The Best Business Book I Have Read

As you already know, I'm heaven-bent on starting a company. I have been preparing hard for the lifelong journey. I have started a part-time consultancy biz. I have almost resigned twice to take it full-time. And I have been reading every book I believe will help me on this amazing entrepreneurial journey.

I have:

1. How to Start a Business. Jason Nazar
2. The Cold Calling Secret. Mark Boardman
3. How to Write a Business Plan. R. T. Williams
4. The Intelligent Entrepreneur. Bill Murphy
5. Street Smarts. Norm Brodsky
6. How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling. Frank Bettger
7. Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days. Jessica Livingston
8. Bookkeepers' Bootcamp: Get a Grip on Accounting Basics. Angie Mohr
9. How to Do a Year's Worth of Bookkeeping in One Day: A Step by Step Guide for Small Businesses. E. T. Barton
10. Economics for Investment Decision Makers: Micro, Macro, and International Economics. Christopher D. Piros
11. Finance. Ehsan Nikbakht
12. How to Build a Financial Model. Sol Hong
13. The Everything Store. Brad Stone
14. Security Analysis. Benjamin Graham
15. Iacocca. Lee Iacocca
16. The Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls that can Sink a Startup.
17. The Personal MBA. Josh Kaufman
18. Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders, 1965 - 2012. Warren Buffett
19. The Warren Buffett Way. Robert G. Hagstrom
20. The Book Investing Wisdom. Warren Buffett
21. How to Win Friends and Influence People. Dale Carnegie
22. One Up on Wall Street. Peter Lynch
23. The Steve Jobs Way. Jay Elliot
24. The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie.
25. The Alchemist. Paulo Coelho
26. Rule #1. Phil Town
27. The World is Flat. Thomas L. Friedman
28. The Five Elements of Effective Thinking. Edward Burger
29. The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs. Carmine Gallo
30. Outliers. Malcolm Gladwell
31. A Random Walk Down Wall Street. Malkiel Burton
32. Too Big to Fail. Andrew Ross Sorkin
33. Lower Your Taxes. Bob Adams
34. The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing. Joe Mansueto
35. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Steven Covey
36. Dig Your Well Deep Before You're Thirsty. Harvey Mackay
37. Sharkproof. Harvey Mackay
38. Personal Finance. Deaver Brown
39. Start Something That Matters. Blake Mycoskie
40. Think and Grow Rich. Napoleon Hill
41. The Success Principles. Jack Canfield
42. Millionaire Upgrade. Richard Parkes Cordock
43. Extraordinary Leadership. Robin Sharma
44. Simple and Cheaper. Deaver Brown
45. Managing Your Home Office. Deaver Brown
46. The Free Agent, No Employee World. Deaver Brown
47. Make Yourself a Millionaire. Charles C. Zhang
48. Building Your Network Marketing Business. Jim Rohn
49. The Lean Startup. Eric Ries
50. Jim Cramer's Real Money. Jim Cramer
51. The Greatest Salesman in the World. Og Mandino

The one that has helped me the most is -- Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days. By Jessica Livingston

image: amazon.co.uk

It's a collection of the interviews Jessica had with the founders of some of the biggest startups. Including Apple's Steve Wozniak. It opened my eyes to the reality of starting a company. And made me resolve to start my own company no matter what. If I had bought the book for $300 (N49,650) it would be worth it. Luckily the book sold for less than $20 (N3,310).

It provided me with practical ways to start a company, what to avoid, how to grow the company, and everything a mentor would tell me. It's the best business book I have.