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If you are anything like me, you are always looking for good books to read. I used to spend hours scouring reviews on Amazon, hoping to stumble across a "good" book. If you've ever attempted this "review" approach you likely have a stack of books, that despite the glowing reviews, just didn't benefit you.
After wasting countless dollars on underwhelming books, I decided to attempt a new approach. When I found a book that I really enjoyed I would write the author and tell them how much I liked their book, and ask them for additional reading recommendations. Surprisingly, this approach actually worked (and still works)!
So here are some book recommendations from some of top business gurus to help you make the most of 2012.
Seth Godin Recommends:
Seth is a New York Times bestseller and successful business owner. He has fourteen international bestsellers, and has even been dubbed "America's Greatest Marketer." His blog may very well be the most popular marketing blog in the world, you can read it here. Here are his suggestions:
The Republic of Tea – Mel Ziegler, Patricia Ziegler, & Bill Rosenweig
"Almost all of us have at some point dreamed of starting our own business but have not been able to get past our fear, anxiety, and uncertainty about pursuing those dreams. Through a 20-month exchange of faxes, The Republic Of Tea chronicles the feelings and emotions of three partners as they confront their fears and dreams to create an enormously successful start-up company. The book shows the budding entrepreneur how to start a successful business that embodies his or her own soul and economic realities. The insightful correspondence between Mel Ziegler and Patricia Ziegler, co-founders of The Banana Republic chain, and their new partner Bill Rosenzweig provides a map for the entrepreneur. It tells of the day-to-day breakthroughs and breakdowns of the creative process–inventing a product, developing a plan, and structuring a business partnership–and even provides the actual business plan used to raise money for the venture."
See You at the Top – Zig Ziglar
"The 25th anniversary edition of the classic motivational and self-improvement book that has sold more than 1.6 million copies in hardcover. For more than three decades, Zig Ziglar, one of the great motivators of our age, has traveled the world, encouraging, uplifting, and inspiring audiences. His groundbreaking best-seller, See You at the Top, remains an authentic American classic. This revised and updated edition stresses the importance of honesty, loyalty, faith, integrity, and strong personal character."
The Bootstrapper's Bible – Seth Godin
"Seth Godin offers inspiration, ideas, and roadmaps to those starting their own business. To encourage bootstrappers, he shares his own story and covers other bootstrappers (from Dell Computer to Haagen Dazs) who have parlayed a great idea into a sizable fortune, using the smart strategies and cash-stretching tactics revealed in this book. In The Bootstrapper's Bible: How to Start and Build a Business with a Great Idea and (Almost) No Money, Godin shows precisely how his own venture, and a slew of others like Dell Computer, Burton Snowboards, Bose Corporation, Starbucks, and many lesser-known companies, ultimately managed to turn that nothing into something quite substantial. "Bootstrappers built this country, and they continue to make it great," he writes."
You can also download the FREE eBook version of Bootstrapper's Bible.