{"id":1940,"date":"2013-05-30T03:15:16","date_gmt":"2013-05-30T03:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/startwp.logomaker.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/30\/read-biographies-not-business-books-small-business-advice\/"},"modified":"2024-03-07T16:09:34","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T16:09:34","slug":"read-biographies-not-business-books-small-business-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/startwp.logomaker.com\/blog\/read-biographies-not-business-books-small-business-advice\/","title":{"rendered":"Read Biographies, Not Business Books. Advice for Small Business Owners."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Small<\/a>Let’s say you’re a small business owner and want to learn more about leadership. Where do you go?<\/p>\n

A lot of people would start with a quick search of Amazon’s leadership books. Or the business section of your local bookstore.<\/p>\n

That’s not a bad option. We’ve done it ourselves.<\/p>\n

But here’s an even better idea.<\/p>\n

Try the history shelf.<\/p>\n

“What?” you ask. “But I want to learn about leadership, not some boring history.”<\/p>\n

Rather than reading about the theory of leadership, why not read about people who actually practiced it and learn how they did it?<\/p>\n

Pick up a book on leadership and the author might suggest that you inspire followers with big ideas, or bold actions, or even an insightful vision.<\/p>\n

Pick up a history book (or three) and you will learn from someone like John F. Kennedy who inspired a nation with the big idea of putting a man on the moon. Or you could read about how George Washington built a fort around Boston in a single winter night to win a stunning defeat over the British. Now there’s a bold action. Or you could learn how Lou Gerstner set the long-term vision and strategy for IBM that saved the company.<\/p>\n

There’s a fantastic little book called Humilitus: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership<\/em><\/a>. Read it and you’ll learn a lot about humility. But you could also pick up Doris Kearns Goodwin’s stellar book, Team of Rivals<\/a>,<\/em> and read about how Lincoln learned and practiced humility and accepted his defeats, then turned his competitors into friends and future backers.<\/p>\n

You could pick up a book like Steve Jobs<\/em><\/a> by Walter Isaacson and learn a lot about how not<\/em> to lead a company (berating employees, lying, and playing politics) at the same time you might learn to appreciate how he practiced intuition and total devotion to creating great products.<\/p>\n

Of course, biographies aren’t the only option. There are company histories as well. Instead of reading Seth Godin’s The Dip<\/em><\/a> about fighting through the low points of a start-up, why not read Pour Your Heart Into It<\/em><\/a> about how Howard Shultz fought through the dip to save Starbucks from failure. More than once.<\/p>\n

Instead of reading a book on strategy, why not read a book like Behind The Cloud<\/em><\/a> which details Marc Benioff’s strategy for pioneering the software as a service model and marketing his company with unexpected and imaginative public relations ideas.<\/p>\n

The list goes on.<\/p>\n

While business books are great (we read a stack of them every year), you can learn even more from the people who accomplished great things, overcame long odds, and helped build the future we live in.<\/p>\n

Try it some time. Grab a history and see what you can learn.<\/p>\n

And of course, if you just want to read a great business book, check out this list<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo credit: Wyoming_Jackrabbit<\/a> via photopin<\/a> cc<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s say you’re a small business owner and want to learn more about leadership. Where do you go? A lot of people would start with a quick search of Amazon’s leadership books. Or the business section of your local bookstore. That’s not a bad option. We’ve done it ourselves. But here’s an even better idea. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":1854,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,33,36,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice","category-logomaker","category-small-business","category-success"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nRead Biographies, Not Business Books. Advice for Small Business Owners. - Logomaker Blog||Read Biographies, Not Business Books. 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