Do you ever find a product that’s exactly what you’re looking for? Maybe it’s a coat with pockets in all the right places, manufactured in a fashionable shade of blue, or an office chair that supports your back just right, allowing you to focus on your work for hours.

How was it made so perfectly, almost like it was made to order?

Chances are, it wasn’t by role of the dice. Not by a long shot. As Marty Cagan writes in his book, Inspired: “Behind every great product there is someone—usually someone behind the scenes, working tirelessly—who led the product team to combine technology and design to solve real customer problems.”

This “behind the scenes” person has come to be known as a product manager. The position of product manager is fairly new; it was first conceived at Procter & Gamble just under 100 years ago. In the last thirty years, the role has developed, becoming a key component in the organizational structure of complex industries such as technology. The demand for the position is high. The pay is attractive.

But the job itself isn’t for the faint of heart. A product manager must sway and influence many disparate groups of people, without having authority over any of them. The position requires thinking creatively and imaginatively while at the same time researching and analyzing hard facts about the market, the customer, the production process and the bottom line.

Successfully balancing these tensions means the difference between developing a product that’s a hit that everyone wants to buy, and a product that’s a dud that disappears from the market immediately.

It’s not a position you can master without some guidance, that’s for sure.

Maybe you understand product management in theory, but struggle with “doing it” in the day-to-day. Or you think you know all the ins-and-outs of the position, but still get thrown curve balls that leave you wondering if you know how to do your job at all. Or maybe you want to embark on a new career, and wonder just what product management entails and what skill set it requires.

Whatever stage you’re at with product management, someone’s been there before. Many have shined a light on what they’ve learned. In an assortment of books, they’ve covered all the facets of product management, from teaching the basics, to explaining theories of efficient production, to navigating the day-to-day, to getting your foot in the door. These are thoughtful books, with lots of practical takeaways, guides, templates and checklists, to get you on track with your product management career.

So whether you’re a newbie to product management or a seasoned product manager who wants to learn more, there’s a book out there for you. Now, without further ado, let’s take a look at the best books on product management.

The Influential Product Manager: How to Lead and Launch Successful Technology Products by Ken Sandy

Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Publication Year: 2020
Number of Pages: 384

It’s so common to read inspiring prose about product management, and still be clueless how to apply the ideas to a specific situation.

Author Ken Sandy makes sure you don’t have this problem with his book, The Influential Product Manager.

“My goal is to provide current and aspiring product managers with the tools, techniques, skills and empathy required to be successful in navigating the critical ‘human’ or ‘people’ component of their role.”

He explains how a product manager leverages soft skills (influence, persuasion, charisma) to build a great product.

“What makes a truly outstanding product manager? It’s not just the ability to deliver a product to market. It is also the ability to empathize and determine customers’ needs; to persuade, motivate, and align a cross-functional group of professionals behind a common purpose.”

Then, he shows you how you can become this outstanding product manager. His book is based on a course he teaches, and includes a link for downloading worksheets and exercises for putting his lessons into practice.

He addresses The Influential Product Manager to current product managers, aspiring product managers and even people working with product managers.

The book has a pleasing layout and design. The chapters begin with learning objectives and end with a checklist of activities covered, indicated with a pencil icon. Takeaway tips and tricks are sprinkled throughout, indicated with a rabbit icon. It consists of 12 chapters, organized around the life cycle of a product: ideation, discovery, prioritization, definition, implementation, launch and measurement. They’re easy to read, and include personal anecdotes from Sandy.

Sandy brings over two decades of hands-on experience to the topic, including directing product management for Kodak and Looksmart, and working as the VP for product management at Masterclass. He currently gives lectures and webinars in product management.

Much of this book is communicated through its layout (text boxes, notes in the margin, checklists at the end of chapters), so it’s better to read than listen to. A lot of the meaning and emphasis don’t come across in audio.

Product Management in Practice: A Real-World Guide to the Key Connective Role of the 21st Century by Matt Lemay

Publisher: O’Rielly Media
Publication Year: 2017
Number of Pages: 186

When he first started out as a product manager, Matt Lemay had an experience common to many novices. He found himself sitting at his desk, twiddling his thumbs.

“For all the books that I had read and all the methodologies that I had studied, the only thing I was left with when I sat back down at my desk was, “What the hell am I supposed to do every day?”

Product Management in Practice is about making the leap from theory to practical, so it’s suited for someone new to product management. “This book is intended to help you through the challenges that no tool, framework or ‘best practice’ can prepare you for.”

Lemay argues that product management isn’t a role or a theory, but rather a practice. And in practice, “product management often feels more like a series of interrelated novellas than it does a neatly organized textbook.”

