I read a lot.  At any given time I’m reading between 3 to 20 books.  Below are 12 books that have been particularly vital – even essential – to me as I’ve worked with others to help build our business from just one of many scrapbooking sites on the web, to the largest, most-visited scrapbooking site and store on the internet. I’ve provided a link to them as well as a brief synopsis to help you identify whether you’d be interested.

Disclosure: If you click on any of the books below, then buy it, I get paid a small portion of the sale from Amazon.com.  I’m not trying to sell books, just tell you about them.  But if you do decide this information is valuable to you and do purchase the book from Amazon, I will recieve some modest compensation.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

This book contains principles you can apply to influence any person in any situation to influence them (for better or worse). We are all “hard-wired” to respond certain ways to certain techniques. When we’re treated well, we respond. This book shows you how to effect change in your life and in any organization you belong to. It also will help you protect yourself from people who wield this techniques (pandering politicians! dishonest salespeople!) in manipulative ways – you will immediately be able to recognize when others are employing them to take advantage of you.

Influencer: The Power to Change Anything by Kerry Patterson

Just read it. It will blow your mind. Despite the similar titles, this book is very different than the book by Cialdini. This book is the blueprint for how to bring about lasting change. It actually walks you step-by-step through the process to develop your own change program (in business, in your community, etc.), and helps you understand best practices and avoid pitfalls, whereas Cialdini’s book helps you understand human psychology. My #1 read this year. In fact, it’s the reason I founded www.SBABG.org!

The Science of Success: How Market-Based Management Built the World’s Largest Private Company by Charles Koch

A must own for any small-business person. Koch Industries started as a small businesses and is now the second largest privately owned company in the United States. The Chairman, Charles Koch, runs the company based on free-market principles – a system they’ve developed over many years of trial and error which they call “Market Based Management” – and they credit their success to adhering to the system through good times and bad. Bottom line, you do not want to be competing with Koch in any industry, because it will outclass and out-compete you.

Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting out of the Box by The Arbinger Group

We are our own worst enemies. We seem to have a pathological ability to take relationships of conflict and make them worse through never-ending battles with others that leave them and us worse off. Some companies (and groups, and families) get paralyzed by infighting and contention. This book teaches you how to “get out of the box” and bring an environment to the workplace – or any organization -  that is both peaceful and productive.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

It’s the little things that make all the difference in our lives, and in our businesses. It is awareness of, and attention to, these things that will often determine whether we experience success or failure. This book explains how to identify those little things that make a big different.  By small and simple things great things come to pass. Don’t think that big results need come from big effort. Big results come from the right effort at the right time.

The Breakthrough Imperative: How the Best Managers Get Outstanding Results by Mark Gottfredson

Learn what competitive dangers await every business, and how you can prepare and overcome these dangers.

Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond by Bruce Greenwald

Business people need to understand the value of the assets and businesses they own, work with, and purchase. This book teaches business valuation better than any of the formal textbooks I have read on the subject, and does so in a radically more simple way by applying timeless techniques first established by Benjamin Graham, who was Warren Buffett’s mentor (and we all know how that worked out for Buffett.)

Competition Demystified: A Radically Simplified Approach to Business Strategy by Bruce Greenwald

Written by the same author as the book above, this changed the way I approached building a business. Many business people learn Porter’s Five Competitive Forces and derive strategy from analysis of such; this book radically simplifies Porter’s work (in my opinion) and is more useful to small-businesses looking to grow.

Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business by Mark Robichaux

John Malone was a brilliant man, building a bleeding-edge business on the frontiers of America, outfoxing the governmental forces-that-be every step of the way. A great story of risk, opportunity, and what can happen when a person chooses to see the world differently than everyone else and stick with that vision. Particularly fascinating are the chapters that discuss the acquisition strategies, employment of debt, accelerated depreciation strategies, and wars with banks and bankers that couldn’t seem to see the value Malone was building right before their eyes (and so distrusted and fought him every step of the way). If you’ve ever spent a sleepless night because you’re warding off creditors while you’re building a businesses, know you’re in good company – Malone spent more than a decade fighting with them and he turned out OK!

The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth by Fred Reichheld

Contains and immediate, practical strategy that you can use in your business today to make sure that your customers are not only happy with you, but turn into promoters for your business. To repeat a phrase I used above,  by small and simple things great things come to pass.  In this book, you’ll learn one of those small and simple things you can do to make great things come to pass in your business.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis

If you want an edge, you can’t play the game the same way as others. To play the game differently, measure things differently. This page-turning story shows how Billy Beane, the general manager of the A’s, used his relatively paltry $41M payroll and unique measuring system to identify overlooked players and assemble teams that routinely beat other teams that employed $100M+ in payroll and bought up the “obvious” talent. Small businesses everywhere can learn from this story and uses it’s principles to slay the Goliaths they go up against each day.

Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert.

Be a Happy Warrior.  Lots of studies about what makes people unhappy or happy find that our brains constantly trick us into making decision we think will make us happy but have the adverse effect.  The cure to this “blindness” is provided in this fantastic book.  Look at people who are happy, who have died happy, and do what they were doing when they were your age.  Hint: It’s kind of commonsensical – work hard at something you love, stay married through good times and bad, don’t do drugs and all that.  All that stuff that sounds great but is actually “hard” at times and which your brains sometimes tries to tell you won’t make you happy.  Happiness is not pleasure seeking.  And pleasure seeking does not equate to happiness, especially long term.  You will have a happy life if you stick to the principles of living that lead to long-term happiness, and that’s the surprise. Doing the stuff your brain often tell you wouldn’t make you happy, does.