Reading path
Start a Company
From the first risky idea to the hard middle years — a founder's reading path.
Nobody is ready for their first company; you just start and read fast. This is the order that saves you the most avoidable pain.
The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime
The case for bothering at all. DeMarco's argument is arithmetic: a salary is capped at 24 hours a day, so the only vehicle with unlimited math is something you own.
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Before the mechanics: why does this company deserve to exist? Sinek's question is the one customers and investors are really asking.
The Lean Startup
The method. Build, measure, learn — ship the smallest test and kill your assumptions before they kill you.
$100M Offers: How to Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No
Once you know what people want, this is how you package it. Hormozi's value equation and his rule that an offer nobody can price-compare takes price out of the conversation. Loud and self-promotional; the framework still works.
The Mom Test: How to Talk to Customers and Learn if Your Business Is a Good Idea When Everyone Is Lying to You
Before you build it, go ask. Fitzpatrick's rules for customer conversations that produce facts instead of the encouragement everyone gives you by default.
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Thiel's contrarian counterweight: don't copy, build something genuinely new. Competition is for losers; monopolies fund the future.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
The part no one warns you about — layoffs, near-death, the calls with no good option. Horowitz is honest about the grind.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
By now you have a team, and it's the bottleneck. Lencioni's pyramid — trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, results — explains exactly where it's stuck.
Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
Knight's Nike memoir. Not a how-to but a reminder of how messy, improvised, and nearly bankrupt even the legends were.