It’s a fun book. The cover is an image of a brand new, doe-eyed product manager, looking around the office, bewildered. His writing is thoughtful, analytical and also humorous. Some chapters include: “The Art of Egregious Overcommunication” and “The Wonderful, Horrible Truth About Agile” He recounts many relatable anecdotes of both of himself and his peers on the job as product managers.

Lemay’s approach to product management leans heavily on the agile methodology; he’s also written the book, Agile for Everybody. His experience includes working as the product manager for Bitly and as an adjunct professor at New York University.

Although a seasoned product manager may not find a lot of takeaways here, Product Management in Practice is a good supplementary book for anyone who’s learned product management in theory and needs some practical input. At just under 200 pages, for the writing, humor and stories alone, you may find yourself reading it twice.

The Product Book: How to Become a Great Product Manager by Carlos González de Villaumbrosia and Josh Anon

Publisher: The Product School
Publication Year: 2017
Number of Pages: 302

This book could just as easily be titled: Product Management 101. If you’re looking for an easy-to-read overview of product management, this is your book.

Over its nine chapters, it provides an end-to-end view of what happens in the position of product manager. Titles include: “What is a Product Manager,” “Idea to Action,” “Working With the Engineer,” “Working With the Designer,” and “Bringing the Product to Market.”

Its large all-caps headings and subheadings make it easy to process the concepts quickly. It’s a great overview for any newbie product manager wanting a refresher course, or an aspiring product manager (although there’s not much in here about getting your foot in the door).

Villaumbrosia is Spanish, and has worked in product management in both Spain and Portugal. He’s earned degrees in management, computer science and engineering. He also founded the Product School in 2014, which offers three online certifications in Product Management, taught by industry leaders from Google, Uber, and Amazon, amongst other businesses. The book’s second author, Anon, is an instructor at the product school.

Product Leadership: How Top Product Managers Launch Awesome Products and Build Successful Teams by Richard Banfield, Martin Eriksson and Nate Walkingshaw

Publisher: O’Rielly Media
Publication Year: 2017
Number of Pages: 248

Anyone thrown into product management flails around for a while. The position is wedged between a lot of opposing forces, including a development team, clients, stakeholders and upper management. A new product manager naturally wonders where and how she fits into the scheme.

In their book Product Leadership, authors Banfield, Eriksson and Walkingshaw write that more than completing a set of tasks, product management is about rallying people around your insights, data and inspirations.

“The book you’re holding in your hands will be your guide to navigating product leadership…there is no one right way to build great products, but…there is a right mentality and approach.”

This book speaks to experienced product managers, as well as CEOs, CTOs and startup founders. They discuss the history of product management, and explain how the position evolved during the agile revolution of the 90s.

“Today in the digital world where we hardly agree on much, just about everyone can agree that product managers are essential contributors at the intersection of business, technology and user experience.”

There are different contexts for product management today. But in all of them, the authors find, the role is about leading. The book is written in three parts, and organized to be a “choose your own adventure.” They distinguish between startup, emerging and enterprising organizations, and emphasize how each has a distinctive approach to product leadership.

The authors bring their diverse experience to the book. Banfield is a former CEO and currently an advisor to several companies. Erikkson is a co-founder of Mind the Product, an organization that provides counseling, courses and career support to product managers.

It’s composed mostly of text, with only a few images sprinkled throughout. Although some readers found the book dense and hard to read, others found it a comprehensive overview of product management.

Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Publication Year: 2018
Number of Pages: 368

In Inspired, Marty Cagan argues that there isn’t a formula or recipe for creating an excellent product. The winning formula, rather, is around creating a culture and environment that enables a great product to be built. The product manager is central to shaping this environment.

He states outright that not everyone is cut out for product management. Yet his aim with the book is to help product managers navigate challenges and succeed in the role.

This book is helpful for someone new to product management, as it provides some context for where product managers fit into an organizational structure.
It’s a lengthy book, with three sections dedicated to shaping the organizational framework, titled: “The Right Product,” “The Right People” and “The Right Process.” A fourth section covers how to not do things, and includes a chapter titled: “The Root Causes of Failed Product Efforts.”

The first edition of Inspired was a bestseller, and was translated into several languages. This is a much-revised second edition.

Cagan brings his lengthy experience to the book, which includes working as an executive at Ebay and Netscape. He’s now a partner at the Silicon Valley Product Group, and writes a monthly newsletter and blog.

Some readers have found Inspired helpful with interview preparation, as it outlines the functions of the position.

Pivot to Product Manager: The Ultimate 3-Step Playbook to Kickstart Your Product Management Career by Irving Malcolm

Publisher: Kaiconnections London
Publication Year: 2021
Number of Pages: 190

Even after putting together a flashy, attention grabbing resume, every aspiring product manager has an even higher hurdle to jump over: the interview.

