Libraries Of Leaders: Elon Musk’s Biography Inspired Paper Boat’s Founder
What Indian Entrepreneurs are reading
Most successful entrepreneurs seem to have one thing in common - they read.
“I just sit in my office and read all day,” Warren Buffet told The Week magazine in an interview when asked about his formula to get smarter. Bill Gates has a blog where he recommends the books he reads. And Mark Zuckerberg has his own online book club.
Back home, three successful startup entrepreneurs say that’s their formula for success too. Kunal Shah of FreeCharge, Neeraj Biyani of Paper Boat (Hector Beverages) and Aloke Bajpai of ixigo shared some of their recommendations.
Kunal Shah
Kunal Shah is the co-founder of of FreeCharge. The online payment application which was launched in 2015 , now has over one million daily users , paying anything from an electricity bill to buying a metro ticket. Here's what finds prominent place on his bookshelves.
1. Tools Of Titans by Timothy Ferris
The author's business interview podcast is the most downloaded globally. In this book he draws upon his interactions with a range of people, from billionaires to black-marketers, to arrive at “the distilled tools and tactics and the inside baseball you won’t find anywhere else”.
2. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah
A favourite pick on Libraries of Leaders, it is the story of the evolution of the humanoid – from six species to one dominant city building, warring super species, and how and why they devised everything from religion to money to books. It relies on multiple branches of science including archaeology, paleontology, and social sciences.
3. Thinking Fast And Slow by Daniel Kahneman
The book explains the two ways in which the human mind operates and makes decisions. Kahneman talks of an intuitive impulsive decision-making process and a slower more rational one and points out the advantages and disadvantages of the two systems given any situation.
Neeraj Biyani
Neeraj Bayani is the chief operating officer (COO) and co-founder of Hector Beverages Pvt .Ltd., makers of the popular Paper Boat range of drinks. His recommendations are a veritable list of what makes a successful entrepreneur.
1. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
The book is a guide for entrepreneurs on building a startup which is capital efficient and has systems in place which foster the evolution and diversity of products through experimentation and the best utilisation of human capital.
2. Elon Musk: Inventing The Future by Ashlee Vance
The book is an insight into the life of a South African migrant to Silicon Valley who would become one of the country’s most unconventional and renowned innovators and entrepreneurs.
Either a member truly believes in the cause or they don’t and fall out. But those who do, they can then almost accomplish anything. Space X is a great example of not giving up even after repeated failure and doing something that was never thought before.Neeraj Biyani, COO, Hector Beverages
3. Scaling Up by Verne Harnish
The book discuses strategies and frameworks which allow a company to dominate a market. It also talks of the fundamental mistakes that many organisations make which makes scaling up all but impossible.
Aloke Bajpai
Aloke Bajpai is the co-founder of the online travel aggregator ixigo. The website has been offering travellers customised travel and accommodation options since 2006. Here are some of the books on Aloke’s nightstand.
1. The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The book is the story of an uneasy co-existence between a young man and a wild tiger while they are both aboard a small boat in the middle of the ocean. The book won the Man Booker Prize in 2003 .
I tell myself - if I ever write a book, it needs to be as simple, yet deep, as this one.Aloke Bajpai, Co-founder, ixigo
2. Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh
The book is the story behind the resounding success of the shoe and online clothing startup Zappos with its focus on the consumer. It traces the journey of the company from its inception to being acquired at a $1.2 billion valuation in 2009.
Zappos has so much to teach us about how every customer matters, and how delivering happy customer experiences is a lot bigger than just good customer service to build lasting brand loyalty.Aloke Bajpai, Co-founder, ixigo
3. Hooked by Nir Eyal
His final recommendation is a guide on how you develop the brand loyalty. Based on a particular model of consumer behaviour, this Nir Eyal book dwells on how a product can evolve into one that consumers keeps coming back to without the need for costly marketing.