Peter Sanchez @petersanchez Best books for biz dev or biz related period. What do you recommend?
ANSWER:
There’s several types of business books I like and I recommend all of them:
Books about business: “The Essays of Warren Buffett” by Lawrence Cunningham is the best.
“Howard Hughes: the Untold Story”
Isaacson’s book on Steve Jobs.
Then books that just make me smarter about the world:
“The Rational Optimist” by Matt Ridley is #1
Then books that are inspirational to me in a business way (but not necessarily in a spiritual way).
As corny as it is “The Science of Getting Rich” by Wallace Wattles is where it all started: Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, Norman Vincent Peale, Wayne Dyer, Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, “The Secret”, all came from that book.
But I think to really understand business you need to understand who you are. The best business development is personal development. Making sure you are healthy and smart in the four areas that dominate the health of your body: Physical, Emotional, Mental, Spiritual.
Don’t forget that “business” is a word that comes many steps after the idea. First you have to decide, “I’m going to have to help people”. Maybe people need superstores in rural areas because its hard for them to buy things. So you come up with an innovative way to do that (Wal-mart). Or maybe people need a way to save per unit of light in their house (electricity).
We’re quite lucky to be here. We were all a sperm that won the race. And now we have a chance to help all the other sperms before our short period on this planet is extinguished.
There’s a lot of things to do!
So before you even think “business” think “who am I?” Are you that sperm? Was there consciousness before that sperm? Are you the person who gets angy at kinkos when the printer doesn’t work? Or is there something better inside of you.
Book list coming on that!