The position requires such a broad array of soft and hard skills, that preparing for an interview brings all sorts of questions to mind, such as: What will they ask? What sort of skills do I present? What does the job really entail?

Pivot to Product Management is for anyone who hopes to land a position as a product manager. It’s the “insiders” guide to crushing the interview and knowing what skill to develop beforehand.

Author Malcolm outlines practices to pick up, including reading for 20 minutes each day (from a list he provides at the end of the book) and perusing tech publications such as Mashable and TechCrunch.

He dedicates the entire second and third sections of the book to the hiring process, covering:

• How to research which companies to apply for,
• How to prepare for the interview,
• How to develop the elevator pitch and
• How to answer questions related to every facet of the position, including product strategy, KPIs and estimating techniques.

Anyone who reads Pivot to Product Manager should close the book with a clear understanding of the purpose of the position, the skills essential to the role and the qualities a manager looks for in potential candidates.

“We know that an excellent product is usually a result of a robust product manager’s vision, skill and leadership…The role is scientific and data-driven but simultaneously requires creative intuition and the ability to trust your instincts.”

Pivot to Product Manager is an elusively easy read, as it’s packed with practical takeaways. Readers love the section on elevator pitches. It’s a must-have for nailing the interview and starting a career in product management.

Excellent Execution as a Product Manager by Clement Kao

Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Year: 2020
Number of Pages: 177

Some people have reasonably predictable jobs. Take toll booth workers, for example. They arrive at work, sit down and stay put. They do the job, then get up and go home.

A day in the life of a product manager doesn’t go exactly like this. The position entails interacting with many groups of people, from stakeholders, to developers, to upper management, to clients. Plus, it’s research heavy. A typical day in the life of a product manager ends miles and miles from where it started, and it doesn’t follow a linear path in between.

All the code-switching demanded of the position begs the question: How does a product manager do the job and do it well without burning out?

Clement Kao answers this question and more in his book, Excellent Execution as a Product Manager. He describes the book as a “look-over-my-shoulder-guide,” and he didn’t write it for newbie or seasoned product managers. It’s written for a very specific audience: product managers in their first few years on the job.

It’s all about how to “do” product management in the day-to-day. Kao gets into the minutia of the daily grind, advising readers to do things such as:

• Take regular walks during the day.
• Goal set at the start of each day.
• Schedule the day using time blocking.

His description of product management places a heavy emphasis on agile, and the book includes chapters such as: “Sprint Best Practices,” “Maintaining Healthy Backlogs” and “Retrospectives.”

He dedicates his book to “all product managers who are dedicated to their own self improvement.” It’s written in a casual style, and reads more like a 177-page blog post than a book.

Kao himself works as a Product Manager at Blend, a startup in San Francisco. He also co-founded Product Manager HQ, an online community for product managers. Product Manager HQ has been featured in Forbes, and hosts live sessions with leaders in product management.

The Lean Product Playbook: How to Innovate with Minimum Viable Products and Rapid Customer Feedback by Dan Olsen

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Publication Date: 2015
Number of Pages: 336

Have you ever gotten so far into a project that reversing just a few steps meant doubling your time? A lean approach to manufacturing aims to eliminate this sort of rework.

The Lean Product Playbook is for product managers who want to develop products using the lean production method, which incorporates working efficiently, minimizing waste and addressing needs of customers. It’s suited for current product managers who want to develop methods for creating products with an improved product-market fit.

The book is very theoretical, but also includes case studies and frameworks and diagrams to make the concepts easy to apply. It’s written in three parts. The second part delves into the Lean process, where author Dan Olsen outlines its five steps, including: determine target customer, identify underserved customer needs and define value proposition.

A great process creates a good product, Olsen asserts. And lean manufacturing is that great process.

The writing is pretty granular, with wordy descriptions of things such as “product,” “market” and “product-market fit.” He does bring in examples, which makes his concepts easier to understand.

Olsen cut his teeth in product management at Intuit. He now consults companies through Olsen Solutions, and stays busy giving workshops and hosting a monthly meetup in Silicon Valley.

On any day of the week, most of us find ourselves saying things like, “He drives a hard bargain,” “She didn’t give me an inch” and “He’s a real pushover.”

Yet while negotiation is a part of our everyday lives, for many it’s still shrouded in mystery. We don’t understand how people we know always seem to get their way, or how others routinely charm customer service representatives, receiving perks and freebies galore.

And we’re well aware of what this lack of understanding costs us. It may mean that we don’t get the raise we know we deserve, or that we overpay for a much-needed vehicle, as we have no idea how to bring the seller down.

Shrewd negotiation can mean the difference between eating a dinner you like and one you can hardly keep down, between sleeping on a delightful, comfortable mattress or one that’s too hard and impossible to fall asleep on. It can mean the difference between receiving a generous Christmas bonus and one that hardly pays the electricity bill. And in some instances, it can mean the difference between life and death.

