This is a list of the top business books of all time, in no particular order. At Under30CEO we are firm believers that the secrets to success can be learned from others who have been successful before. Many of these authors have spent a lifetime learning the lessons in these books the hard way. Luckily for us, their wealth of knowledge is presented in the books below. There are no excuses–get reading…and please let us know what you think should have made the list in the comments!
- The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur by Mike Micalowicz
- ReWork by Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson
- Entreleadership by Dave Ramsey
- The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World by David Kirkpatrick
- The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
- The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World by Chris Guillebeau
- The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries & Jack Trout
- Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got by Jay Abraham
- The Parable of the Pipeline: How Anyone Can Build a Pipeline of Ongoing Residual Income in the New Economy by Burke Hedges
- The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization by Peter M. Senge
- Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie
- Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality by Scott Belsky
- The Simplicity Survival Handbook by Bill Jensen
- The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle by Steven Pressfield
- I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
- The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley & William Danko
- Purpose: The Starting Point of Great Companies by Nikos Mourkogiannis
- Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
- 7 Strategies for Wealth & Happiness by Jim Rohn
- Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich-And Why Most Don’t by Donald J. Trump and Robert Kiyosaki
- Upstarts: How GenY Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business and 8 Ways You Can Profit from Their Success by Donna Fenn
- Today We Are Rich by Tim Sanders
- Alpha Dogs: How Your Small Business Can Become a Leader of the Pack by Donna Fenn
- Never Get a “Real” Job: How to Dump Your Boss, Build a Business and Not Go Broke by Scott Gerber
- Smarter, Faster, Cheaper: Non-Boring, Fluff-Free Strategies for Marketing and Promoting Your Business by David Siteman Garland
- Crush It: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk
- Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup by Brad Feld & David Cohen
- Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk
- Bargaining For Advantage by G. Richard Shell
- 3-D Negotiation by David A. Lax and James K. Sebenius
- The Intelligent Entrepreneur by Bill Murphy
- Illusions of Entrepreneurship by Scott A. Shane
- Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar
- 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene and Joost Elffers
- Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh
- Your Money or Your Life by Joel Dominguez & Vicki Robin
- Fail-Safe Investing by Harry Browne
- Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less by Sam Carpenter
- Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution by Michael Hammer and James Champy
- The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott
- Practical Lessons in Leadership by Art Petty
- Green to Gold by Daniel Esty & Andrew Winston
- Seeing What’s Next by Clayton M. Christensen
- Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days by Jessica Livingston
- SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham
- The Sales Bible by Jeffrey Gitomer
- Hackers and Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age by Paul Graham
- It’s Not About The Money by Brent Kessel
- Work Less, Live More by Bob Clyatt
- iCon: Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business by Jeffery S. Young and William L. Simon
- The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowieki
- Freakanomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
- Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson
- Escape from Cubicle Nation by Pamela Slim
- Bankable Business Plans by Edward Rogoff
- The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison by Mike Wilson
- Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner
- Indispensable by Joe Calloway
- Lean Thinking by James Womack and Daniel Jones
- Bringing Nothing To The Party: True Confessions of a New Media Whore by Paul Carr
- Organizational Culture and Leadership by Edgar H. Stein
- How to Make more Money than Your Parents by Nick Tart and Nick Scheidies
- 12: The Elements of Great Managing by Rodd Wagner & James Harter
- Growing Great Employees by Erika Andersen
- Hiring Smart by Pierre Mornell
- Viral Loop From Facebook to Twitter, How Today’s Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves by Scott Penenberg
- Learning from the Future by Liam Fahey & Robert Randall
- Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors by Michael E. Porter
- Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
- Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson
- The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason
- Self-Directed Behavior by David L. Watson & Roland G. Tharp
- Lead the Field by Earl Nightingale
- The Art of Exceptional Living by Jim Rohn
