Recommended Reading
The challenges of starting anything from scratch are plentiful. At Accelement we know overcoming those long odds requires determination, consistency and knowledge in equal parts. Sometimes we read to gain that knowledge, but we also read to share knowledge, gain insight, join community. We believe reading books matters, and we’re delighted to share some of our favorites.
Books
FROM PROBLEM SOLVING TO SOLUTION DESIGN
Eduardo and Erica Campos
The authors have compiled their expertise into a field guide for those working toward implementing lasting solutions within organizations. From Problem Solving to Solution Design: Turning Ideas into Actions is a pragmatic, condensed resource that provides readers with vital checkpoints to guide them in assessing problems and designing sustainable solutions.
This book includes techniques, case studies, and templates used by global organizations to design and implement initiatives that address complex organizational issues in a way that drives results and satisfies all parties involved. In addition to these field-tested approaches, From Problem Solving to Solution Design provides readers with references to further research specific topics of interest. This guide is an invaluable resource for anyone charged with tackling complex problems.
Eclipse: History. Science. Awe. 3rd Edition
Eclipse expert Bryan Brewer’s enduring classic takes you on a grand, full-color pictorial tour of the history and science of eclipses.Discover how these rare and dramatic celestial events have influenced culture throughout the ages, from Stonehenge and ancient Egypt to Shakespeare and MarkTwain. Follow the sagas of scientists who traveled the globe to glimpse precious minutes of totality to study our solar system. Learn the simple secrets of how eclipses occur, and why they continue to rivet the human imagination.
Stop Pushing String: Getting Decisions Made with the Five Languages of Business
Jessica P. Hickey
Whether you are a brand new or experienced project manager or consultant, on a leadership team or navigating your family, this book gives new insight and a framework to speaking the language of decision makers.
Other Recommended Reading:
The Laws of Simplicity (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life)
John Maeda
This is an attempt to answer, for the lay person, why good design in your product or in your life is important, and how design can impact the bottom line for the better.
The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
Eric Ries
Employing continuous innovation in your company to increase the chances of success. Especially relevant to software and apps developers.
Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant
W. Chan Kim
Why should you compete with every other manufacturer or service provider to sell your product when you can stake out new territory through engineering and design?
Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization
John Wooden
Probably one of the finest coaches of all time, this book has garnered him accolades from luminaries in business, science and technology who have applied his principles with great success.
The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
Eliyahu M. Goldratt
Written in the style of a novel, which gives it a lot of appeal in the dry world of business books, this is one book that gets read cover to cover. A successful consultant, Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints details the importance of strategic capacity planning and constraint management.
Non-Obvious: How to Think Different, Curate Ideas & Predict The Future
Rohit Bhargava
While many of these books apply to leading teams or building organizations, this one is a straightforward explanation of what it takes to not “run with the herd.” Ideal for strategists in marketing, product development, and sales, it teaches how to do our own trend-spotting, and look beyond the jargon to find the meat of the subject.
The Effective Executive
Peter F. Drucker
An oldie but a goodie, this classic still occupies the shelves of many leaders. In it, he explains how although some are natural-born leaders, there are skills that can be developed to make a better executive.
Giants of Enterprise: Seven Business Innovators and the Empires They Built
Richard Tedlow
The studious business person can learn much from this review of the struggles and successes of these world-renowned leaders.
Discover Your True North
Bill George
Rather than adopting time-worn models of stuffy leadership, George inspires readers to know themselves and create their own, tailor-made style.
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman
Nobel Prize winner and psychologist Daniel Kahneman breaks down our thought patterns into two sectors: the impulsive, emotional System 1 and the logical, deliberate System 2. Knowing when you are using one—when you should be using the other—could be the key to better, more effective business decisions.
Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity
Hugh MacLeod
MacLeod has ideas about everything, including standing out from your competitors and the meaning of life. His main subjects here are creativity and how to foster new ideas. A lively, illustrated guide to unleashing your ingenuity.
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High
Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler
To succeed in business, you must know how to communicate. Whether at a staff meeting, networking event, trade conference, or just a casual conversation with a coworker, business relies on communication. Crucial Conversations provides readers with the tools needed to master difficult conversations at work (and home).
We: How to Increase Performance and Profits through Full Engagement
Rudy Karsan and Kevin Kruse
It’s rare to find a business book that speaks to both employees and business managers/leaders. It tackles the subject of employee engagement by dissecting what it means for both employers and business leaders alike.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Ben Horowitz
To help other entrepreneurs through their journey, the author shares the story of when his business nearly failed, how he staved off defeat, and how you can do hard things too.
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Peter Thiel and Blake Masters
Masters took notes while taking a class from Thiel at Stanford, and it led to a groundbreaking book about the importance of unique business ideas.
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
In “The Black Swan,” investor-philosopher Taleb diagnoses the way people misguidedly lean on prediction as a way of moving through the world, and reveals how the most structured of systems are the most vulnerable to collapse — like the financial system in 2007.
The Startup Checklist
David S. Rose
A to-do list of concrete steps an entrepreneur can take to build their business.
The Introvert Entrepreneur
Beth Buelow
The skills and strengths of introverts may be well suited for the life of an entrepreneur. Learn how to use introversion for your business success.
Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist
Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson
This book explains how venture deals come together, including important information on term sheets and options on structuring your deal.
Scalable Innovation: A Guide for Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and IP Professionals
Eugene Shteyn and Max Shtein
This book offers principles that form the foundation of successful innovation, helping the entrepreneur accelerate innovation development and improve the evaluation cycle.
Getting Naked: A Business Fable About Shedding The Three Fears That Sabotage Client Loyalty
Patrick Lencioni
Honesty, vulnerability, transparency may seem risky in business relationships but they are often the key to building trust and loyalty.
Slicing Pie Handbook: Perfectly Fair Equity Splits for Bootstrapped Startups
Mike Moyer
The Slicing Pie Handbook outlines a framework for perfectly fair equity splits for early-stage, bootstrapped startup companies. The Slicing Pie Handbook will help you determine the right share for people who contribute the things you need to start your company including help, equipment, supplies, rent and even credit.
Rand Fishkin, the founder and former CEO of Moz, reveals how traditional Silicon Valley “wisdom” leads far too many startups astray, with the transparency and humor that his hundreds of thousands of blog readers have come to love.
Everyone knows how a startup story is supposed to go: A young, brilliant entrepreneur has a cool idea, drops out of college, defies the doubters, overcomes all odds, makes billions, and becomes the envy of the technology world.
This is not that story.
In this revolutionary guide, Stanford University Professor and international bestselling author of inGenius adopts her popular course material to teach everyone how to make imaginative ideas a reality.
As a leading expert on creativity, Tina Seelig has continually explored what we can each do to unleash our entrepreneurial spirit. In Insight Out, she offers us the tools to make our ideas a reality. She clearly defines the concepts of imagination, creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurism, showing how they affect each other and how we can unlock the pathway from imagination to implementation, where our ideas then gain the power to inspire the imaginations of others.
This is the highly anticipated third edition of the best-selling book which has become the definitive resource for understanding venture capital fundraising. Whether you are an entrepreneur, lawyer, student or just have an interest in the venture capital ecosystem, Venture Deals is for you. The book dives deeply into how deals are constructed, why certain terms matter (and others don’t), and more importantly, what motivates venture capitalists to propose certain outcomes. You’ll see the process of negotiating from the eyes of two seasoned venture capitalists who have over 40 years of investing experience as VCs, LPs, angels, and founders. They will teach you how to develop a fundraising strategy that will be a win for all parties involved.