With the stakes so high, what’s stopping us from climbing into the ring and asking for what we want?

Many of us hold deeply entrenched beliefs about negotiation that keeps us safely on the sidelines. Some believe you’re either born with negotiating chops or you aren’t. So when these people don’t see a natural tendency to bargain within themselves, they don’t put out any effort. Others believe the tough negotiators live in a “you only eat the meat that you kill” kind of a world. Everything is a competition and every interaction determines a winner and a loser. And they don’t want to have any part of it.

Yet, many have disregarded these beliefs. They don’t shy away from bringing their desires to the table, and they’re getting what they want. They earn what they’re due and they purchase their homes at great prices.

Still more have found these beliefs to be false. They know that negotiation is not a trait that’s inherited. It’s not a zero-sum game, where if one person gains the other loses. It’s not a messy conflict that naturally leads to burnt bridges. Believe it or not, you can have your cake, eat it and share a slice with everyone else at the boardroom table. Does that sound like an offer you can’t refuse?

If you’re ready to build some negotiating skills, then dig in. We’re going to look at what the shrewdest wheelers and dealers have to say in this guide to the best books on negotiation.

Negotiation Simplified: A Framework and Process for Understanding and Improving Negotiating Results by Jim Reiman

Publisher: Amplify Publishing
Year Published: 2022
Number of Pages: 216

Are you tired of books that speak down to you? Or books that go on and on about a concept that could easily be summarized in a few sentences? If so, then Negotiation Simplified is for you.

Author Jim Reiman finds that the other books on negotiation are either too complicated or too simple. His book is neither. It’s the Goldilocks book that aims to “to simplify without being simplistic.”

“Negotiation Simplified is written by a practitioner for the practitioner. It assumes that the reader is intelligent and brings some experience, so you will find no rote set of steps to follow. Rather, it provides a method to analyze and frame situations and facts.”

Reiman pares negotiation down to its leanest form. It’s a great book for anyone new to the topic who’s learning the basics.

“Achieving great negotiating results requires only four skills…they are setting clear goals, being prepared, listening and being self aware.”

The chapters cover things such as preparation (including planning, strategy and tactics) and common negotiation challenges. In the chapter “Experience Speaks”, Reiman illustrates how his ideas apply in the real world, with anecdotes from a variety of professionals.

This book is quiet and direct and super easy to read. A lot is packed into its 216 pages.

Reiman is a lawyer and has also worked as the CEO of several companies, including a cell phone company in China that he expanded from a small chain of stores into a public company sold on the London Stock Exchange.

Readers have found this book helpful in all sorts of scenarios, from buying a home to negotiating pay and opportunities in the workplace.

Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini, PhD

Publisher: Harper Business
Year Published: 2021
Number of Pages: 592

Do you ever find yourself saying “yes” to something you don’t want to do at all? Maybe it’s agreeing to watch your neighbor’s dog while she’s on summer vacation (because she watered your garden when you were out of town that spring).

In Influence, author Robert Cialdini breaks down the psychology behind persuasion and influence, both of which are integral to negotiation. We don’t agree to something simply because it’s what we want. Each of us is far more prone to manipulation or automatic behavior than we’d like to believe.

“[The experts] have identified regular, blindly mechanical patterns of action in a wide variety of species…we, too, have our preset programs, and although they usually work to our advantage, the trigger feature that activates them can dupe us into running the right programs at the wrong time.”

First published in 1984, Influence has sold over five million copies. This newest version includes Cialdini’s expanded understanding on the topic, including an 8th Chapter titled “Unity.”

Influence offers more than a peek behind the curtains into the psychology of negotiation, making it a great read for anyone who’s looking for more than a surface-level understanding of the topic.

He breaks persuasion down into eight distinct methods: reciprocation, liking, social proof, authority, scarcity, commitment and consistency and unity. He incorporates stories and case studies to explain how each method works in real life. He’s quick to explain how we can ethically use these ideas to our advantage.

At nearly 600 pages, Influence is an investment of anyone’s time. But it’s worth it. Although some of the stories and anecdotes sound dated, the lessons are timeless. And Cialdini’s friendly tone makes him sound more like a companion than a lecturer.

Known as the “Godfather of Influence”, Cialdini’s council is highly sought-after in the fields of marketing, politics and business. Currently, he’s the CEO of Influence at Work, where he gives talks and trainings. He also wrote the book, Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade.

His content (not his personality) is very similar to Tony Robbins; it’s all about the psychology behind negotiation. You’ll even hear the two of them using the same anecdotes from time to time.

