Read to Lead: 8 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Devour

Business moves fast. But your brain? It needs pit stops—mental refueling. Reading isn’t a luxury. It’s not a weekend hobby. It’s a high-performance tool. According to a report by the National Endowment for the Arts, regular readers are 28% more likely to start their own business than non-readers. Surprised? You shouldn’t be.

Reading unlocks perspective. It compresses decades of failures and triumphs into digestible, coffee-sipping sessions. Books are mentors—ones you don’t have to Zoom with. And if you’re wondering how to entertain yourself at home without doom-scrolling another feed? Easy. Open a book. Scroll pages, not platforms.

So, let’s dive into eight must-consume volumes. Not skimmed. Not browsed. Devoured. Because growth demands digestion.

1. “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries

Keywords: Innovation, flexibility, execution

This book? It’s gospel in Silicon Valley. You’ll find dog-eared copies on coffee-stained desks and in the backpacks of hoodie-wearing founders. Ries teaches validated learning—launch fast, fail faster, pivot smarter. The idea is simple: Don’t build the castle before testing the moat.

Whether you’re bootstrapping in a basement or pitching to billionaires, this one’s a blueprint. And no, you don’t need an MBA to get it. You need nerve.

2. “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek

Keywords: Purpose, leadership, customer connection

Why are you building what you’re building? If your answer is “money,” then congratulations—you’re like 99% of people who fail. Sinek’s insight? People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. It’s not fluffy philosophy. It’s neuroscience meets storytelling.

When you understand your “why,” you become magnetic. To customers. To investors. To yourself.

3. “Deep Work” by Cal Newport

Keywords: Focus, productivity, mental discipline

Distractions are your enemy. Slack pings. Unread emails. TikToks you didn’t ask for. Newport argues that the ability to focus deeply is a superpower. One so rare that it might be the only thing that separates winners from noise-chasers.

This book doesn’t just tell you to log off. It teaches how to build concentration into your daily structure. Warning: Reading it might make you delete every notification you’ve ever allowed.

What separates true leaders from followers is constant development. And this does not only mean reading technical literature. Having a reading app like FictionMe has already become a necessary feature for everyone who loves to read and wants to move forward. Moreover, FictionMe has both love stories about secretaries and witch stories or novels about werewolves. This is a convenient way to develop and grow while you enjoy fascinating stories.

4. “Shoe Dog” by Phil Knight

Keywords: Grit, branding, long-game thinking

Forget the Nike swoosh for a moment. This memoir drips with startup sweat. Knight didn’t just build a brand; he sprinted through lawsuits, financial disasters, and betrayal. And still stood tall.

You’ll laugh. You’ll grimace. You’ll feel oddly inspired when he talks about selling shoes out of a trunk. It’s the unvarnished truth behind a multi-billion-dollar giant—and every entrepreneur needs a dose of it.

5. “The Hard Thing About Hard Things” by Ben Horowitz

Keywords: Management, survival, honest leadership

Ben doesn’t sugarcoat. Ever. This book slaps you across the face with reality. Building a company is messy. People leave. Money runs dry. Servers crash. And through it all, you must lead.

Forget the “feel-good” vibes of motivational posters. Horowitz lays out real strategies for tough decisions. How to fire friends. How to face down failure. How to lead when everything screams “run.”

6. “Atomic Habits” by James Clear

Keywords: Routine, self-mastery, behavior change

Success isn’t built on one giant decision. It’s built on thousands of small ones—made daily. Clear’s book dissects the invisible architecture of habit formation. Tiny changes, big outcomes. You want to be the type of founder who gets things done before 9am? Read this.

Also, if you’re thinking about how to entertain yourself at home and become a better businessperson, start with habit-building books. This one’s addictive in all the right ways.

7. “Zero to One” by Peter Thiel

Keywords: Innovation, competition, tech insight

Thiel co-founded PayPal. He backed Facebook early. He sees the world sideways—and this book reflects that. His key thesis: creating something truly new (zero to one) is more powerful than incrementally improving old systems (one to n).

If you’re building a product just slightly better than the competition, Thiel asks: why even bother? This book dares you to be bold. Or quit.

8. “Rework” by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson

Keywords: Simplicity, anti-hustle, rethink business norms

Want contrarian thinking? This is it. Rework crushes the myth that you need to be big, busy, or burned out to be successful. These Basecamp founders argue that real work happens when you eliminate nonsense.

Short chapters. Sharp advice. Zero fluff. If you want a mental slap and a to-do list reset, this one delivers.

Reading as Entertainment… and Strategy

Entrepreneurship can be lonely. Stressful. Overwhelming. And yes, even boring during those long, quiet grind phases. But books? They offer more than information. They give you fuel. Perspective. Relief. Humor. Battle plans.

According to Pew Research, over 30% of U.S. adults say they haven’t read a book in the past year. Entrepreneurs who do read? They gain a distinct edge.

You want to know how to entertain yourself at home without losing momentum? Read the right book. With your feet up, sure. But with your brain on.

Final Thought: The Quiet Growth No One Sees

Here’s the truth: no one applauds you for reading. There’s no LinkedIn badge for finishing Deep Work. No tweet goes viral because you re-read Rework. But silently, invisibly, word by word—you grow. And that kind of growth? It compounds.

Like compound interest but for your mind.

So pick one of the above. Tonight. Not “someday.” Because the best entrepreneurs? They don’t wait for the world to teach them. They open a book and teach themselves first.

Read to lead. Or don’t. Just don’t expect to stay ahead if you stand still.

Author Profile

Adam Regan

Deputy Editor

Features and account management. 3 years media experience. Previously covered features for online and print editions.

Email Adam@MarkMeets.com