10 Books Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos Thinks You Ought to Learn

One of my favorite things to do is ask writers whose books I enjoy listing a few books they love. It’s a great way to get great referrals.

The same goes for entrepreneurship. If you’re a fan of Jeff Bezos – like him or not, it’s hard not to respect his accomplishments from a “building a thriving business” standpoint – then reading some of his favorite books might help you uncover the new ones Perspectives, new ideas and new ways to improve your business.

While emailing Bezos is easy, it may not be possible to get him to respond and recommend a few books.

Fortunately, the folks at Most Recommended Books have compiled a list of 24 books that Bezos has recommended over the years.

Here are ten that I wholeheartedly recommend too, along with comments from Bezos. (You will notice a bias towards surgery. Ideas are nice … but execution is everything.)

“My favorite business book.”

“Was instrumental in creating Amazon Web Services (AWS), the service that popularized the term cloud.”

– Jason Fried and DH Hansson

“Undeterred by conventional wisdom, [the authors] Start over and rewrite the business rules. Their approach proves to be as successful as it is counter-intuitive. “

“Argues that humans are wired to see patterns in chaos while remaining blind to unpredictable events, with massive consequences. Experimentation and empiricism trump simple and obvious narrative.”

– Clayton M. Christensen

“A hugely influential business book whose principles Amazon followed that made the development of Kindle and AWS easier.”

“Explains the principles of the discounter and discusses its basic values ​​frugality and willingness to act – the willingness to try many things and make many mistakes.”

“Encourages companies to identify the major constraints in their operations and then structure their organizations to make the most of those constraints.”

“Requires a focus on those activities that create value for the customer and systematically eradicate everything else.”

According to Brad Stone, author of Everything Store, “Collins briefed Amazon executives on his landmark management book before it was published.”

“My favorite novel. Teaches the pain of regret so well that you think you have lived it.”

The opinions expressed by Inc.com columnists here are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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