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It by Chris Voss, with Tahl Raz

Publisher: Harper Business
Year Published: 2016
Number of Pages: 288

Most of us won’t ever be in a negotiation with a kidnapper or terrorist, arguing over millions of dollars where the stakes are life and death. But for Chris Voss, author of Never Split the Difference, these sorts of negotiations were part of his regular workday.

Voss spent over two decades at the FBI as the lead kidnapping investigator. He cut his teeth negotiating with criminals who threatened to spare the lives of innocent children only in exchange for money. And over this time he developed a hands-on system that worked.

“In the twenty years I spent at the Bureau we’d design a system that had successfully resolved almost every kidnapping we applied it to. But we didn’t have grand theories.”

Voss presents his system amidst engrossing stories, and convinces the reader that negotiation is a life skill that everyone needs to keep sharp and carry at all times.

“Over the years I had picked up skills, tactics and a whole approach to human interaction that had not just helped me save lives but, as I recognize now looking back, had also come to transform my own life. My years of negotiating had infused everything from how I dealt with customer service representatives to my parenting style.”

Voss takes a street-wise approach to negotiation, one not rooted in academia or theories, but in the gritty world of criminals and thugs. One of his tactics is an open-ended question, which has no fixed answer. It buys the negotiator time, and lets the other side think the ball is in their court. Another tip includes pacing yourself in a negotiation; “going too fast is one of the mistakes all negotiators are prone to making.”

Never Split the Difference is written in ten chapters, including: “Trigger the Two Words That Immediately Transform Any Negotiation” and “Find the Black Swan: How to Create Breakthroughs by Revealing the Unknown Unknowns.”

It’s an intense read, and he frames all negotiations like they’re a win-or-lose competition. His method is all about giving you the edge. It’s a story-driven book, and only a small portion of the content covers the how-to of his method.

After his career with the FBI, Voss pursued a career in academia, working as an adjunct professor at Harvard and Georgetown. He is also the CEO of his organization, The Black Swan Group.

Ask for It: How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever

Publisher: Bantam Books
Year Published: 2009
Number of Pages: 336

The Godfather of Soul, James Brown, established his career with his wildly popular single, “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.” This message is so pervasive that it’s easy for a woman to believe that inequalities between the sexes are just the way of things and there’s nothing she can do about it.

Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever present a more hopeful message in their book, Ask for It. In large part, the inequality exists simply because women aren’t asking for things, and men are. Men tend to ask for raises, for better work opportunities, for the corner office, while women are more inclined to accept whatever is presented to them. This naturally results in huge disparities between the sexes in salary and career advancement.

This book is helpful for someone who suffers from “negotiation phobia.” It not only covers how to negotiate, but also what precludes women from asking.

Babcock and Laschever write that the voice of society tells women to be content with what they’ve received and not to ask for more. They encourage women to stop listening to this voice, and point out that someone who doesn’t negotiate leaves money on the table.

Then they get into the practicalities of how negotiation works. The book has four parts, including: Groundwork, Get Ready and Put It All Together (Go for It!). Some chapters include: Negotiation 101, Dress Rehearsal and The Closer. The appendix includes a six-step promotion process.

The authors recount the stories of dozens of women, making it interesting to read. Although perhaps there’s an overt careerist tone to the content, it does provide some great negotiating takeaways.

Ask For It was published on the heels of Babcock’s bestseller Women Don’t Ask. She’s a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Laschever coaches women on career development and career transition.

Negotiation Genius: How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results at the Bargaining Table and Beyond by Deepak Malhotra and Max Bazerman

Publisher: Bantam Books
Year Published: 2008
Number of Pages: 352

A common caricature of a skilled negotiator is a person with a dominant, forceful personality who loves a good fight. Anyone without these characteristics may well conclude that negotiating just isn’t for them.

Deepak Malhotra and Max Bazerman fight against this notion in their book, Negotiating Genius. Negotiators aren’t born; rather, they’re made.

“One problem we’ve encountered is the belief that people are either good or bad at negotiation and little can be done to change that….we could not disagree more.”

Nor do they agree with a belief that negotiation is all about instinct; rather, it’s about strategy.

The book persuades the reader that negotiation is a skill that anyone can learn and develop, and it provides a framework to turn him or her into a “negotiating genius.”

Its lessons include identifying the “ZOPA” zone, the zone of possible agreement, and leveraging within this range.

The authors are Harvard professors and have researched negotiation for decades.

The text is pretty dense, but they begin with several true stories where characters overcome huge obstacles through deft and shrewd negotiation—but they don’t explain how until later in the book. This keeps you turning pages. Some readers even found the book gripping and couldn’t put it down.

The Art of the Deal by Donald J. Trump with Tony Schwartz

Publisher: Ballantine Books
Year Published: 1987
Number of Pages: 384

“Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That’s how I get my kicks.”

