The Top 40 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read

I’ve met quite a few wise, intellectual, successful people, and what they generally had in common was an extensive list of books that they’ve read — on their own, meaning outside of school.

Which reminds me of something…

40 of the TOP books for entrepreneurs!

Confucius once said,

“No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.”

That’s exactly what you do: surrender yourself to ignorance, or choose to be left out of the loop, while everyone else moves forward without you.  But the Chief Sumo aims to rectify that by throwing out a gift to one very lucky Sumo-ling.

You see, we’ve got a little contest going on where you could win…

*Announcer Voice*

The Top 40 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read!

We really mean all 40.  Together.  It’s yours.  Take it.

Just get on over to our contest page here, and answer 1 simple question (I’m not sure if we could’ve made the question any easier).

If that wasn’t enough to get you excited about getting FREE books (that could not only make ya smarter, but improve your life), as an added bonus we’re giving away $5 of AppSumo credit INSTANTLY, just for signing up for the contest.

So what do you have to lose?

It makes me sad that they’re doing this contest now because from reading the list of books here:

1. Blue Ocean Strategy – W. Chan Kim (signed)
2. Business Model Generation – Alexander Osterwalder
3. Crush It! – Gary Vaynerchuk
4. Delivering Happiness – Tony Hsieh (signed)
5. Drive – Daniel H. Pink (signed)
6. Founders at Work – Jessica Livingston
7. Getting Things Done – David Allen
8. Good to Great – Jim Collins
9. Guerrilla Marketing – Jay Conrad Levinson
10. How To Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
11. Inbound Marketing – Brian Halligan, Dharmesh Shah and David Meerman Scott
12. Influence – Robert B. Cialdini
13. Innovation and Entrepreneurship – Peter F. Drucker
14. Losing My Virginity – Richard Branson
15. Made to Stick – Chip Heath
16. Making Ideas Happen – Scott Belsky
17. Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace – Ricardo Semler
18. Never Eat Alone – Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz
19. Permission Marketing – Seth Godin (signed)
20. Purple Cow – Seth Godin (signed)
21. Ready, Fire, Aim – Michael Masterson
22. Rework – Jason Fried
23. Steve Jobs – Walter Isaacson
24. Street Smarts – Norm Brodsky
25. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing – Al Ries and Jack Trout
26. The 4-Hour Workweek – Timothy Ferriss
27. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen R. Covey
28. The Art of the Start – Guy Kawasaki
29. The Dip – Seth Godin (signed)
30. The E-Myth Revisited – Michael E. Gerber
31. The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand
32. The Four Steps to the Epiphany – Steven Gary Blank
33. The Innovator’s Dilemma – Clayton M. Christensen
34. The Lean Startup – Eric Ries
35. The One Minute Entrepreneur – Ken Blanchard
36. The Paradox of Choice – Barry Schwartz
37. The Personal MBA – Josh Kaufman
38. The Toyota Way – Jeffrey K. Liker
39. The Ultimate Sales Machine – Chet Holmes, Jay Conrad Levinson and Michael Gerber
40. Tribes – Seth Godin (signed)

…I’ve already bought and read 10 of ‘em and have been eyeing the majority of the other books.  Oh wells, at least one of you will benefit from winning these books (and your friends will, too, if you’re nice and want to help them out by lending a couple of the books you won).

You can jump to the contest page here and enter for your chance to win the top 40 books every entrepreneur should read as well as $5 in AppSumo credit just for entering!

Don’t forget to tell your friends and tweet this post!