13 books that inspired the CEOs of famous corporations: Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Elon Musk and others

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

A good book makes you think, and a great book changes you and inspires you to act in new ways. This collection contains books from the second group that pushed the leaders of the largest companies in the world to new achievements.

1. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook: The Rational Optimist

Zuckerberg, like many other CEOs, compiles lists of the best books read for the year. The "rational optimist" is one of them. Its author Matt Ridley is convinced that the free market is the source of human progress. The less the state controls the economy, the faster progress moves.

2. Bill Gates, Microsoft: Business Adventure

Bill Gates also often lists books with interesting ideas and useful information. But when asked about his favorite book, he always calls "Business Adventures" (by John Brooks), which Warren Buffett advised him at one time. This is a collection of stories about Wall Street from the 50s. According to Gates, they will remind young entrepreneurs that the principles of business management do not change, and the past can be the basis for the development of ideas.

3. Elon Musk, Tesla: “Benjamin Franklin. Biography"

Elon Musk is an engineer, inventor, entrepreneur and programmer. Therefore, it is not surprising that he finds inspiration in the life of the same versatile figure. Biographer Walter Isaacson tells the fascinating story of Benjamin Franklin - not only a politician, but also a writer, inventor, scientist and talented diplomat.

4. Steve Jobs, Apple: The Innovator's Dilemma

In a speech to alumni, Jobs once made an important message: “Stay hungry. Stay stupid. Clayton Christensen's book is about the fact that an innovator should always be on the lookout. The book about technology that changed the world had a profound impact on Jobs - perhaps the world's most famous innovator.

5. Tim Cook, Apple: "Compete with Time"

The work of George Stock and Thomas Hout is devoted to the old truth: time in business is money. Tim Cook donates copies of this book to his colleagues and all new employees. But even if you don't work for Apple, the efficiency tips in this book can help you clean up your life and improve your career prospects.

6. Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo: The Path to Character

Speaking of the books that influenced her the most, Nooyi named David Brooks The Road to Character. She admitted that after reading her, she had an interesting argument with her daughters about why working on her personality is as important as creating a career.

7. Jack Dorsey, Twitter: "Checklist"

Like Tim Cook, the founder of Twitter gives everyone new to the company a copy of his favorite book, Checklist. How to avoid stupid mistakes leading to fatal consequences”Atula Gawande. Dorsey often cites excerpts from this book, especially the part about VCs choosing the right startups to invest in.

8. Jeff Bezos, Amazon: The Rest of the Day

Bezos draws inspiration not from business literature, but from fiction. His favorite book is Kazuo Ishiguro's novel about an old butler in post-war England. He told about this in one interview: "If you start reading The Rest of the Day, you simply cannot help but withdraw into yourself to think."

9. Richard Branson, Virgin Group: "I know why a bird sings in a cage."

On the company's website, Branson has published a list of 65 favorite books - from children's stories "Where Monsters Live" and "The Hobbit" to novels that impressed him at a conscious age. One of these is the work of Maya Angelou "I Know Why the Bird Sings in a Cage", which Bill Clinton also called his favorite book.

10. Ernie Sorenson, Marriott: “The sadness of the moon. Looking for London"

Sorrows of the Moon: In Search of London by Iqbal Ahmed is a collection of notes about immigrant communities and the people who live their lives in them, trying to catch the rhythm of London and staying in touch with their places of origin. Sorenson was particularly impressed by this book because it reminded him of the importance of noticing and listening to people: “Reading the book made me stop and listen. I will be forever grateful for that."

11. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo: Designing Everyday Things

“I think a lot about design, products and how things should work,” Mayer admitted in an interview and named her favorite book by Donald Norman about the things that surround us. You will perceive design differently when you learn why familiar things like kettles and doors were designed this way.

12. Dennis Young, Udemy: "It Won't Be Easy"

Young read Ben Horowitz's book It Won't Be Easy. How to build a business when there are more questions than answers”, when Udemy began to grow rapidly and in a year it added 150 new employees. This book helped Young realize the importance of taking responsibility for making the final decision, even if it is unpopular.

13. Craig Barrett, Intel: The Martian

Andy Weier's bestseller reinforced Barrett's confidence in the power of the individual. Here's what he said about this: “We increasingly rely on large institutions to solve business and social difficulties, although real solutions to problems come from the actions of individual initiative people. After all, Google, Facebook, Uber, microloans and countless other success stories didn't come from government.”