From building The Trump Plaza and Casino in Atlantic City, to the Trump Tower and The Grand Hyatt in Manhattan, Donald Trump has indeed spent much of his time in the upper-echelons of real-estate deals.

Published in 1987, Art of the Deal stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 48 weeks, reaching #1 for 13 weeks. Even now, over thirty years later, it’s still a good read for anyone looking to sharpen her negotiation skills.

“You can’t be scared, you do your thing, you hold your ground, you stand up tall, and whatever happens, happens.”

In Art of the Deal, Trump retells the minutiae of his daily schedule, revealing how his deals begin, evolve and close. He takes a trust-your-gut approach to negotiation and doesn’t plan his days, but keeps them open to allow opportunities to present themselves.

“You can’t be imaginative or entrepreneurial if you’ve got too much structure.”

Much of this book is a memoir of Trump’s illustrious career, and chapter titles include: “Growing Up,” “The Move to Manhattan” and “Trump Tower: the Tiffany Location”

Trump served as the 45th President of the United States. He’s written several other books, including Think Like a Billionaire and The Art of the Comeback. Tony Schwartz is the CEO of The Energy Project.

Although the takeaways are written between the lines in Art of the Deal, many readers have benefited from learning Trump’s negotiation methods.

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher and William Ury and Bruce Patton

Publisher: Penguin
Year Published: 2011
Number of Pages: 240

In Getting to Yes, authors Roger Fisher and William Fry argue for a “third way” of negotiation. It isn’t “soft” negotiating, which entails avoiding confrontation and conceding quickly. Nor is it “hard” negotiating, which entails running the other person down through sheer force of will.

This third way they call “principled negotiating,” in which “you look for mutual gains whenever possible, and that where your interests conflict, you should insist that the result be based on some fair standards independent of the will of either side…it shows you how to obtain what you are entitled to and still be decent.”

Their method is helpful for someone who’s shy of negotiating or who thinks it’s too aggressive. It advocates behaving civilly and not burning any bridges during a negotiation. It also covers how to negotiate when the other person is a crook.

The authors are Harvard professors and part of the Harvard Negotiation Process.

Getting to Yes was a best seller in 1981, and they came out with the third edition in 2011. It includes a section that answers common questions they’ve received since the initial publication, including: “What if the other side believes in a different standard of fairness?” and “How do I try these ideas out without taking too much risk?”

Although some readers find the examples dated, it’s a useful book for amping up your negotiation skills in daily life.

Checkers or Battleship

No one becomes an expert negotiator overnight. It’s like the piano. You don’t get good at it unless you sit down every night and work on those scales.

Opportunities to develop negotiation skills present themselves all the time, from hiring employees to buying a car to discussing dinner plans with a spouse. As Fisher and Ury write in Getting to Yes, “Every negotiation is different, but the basic elements do not change.”

Negotiating is about earning your share and getting what you deserve. It is so implicit to our everyday life, that it’s one of those life skills we can hardly afford to not develop.

So whether you’re discussing with your best friend forever whether to have surf or turf for dinner, or vying with conniving businessmen for the penthouse suite at the office building on town square, remember that you only get what you ask for. So make every effort to plan and strategize. Then sit down, and calmly and slowly talk it through.

So you want to start a business? That’s amazing. But before you take the plunge, gathering information from those who have gone before you is crucial.

To help guide you through your first few steps in business, we’ve put together a list of books about creating businesses – all written by experts who have been where you’ll be going soon enough.

To create radically successful businesses, you need to understand how to:

1. Come up with a profitable business idea
2. Acquire the necessary skills
3. Develop a business plan
4. Securing investment from outsiders
5. Competing against other businesses – and winning.

The books on this list will give you the skills you need to be a business owner and not just any business owner – a wildly successful business owner who can master small business growth.

The journey to starting your own business is an exciting one, but it’s also full of uncertainty. These books will give you the foundation of knowledge needed to succeed. So, let’s dive in!

1. One Simple Idea for Startups and Entrepreneurs: Live Your Dreams and Create Your Own Profitable Company

Author: Stephen Key
Publication Year: 2015
Number of Pages: 256

Stephen Key, an award-winning entrepreneur, and inventor has written a how-to guide on generating ideas for businesses. If you need help thinking of what business to start, this book is for you.

With Key’s straightforward advice and easy-to-follow process, you’ll be able to develop your idea, launch your business, and start making money right away. And with his helpful tips for managing and growing your new enterprise, you can be sure that your success will last long into the future.

Key, as an entrepreneur himself, has been on the ground floor of many businesses and he’s now sharing his expertise with you so that you can create your products. Creating, manufacturing, and selling your product does not require a large investment of money or expertise. All you need is a viable concept and the desire to make it happen.

