sabeer Bhatia (Hotmail) tell you in their own words about their surprising and often very funny discoveries as they learned how to build a company.

“I am My Brand: How to Build Your Brand Without Apology” by Kubi Springer
I Am My Brand is a toolkit for personal brand success. Featuring dynamic female brand builders from around the world, the book is a woven tapestry of personal brand advice with storytelling and support that offers a practical guide for female entrepreneurs, freelancers and executives. I Am My Brand explores the techniques used by different women across cultures to build their personal brand, as well as the challenges they faced and their paths to overcoming them. Focused on the skills needed to succeed, their stories – coupled with the author’s expertise – will support listeners on their own journey to brand success and self-empowerment in work and life.

“Joan Garry’s Guide to Nonprofit Leadership: Because the World Is Counting on You” by Joan Garry
Now in its second edition, Joan Garry’s Guide to Nonprofit Leadership is a must-have resource for organizations of all shapes and sizes wanting to make a bigger difference in the world. Filled with real-life stories and concrete strategies, this practical guide helps develop the specialized skills and mindset needed to successfully lead and manage a stable and impactful world-class organization.

“Leap of Reason: Managing to Outcomes in an Era of Scarcity” by Mario Morino
Leap of Reason is the product of decades of hard-won insights from philanthropist Mario Morino, McKinsey & Company, and top social-sector innovators. It is intended to spark the critically important conversations that every nonprofit board and leadership team should have in this new era of austerity. The authors make a convincing case that the nation’s growing fiscal crisis will force all of us in the social sector to be clearer about our aspirations, more intentional in defining our approaches, more rigorous in gauging our progress, more willing to admit mistakes, more capable of quickly adapting and improving—all with an unrelenting focus on improving lives.

“Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Carol Dweck
After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this brilliant book, she shows how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities. People with a fixed mindset—those who believe that abilities are fixed—are less likely to flourish than those with a growth mindset—those who believe that abilities can be developed. Mindset reveals how great parents, teachers, managers, and athletes can put this idea to use to foster outstanding accomplishment.

“Pitch Perfect: How to Say it Right the First Time” by Bill McGowan
Media guru and Emmy Award-winning correspondent Bill McGowan – coach to some of the biggest names in business and entertainment, including Eli Manning, Kelly Clarkson, Jack Welch, Thomas Keller, and Kenneth Cole – teaches you how to get your message across and get what you want with pitch-perfect communication. He is also a trusted advisor in the C-suites of tech companies like Facebook, Spotify, AirBnB, Dropbox, and Salesforce.com.

“Rework” by Jason Fried
With its straightforward language and easy-is-better approach, Rework is the perfect playbook for anyone who’s ever dreamed of doing it on their own. Hardcore entrepreneurs, small-business owners, people stuck in day jobs they hate, victims of “downsizing,” and artists who don’t want to starve anymore will all find valuable guidance in these pages.

“Scaling the Social Enterprise: Lessons learned from Founders of Social Startups” by Jennifer M Walske, Elizabeth Foster, and Laura D. Tyson
Scaling the Social Enterprise is an ideal text for courses that focus on social entrepreneurship and social innovation, at either the graduate or undergraduate level. Common themes across high growth social startups discussed in the book include: – Building and modifying a management team for growth. – Creating and maintaining a dynamic stakeholder network. – Choosing corporate form and funders. – Moving from idea to pilot, to roll-out, and pivots along the way. – The importance of media magic in building a brand.

“So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love” by Cal Newport
In this eye-opening account, Cal Newport debunks the long-held belief that “follow your passion” is good advice. Not only is the cliché flawed-preexisting passions are rare and have little to do with how most people end up loving their work-but it can also be dangerous, leading to anxiety and chronic job hopping.

“Start with Why” by Simon Sinek
tart with Why shows that the leaders who have had the greatest influence in the world all think, act, and communicate the same way – and it’s the opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with why.

