With people having a lot more free time while they’re stuck indoors, now is the perfect opportunity to develop a reading habit in order to make the best out of the nationwide stay-at-home order.
Better yet, why not sift through reads recommended by successful billionaires like Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, and Mark Cuban? Doing so might just give one the kind of insights and knowledge that they need to follow in the footsteps of those aforementioned businessmen.
The Intelligent Investor
The book was originally published in 1949 and has been sold in various editions throughout the years
It’s always interesting to know how today’s billionaires began building their business and investing acumen. In Warren Buffett’s case, he credits Benjamin Graham’s now-classic book "The Intelligent Investor" for helping him in forming his own investment philosophy when he read it as a teenager.
In fact, Buffett’s name and the book have been so linked that the billionaire has even written a preface for an edition of the value investing guide. The Berkshire Hathaway CEO emphasized how one only needs a ‘sound intellectual framework’ when making investing decisions.
The Innovator's Dilemma
The adjective ‘disruptive’ has been used to describe businesses that have introduced innovative technologies or concepts to an industry. Those who are dreaming of founding such a company may want to follow the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ example and give Clayton M. Christiansen’s "The Innovator’s Dilemma" a good read. The book highlights its author’s theory that companies fail when they stop innovating along with the changing needs of customers and technology as a whole.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The book and its installments have since inspired adaptations in film, television and even comics
Those who aren’t much for reading dense non-fiction books might want to start with Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s recommendation: ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ by Douglas Adams. The SpaceX founder credits this science fiction book for helping him go through an existential crisis he had as a teen.
One of the most prominent plot points of the book is a supercomputer’s deduction of the meaning of life to the number 42. The question that led to this answer remains unclear leading Musk to comment that sometimes knowing the question is harder than the answer.
The Fountainhead
The book was turned into a movie with Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal in the lead roles
The books and ideas of Russian-born American philosopher Ayn Rand are without a doubt controversial. While her objectivist philosophy has a lot of critics, people can still benefit from parsing through some of her fictional works like ‘The Fountainhead’, which billionaire Mark Cuban actually recommends all entrepreneurs to read.
