Ask HN: Best books to build up entrepreneurial mindset?

When you grow up in a working class family building a business does not come naturally.

You don’t see it everyday, you don’t feel it from the inside. You don’t form subconscious knowledge of how it is done.

Then great books and educational resources are to the rescue!

Could you please name your personal top 3 of such a resources that not just pump you with emotions (most films are out of the table) and not just throw microeconomic formulas and theories at you,

But the ones showing you the truthful picture of inside-outs of a small to large businesses, with specific details and meaningful cases to learn from?

Just do it rather than read books but if you want read something on the side I would suggest https://www.amazon.com/How-Get-Rich-Greatest-Entrepreneurs/d... . It is epitome of Don't judge a book by its cover. Title is stupid and cover is ugly but book is very good and probably best book about general entrepreneurship. Then if you wanna go to startup rabbit-hole I would read next https://www.amazon.com/Zero-One-Notes-Startups-Future/dp/080... .

I've collected a number titles here https://verdverm.com/books/

Top three, at least for me but depends on your business type, are...

Lean Startup, Crossing the Chasm, The Challenger Sale

A Business and it's Beliefs is hands down my favorite philosophy book

IMO the theory is what gives you the confidence. You know it works, that the actions taken are repeatable.

The basics of how to start a startup: https://playbook.samaltman.com/

Growth. Or figuring out when your startup is doing well or poorly, runway, why it takes so long: http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html

I think when people criticize a startup's profitability, they don't really understand that the goal of a startup is to grow assets, not earn money, and then then sell those assets to someone who can make more money from it.

A very different book to the usual, Startup Owner's Manual: https://www.amazon.com/Startup-Owners-Manual-Step-Step/dp/09...

It's a good book on validating what works and how ambitious to be. Much of it is in the form of checklists, which help you decide the next step. It's not a boring book, though. I haven't read through the whole thing as we got off the ground before finishing the book. It's the book that got my ex-co-founder away from more traditional businesses and into startups.

Upvote for the Felix Dennis book "How To Get Rich". Definitely not what you'd think from the title. The Audible narration is an excellent performance and gets the British humor & tone of the book. Won't make you rich and I don't think it's very practical, but it is excellent and highly entertaining. Felix Dennis was a magazine publisher of many of the early computing magazines, many of which are now owned by Future Publishing.