Books have been a huge game changer for me. Looking back over all the books I’ve read, there are many which have influenced me in a powerful way.
However, there are a select few that impacted me on an even greater scale. These are the ones I reread and refer back to over and over again. I call them my pivotal books. One these is Zig Ziglar’s classic, See You At The Top.
As someone who is relatively new to the world of entrepreneurship and business, there are many leading entrepreneurs I look up to. I decided to ask a few of them to share a pivotal book recommendation and why it made such an impact in their lives.
Here is the recommended reading list I received from 20 leading entrepreneurs.
Seth Godin – sethgodin.com
Pivotal book: The Republic of Tea by Mel Ziegler and Patricia Ziegler
“It exposed the long hard road for what it is… a journey worth taking.”
Derek Sivers – sivers.org
Pivotal book: Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield
“It was the right message at the right time for me. About facing fears, eliminating excuses, losing your ego, and getting back to work.
He kept calling himself an author, but had never finished a book. So he rented a cabin in the woods, and vowed to finish it. My favorite quote: ‘I didn’t talk to anybody during my year of turning pro. I didn’t hang out. I just worked. I had a book in mind and I had decided I would finish it or kill myself. I could not run away again, or let people down again, or let myself down again. This was it, do or die. I had no TV, no radio, no music. No sex, no sports. I didn’t read the newspaper. I was truly productive, truly facing my demons, and truly working my [stuff]. That year made me a pro.’
That’s what I’m doing now, partially because of this book.”
At the bookstore, I’d see the self-help books and be intrigued by them, but pass them by thinking they were too far out there for a good Christian like me. Sure, some of them are a little far out there for me, but many of them are not and are full of great information.