“The 10x Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure” by Grant Cardone
The 10 X Rule unveils the principle of “Massive Action,” allowing you to blast through business cliches and risk-aversion while taking concrete steps to reach your dreams. It also demonstrates why people get stuck in the first three actions and how to move into making the 10X Rule a discipline. Find out exactly where to start, what to do, and how to follow up each action you take with more action to achieve Massive Action results.

“The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding” by Al Reis
Smart and accessible, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding is the definitive text on branding, pairing anecdotes about some of the best brands in the world, like Rolex, Volvo, and Heineken, with the signature savvy of marketing gurus Al and Laura Ries. Combining The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding and The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding, this book proclaims that the only way to stand out in today’s marketplace is to build your product or service into a brand—and provides the step-by-step instructions you need to do so.

“The Founders Dilemmas” by Noam Wasserman
The Founder’s Dilemmas is the first book to examine the early decisions by entrepreneurs that can make or break a startup and its team. Drawing on a decade of research, Noam Wasserman reveals the common pitfalls founders face and how to avoid them.

“The Hard Thing About Hard Things” by Ben Horowitz
While many people talk about how great it is to start a business, very few are honest about how difficult it is to run one. Ben Horowitz analyzes the problems that confront leaders every day, sharing the insights he’s gained developing, managing, selling, buying, investing in, and supervising technology companies. A lifelong rap fanatic, he amplifies business lessons with lyrics from his favorite songs, telling it straight about everything from firing friends to poaching competitors, cultivating and sustaining a CEO mentality to knowing the right time to cash in.

“The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses” by Eric Ries
Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs—in companies of all sizes—a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in an age when companies need to innovate more than ever.

“Social Entrepreneur’s Playbook: Pressure Test, Plan, Launch and Scale Your Social Enterprise” by Ian MacMillian and James Thompson
Wharton professor Ian C. MacMillan and Dr. James Thompson, director of the Wharton Social Entrepreneurship Program, provide a tough-love approach that significantly increases the likelihood of a successful social enterprise launch in the face of the high-uncertainty conditions typically encountered by social entrepreneurs.

“The Unicorn’s Shadow: Combating the Dangerous Myths that Hold Back Startups, Founders, and Investors” by Ethan Mollick
In The Unicorn’s Shadow: Combating the Dangerous Myths that Hold Back Startups, Founders, and Investors, Wharton School professor Ethan Mollick takes us to the forefront of an empirical revolution in entrepreneurship. New data and better research methods have overturned the conventional wisdom behind what a successful founder looks like, how they succeed, and how the startup ecosystem works.

“Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques” by Michael Michalko
In hindsight, every great idea seems obvious. But how can you be the person who comes up with those ideas?
In this revised and expanded edition of his groundbreaking Thinkertoys, creativity expert Michael Michalko reveals life-changing tools that will help you think like a genius. From the linear to the intuitive, this comprehensive handbook details ingenious creative-thinking techniques for approaching problems in unconventional ways. Through fun and thought-provoking exercises, you’ll learn how to create original ideas that will improve your personal life and your business life. Michalko’s techniques show you how to look at the same information as everyone else and see something different.

“Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist” by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson
Engaging and informative, this reliable resource skillfully outlines the essential elements of the venture capital term sheet–from terms related to economics to terms related to control. It strives to give a balanced view of the particular terms along with the strategies to getting to a fair deal. In addition to examining the nuts and bolts of the term sheet, Venture Deals, Second Edition also introduces you to the various participants in the process and discusses how fundraising works.

“Who: The A Method for Hiring” by Geoff Smart and Randy Street
Based on more than 1,300 hours of interviews with more than 20 billionaires and 300 CEOs, Who presents Smart and Street’s A Method for Hiring. Refined through the largest research study of its kind ever undertaken, the A Method stresses fundamental elements that anyone can implement-and it has a 90 percent success rate.