- Magic of Thinking BIG by David J Schwartz
- Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions by Gary Klein
- Smart Choices by John S. Hammond
- The Path of Least Resistance by Robert Fritz
- Ethics for the Real World by Ronald Howard & Clinton Korver
- Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
- UNmarketing by Scott Stratten
- What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith
- The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan by George Bradt
- The Halo Effect by Phil Rosenzweig
- The Perfect Pitch by Jon Steel
- The Human Side of Enterprise by Douglas McGregor
- Acres of Diamonds by R.H. Conwell
- Myths of Innovation by Scott Berkun
- The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself by John Jantsch
- The Little Big Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence by Tom Peters
- The Perfect Pitch by Jon Steel
- The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes
- The Art of Possibility by Benjamin Zander
- Making Things Happen by Scott Berkun
- Results Without Authority by Tom Kendrick
- The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking by Roger Martin
- The Principles of Scientific Management by Frederick Winslow Taylor
- The Alchemist by Paul Coelho
- Accounting Made Simple by Mike Piper
- How to Read a Financial Report by John A. Tracy
- Radical Leap by Steve Farber
- Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank
- The New Business Road Test by John Mullins
- How to Make Millions with Your Ideas by Dan Kennedy
- When You’re In A Traffic Jam I’m Playing Golf by Simon Thompson
- Pursuit of Happiness by Chris Gardner
- Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
- The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
- Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
- The Human Side of Enterprise by Douglas McGregor
- The Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgn
- Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done By Ram Charan
- The Knack: How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up by Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham
- The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder
- My Start-Up Life by Ben Casnocha
- The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
- The Functions of the Executive by Chester I. Barnard
- StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath
- The Power of Less by Leo Babauta
- The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch
- Bit Literacy by Mark Hurst
- The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz
- Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds
- Show Me The Numbers by Stephen Few
- From The Top 100 Business Books of All Time: What They Say, Why They Matter and How They Can Help You by Jack Covert and Steve Sattersten…
- Flow by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi
- How to Be a Star at Work by Robert E. Kelley
- How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- The Power of Intuition by Gary Klein
- What Should I Do with My Life? by Po Bronson
- Chasing Daylight by Eugene O’Kelly
- On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis
- The Leadership Moment by Michael Useem
- The Leadership Challenge by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
- Leadership Is an Art by Max De Pree
- The Radical Leap by Steve Farber
- Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will by Tichy and Sherman
- Leading Change by John P. Kotter
- Questions of Character by Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr.
- The Story Factor by Annette Simmons
- Never Give In! Speeches by Winston Churchill
- In Search of Excellence by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr.
- The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen
- Only the Paranoid Survive by Andrew S. Grove
- Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.
- Discovering the Soul of Service by Leonard Berry
- Execution by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
- Competing for the Future by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad
- Influence by Robert B. Cialdini, PhD
- Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout
- A New Brand World by Scott Bedbury with Stephen Fenichell
- Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith
- Zag by Marty Neumeier
- Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore
- How to Become a Rainmaker by Jeffrey J. Fox
- Why We Buy by Paco Underhill
- The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore
- Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan
- Financial Intelligence by Karen Berman and Joe Knight
- The Balanced Scorecard by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton
- Out of the Crisis by W. Edwards Deming
- Toyota Production System by Taiichi Ohno
- Reengineering the Corporation by Michael Hammer and James Champy
- The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox
- The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack with Bo Burlingham
- First, Break all the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
- Now, Discover Your Strengths by Buckingham and Clifton
- The Knowing-Doing Gap by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
- Six Thinking Hats by Edward De Bono
- Titan by Ron Chernow
- My Years with General Motors by Alfred P. Sloan, Jr.
