Entrepreneur Biographies

The books, in order

1. 1

   Biographies and Memoirs · 15 min

   Losing My Virginity

   Richard Branson

   Diversifying a business too much without enough cash is the same risky bet, just disguised as vision for the future.

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2. 2

   Biographies and Memoirs · 17 min

   Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

   Phil Knight

   Selling well and having cash to spare are completely different things; plenty of good companies go under because they grow too fast without the money to support their own success.

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3. 3

   Biographies and Memoirs · 16 min

   Sam Walton: Made in America

   Sam Walton

   The one detail you forget to negotiate in a lease can cost you an entire business, no matter how well it's doing.

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4. 4

   Business · 14 min

   Play Nice But Win

   Michael Dell

   Past success becomes a blind spot: what made the company grow can be exactly what keeps it from seeing the change coming.

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5. 5

   Biographies and Memoirs · 17 min

   My Life in Full

   Indra Nooyi

   Having the freedom to play in a band or on a team, at a time when that was uncommon for girls, leaves a mark on the confidence you carry for the rest of your life.

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6. 6

   Biographies and Memoirs · 20 min

   The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

   Benjamin Franklin

   When we rebuild an idea in our own words, we uncover gaps that passive reading can hide.

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7. 7

   Biographies and Memoirs · 16 min

   Steve Jobs

   Walter Isaacson

   Cutting features from a product until only the essentials are left takes more courage than adding one more button to please everybody.

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8. 8

   Biographies and Memoirs · 17 min

   Elon Musk

   Walter Isaacson

   In the book's portrait, Musk's companies carry the marks of the founder's harsh childhood, for better and for worse, more than any business plan on paper.

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9. 9

   Biographies and Memoirs · 16 min

   The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

   Alice Schroeder

   Getting rich fast and staying rich for decades are two different skills, and the second depends far more on patience than on luck or genius.

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10. 10

    Biographies and Memoirs · 16 min

    The Making of Donald Trump

    David Cay Johnston

    Fortunes in urban real estate often depend more on government tax incentives than on the workings of the free market alone.

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