Key Takeaways from One Simple Idea for Startups and Entrepreneurs:

• Come up with an idea, test it to see if it works, and then protect it so that no one can steal it from you.
• Prepare and launch your own business.
• Create a product, package it, market it, then sell it and make money.
• Manage and scale your business

2. Crushing it! How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence – and How You Can, Too

Author: Gary Vaynerchuk
Publication Year: 2018
Number of Pages: 288

Gary Vaynerchuk is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our generation. He’s the kind of thought leader who makes you feel like starting your own business is not only possible but easy.

He has created many businesses from the ground up. He started with his family’s wine business and then moved on to start several other companies. He’s a best-selling author, public speaker, and investor.

In his new book, he shares lessons from his own experiences and from the experiences of other entrepreneurs. He shows that a personal brand is essential to business success. And he provides tips on how to create a business model that will make you rich—personally and financially.

Crushing It! is a guide to help you achieve professional and financial success. However, it is not about becoming rich. It is about living life on your terms.

Gary has a unique perspective on business and branding, and he shares his insights in a relatable, down-to-earth way that makes it easy for others to follow his advice and achieve their dreams. If you’re looking for inspiration and practical advice on starting your own business, Gary Vaynerchuk is the man to listen to.

This book is super helpful for entrepreneurs who want to learn how to create a personal brand that sells. It’s also great for business owners who want to take their businesses to the next level.

Key Takeaways from Crushing It:

• Build a personal brand that will make you rich
• No need to start with a product to make money from your brand
• Create a business model that will make you even richer
• Use social media to build your brand and sell your products

3. Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months: A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works

Author: Melinda F. Emerson
Publication Year: 2010
Number of Pages: 272

Melinda Emerson is the founder and CEO of Quintessence Multimedia. She’s been a business coach for over 20 years and has started several businesses herself. In Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months, Emerson outlines a step-by-step plan to create a successful business.

Each month, leading to the launch, readers are given tasks to work on – from getting your personal life in order to build a great team to developing marketing strategies. This book is perfect for those who crave a structure and a plan to follow as they work on starting their business.

So, what makes Melinda qualified to write a book on starting your own business? For starters, she’s been there herself. She knows firsthand what it takes to get a business off the ground, from developing a business plan to recruiting employees and everything in between.

Additionally, she has helped countless other entrepreneurs launch their businesses, so she’s familiar with the challenges and obstacles they face. In other words, she knows what it takes to become your boss in 12 months – and she’s here to help you do it, too.

Reading this book is the equivalent of hiring a business coach, but for a fraction of the cost. It will help you map out your business plan and keep you on track each month. Plus, it’s written in an easy-to-read style, so you won’t get bogged down in boring details.

Key Takeaways from Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months:

• The book is written in a step-by-step style, with each month leading up to the launch of your business.
• It’s perfect for those who crave structure and want a plan to follow.
• The book covers everything from getting your personal life to building a great team and developing marketing strategies.
• It’s an easy read that won’t bog you down with boring details.

4. The Lean Start-Up: How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses

Author: Eric Ries
Publication Year: 2011
Number of Pages: 368

The Lean Start-Up is a different kind of business book. It’s not about starting a business the traditional way, with a well-thought-out business plan and years of research. Instead, it’s about starting a business the lean way – with a minimal amount of resources and a maximum amount of flexibility.

Eric Ries, an American entrepreneur, blogger, and author, has come up with a new way to build startups that uses less money and gets more out of people’s creativity. This approach is based on the lessons he learned from leading startups as well as the principles of lean manufacturing, which focus on reducing waste.

This book helps entrepreneurs learn how to deal with uncertainty. You can do this by testing your ideas with a small product first often known as a Minimal Viable Product (MVP). This will help you learn and improve your ideas. This approach has been successfully used by many startups. The Lean Startup book is a well-known guide for entrepreneurs.

The Lean Startup offers a repeatable process. It’s super easy to learn. Essentially you need to figure out what customers want and then give it to them as quickly as possible. This process is called the build-measure-learn feedback loop.

Key Takeaways from The Lean Startup:

• Create an MVP to test and optimize your strategy.
• Validate your ideas with customers
• Iterate quickly on your product
• Use data to make decisions
• Maximize your chances of success

5. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk!

Author: Al Ries and Jack Trout
Publication Year: 1993
Number of Pages: 160

Marketing is inevitable for any business, big or small. And while some may view marketing as a “dark art”, the fact is, it’s essential to the success of any business. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing is a must-read for anyone looking to understand the basics of marketing and how to create a successful marketing strategy.

This book is a classic when it comes to marketing. It outlines 22 rules that companies use to be successful. If you want your products and company to be more successful, follow these rules.

Published in 1993, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing was written as a guide for companies on how to make their products successful internationally. You could aim big and try and compete with huge companies, but that would be a mistake. Instead, the authors advocate for finding a niche market and becoming the leader in that space.