- The HP Way by David Packard
- Personal History by Katharine Graham
- Moments of Truth by Jan Carlzon
- Sam Walton: Made in America by Sam Walton with John Huey
- The Republic of Tea by Mel Ziegler, Patricia Ziegler, and Bill Rosenzweig
- The Partnership Charter by David Gage
- Growing a Business by Paul Hawken
- Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson
- The Monk and the Riddle Randy Komisar with Kent Lineback
- McDonald’s: Behind the Arches by John F. Love
- American Steel by Richard Preston
- The Force by David Dorsey
- The Smartest Guys in the Room by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind
- When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein
- Moneyball by Michael Lewis
- Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie
- The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley with Jonathan Littman
- Jump Start Your Business Brain by Doug Hall
- A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger Von Oech
- The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
- The Age of Unreason by Charles Handy
- Out of Control by Kevin Kelly
- The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida
- Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
- Driven by Paul R. Lawrence and Nitin Nohria
- To Engineer is Human by Henry Petroski
- The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki
- The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins
- Up the Organization by Robert Townsend
- Beyond the Core by Chris Zook
- Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer
- What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan
- The Team Handbook by Peter Scholtes, Brian Joiner, and Barbara Streibel
- A Business and Its Belief by Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
- Lucky or Smart? by Bo Peabody
- The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas L. Friedman
- Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko
- More Than You Know by Michael J. Mauboussin
- Screw It, Let’s Do It by Richard Branson
- Losing My Virginity: How I’ve Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way by Richard Branson
- Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur by Richard Branson
- Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
- We Are All Weird by Seth Godin
- Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin
- The Dip: A Little Book That Tells Us When to Quit and When to Stick by Seth Godin
- Unleashing the Ideavirus by Seth Godin
- Survival is Not Enough: Zooming, Evolution and the Future of Your Company by Seth Godin
- Small is the New Big: and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas by Seth Godin
- Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing Out of Sync by Seth Godin
- Purple Cow: Transform Your Business By Being Remarkable by Seth Godin
- All Marketers are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World by Seth Godin
- Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers by Seth Godin
- The Big Moo: Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable by Seth Godin
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
- Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing: What the Rich Invest in that the Poor and Middle Class Do Not by Robert Kiyosaki
- Rich Dad’s Who Took My Money?: Why Slow Investors Lose and Fast Money Wins by Robert Kiyosaki
- Rich Woman: Take Charge of Your Money, Take Charge of Your Life by Kim Kiyosaki
- The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Geber
- E-Myth Mastery: The Seven Essential Disciplines for Building a World Class Company by Michael E. Geber
- Awakening the Entrepreneur Within: How Ordinary People Can Create Extraordinary Companies by Michael E. Geber
- Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t by Jim Collins
- Great By Choice: Uncertainty Chaos and Luck—Why Some Thrive Despite Them All by Jim Collins
- How the Mighty Fail: and Why Some Companies Never Give In by Jim Collins
- Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins
- Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions by Guy Kawasaki
- Reality Check by Guy Kawasaki
- The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki
- Rules for Revolutionaries by Guy Kawasaki
- How to Drive Your Competition Crazy by Guy Kawasaki
- The Macintosh Way by Guy Kawasaki
- Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
- Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life by David Allen
- Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life by David Allen
- The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard
- Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service by Ken Blanchard
- Lead Like Jesus: Lessons from the Greatest Leadership Role Model of All Time by Ken Blanchard
- The Secret: What Great Leaders Know — And Do by Ken Blanchard
- Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy
- Goals!: How to Get Everything You Want — Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible by Brian Tracy
- Maximum Achievement: Strategies and Skills That Will Unlock Your Hidden Powers to Succeed by Brian Tracy
- The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success by Brian Tracy
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
- The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness by Stephen Covey
- Principle-Centered Leadership by Stephen Covey
- How to Succeed With People by Stephen Covey
- Bounce! The Path to True Confidence by Barry Moltz
- You Need to Be a Little Crazy: The Truth About Starting and Growing Your Own Business by Barry Moltz
- BAM! Delivering Customer Service in a Self Service World by Barry Moltz
- Unlimited Power : The New Science Of Personal Achievement by Tony Robbins
- Giant Steps : Author Of Awaken The Giant And Unlimited Power by Tony Robbins
- Awaken the Giant Within : How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny! by Tony Robbins
- The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential by John C. Maxwell
- The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell
- How Successful People Think: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life by John C. Maxwell
- The 360 Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization by John C. Maxwell
- Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success by John C. Maxwell
- The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter Drucker
- Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker
- The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization by Peter Drucker
- Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive by Harvey B. Mackay
- Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty: The Only Networking Book You’ll Ever Need by Harvey B. Mackay
- The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World by Harvey B. Mackay
- Pushing the Envelope All the Way to the Top by Harvey B. Mackay
- Fired Up!: How the Best of the Best Survived and Thrived After Getting the Boot by Harvey B. Mackay
- Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar
- Selling 101: What Every Successful Sales Professional Needs to Know by Zig Ziglar
- Better Than Good: Creating a Life You Can’t Wait to Live by Zig Ziglar