Key Takeaways from The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing:

• Don’t worry about coming in the first place if you can’t. Just focus on being the first one people think of instead.
• You can avoid competition by creating your own category.
• Remember that each product comes with an opportunity cost.
• The goal of a startup is to figure out what customers want and will pay for as quickly as possible.
• Use MVPs to test your value and growth hypothesis quickly.

6. The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

Author: Clayton M. Christensen
Publication Year: 1997
Number of Pages: 336

Technology is essential for businesses to maintain a competitive edge, but it can also be an attractive disruption target.

The Innovator’s Dilemma makes a crucial distinction between “sustaining” and “disruptive” technologies and argues that even the most successful companies are at risk if they don’t recognize when a disruptive technology is threatening their business model.

It’s not easy to take down big businesses, but with Christensen’s framework, it is possible. The competitive edge of a startup is the flexibility and ingenuity to embrace new disruptive technologies.

Startups introduce new products into lower-margin markets. This can be a good way to upset the established markets of larger companies.

Startups can often outpace industry titans when it comes to disruption because they start in lower-margin niche markets. This is because the target customer often has different needs than the larger companies aim to serve.

Big companies are slow to serve these kinds of customers due to their size and rigidity. Their flexibility solely lies in their ability to acquire other companies with their acquired resources. But their values and processes are often incompatible, which can make it difficult and rigid.

Tesla is a perfect example of a company that disrupted the auto industry with its innovative electric cars and unique sales model of cars by order only.

Whereas big auto companies like GM have been trying to play catch up, Tesla was able to come in and quickly snag a large piece of the pie.

For GM to pass Tesla, they need to solve the innovator’s dilemma by giving their independent subsidiaries (if they have them) what they need to succeed.

The key takeaways from The Innovator’s Dilemma are:

• Sustaining technologies improve upon the performance of established products, while disruptive technologies target lower-end markets.
• Even the most successful companies can be disrupted if they don’t recognize when a new technology is threatening their business model.
• Startups have a competitive advantage when it comes to disrupting industries because they are more flexible and can embrace new technologies more quickly.
• If a company’s resources, processes, and values don’t match what the market wants, the company will not be successful.
• Market leaders can solve the innovator’s dilemma by acquiring or founding subsidiaries.

7. The Art of the Start 2.0

Author: Guy Kawasaki
Publication Year: 2014
Number of Pages: 288

The thought of starting your own business is both exhilarating and terrifying. Where do you even begin? What should you focus on? How do you prioritize when there are a million things to do? And how do you stay updated on changing trends?

Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of the Start 2.0 is one of the best books out there for anyone starting their own business. Kawasaki has over three decades of experience in the business world, and he’s distilled his wisdom into this must-read guide.

The first edition of The Art of the Start was published in 2004, and a lot has changed in the intervening decade. Kawasaki addresses these changes head-on in the second edition, with new chapters on social media, open source, and crowdfunding.

But The Art of the Start 2.0 isn’t just about the nuts and bolts of starting a business. It’s also about mindset and motivation. Kawasaki urges entrepreneurs to focus on their mission, not just their product. He also talks about the importance of building a great team and creating a company culture that attracts top talent.

The Art of the Start 2.0 is a comprehensive and practical guide to starting your own business. If you’re feeling lost or overwhelmed, this is the book for you.

Key takeaways from The Art of the Start 2.0:

• As an entrepreneur, your first goal should be to create something meaningful, not just make money.
• Make a plan with your milestones, assumptions, and tasks to have a clear goal in mind from the start.
• Focus on mission over product and you’ll be more likely to create something that people want and need.
• Building a great team is essential to the success of your business

8. Rework

Author: Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Publication Year: 2010
Number of Pages: 288

The problem with getting stuck in your head is that it can happen very quickly. And if your like 99% of the population, once you’re stuck, it’s very difficult to get unstuck.

Rework shows you that you don’t need a lot of money to start your own business. Plans usually aren’t helpful, and people who work a lot of hours usually aren’t very productive. You should only hire or look for investors if you have no other choice.

Simplifying is your best friend, especially when getting started. The less you have to worry about, the better. You can always add on later, but it’s much harder to take away.

And finally, don’t be afraid to pick a fight. If you believe in what you’re doing, you need to be willing to fight for it. Whether that means going up against a competitor or simply standing up for your own beliefs, don’t be afraid to put yourself out there.

Rework is a quick read and full of useful information for anyone looking to start their own business. It’s a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how to be successful on their own terms.

Key takeaways from Rework:

• You don’t need a lot of money to start your own business.
• Plans can get in the way of movement.
• Hiring and investors should be a last resort.
• Simplification is your best friend.
• Don’t be afraid to pick a fight with competitors, if you believe in what you’re doing.