Topic
Business & Leadership book summaries
The best business and leadership book summaries — strategy, management, startups, and negotiation, distilled.
The 48 Laws of Power
How to Win Friends and Influence People
The Art of War
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Surrounded by Idiots
Steve Jobs
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
The Lean Startup
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business
Mastery
Outliers: The Story of Success
The Art of Thinking Clearly
Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High
The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
$100M Offers: How to Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No
Rework
So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime
Leaders Eat Last
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results
Thinking in Systems: A Primer
Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail
The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It
Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
Principles: Life and Work
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win
$100M Leads: How to Get Strangers to Want to Buy Your Stuff
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done
High Output Management
Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters
Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts
Radical Candor
The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking
Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco
Blue Ocean Strategy
The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups
The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter
The Surrender Experiment: My Journey into Life's Perfection
The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk
Buy Back Your Time: Get Unstuck, Reclaim Your Freedom, and Build Your Empire
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism
The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals
Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World
Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business
Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork
Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs
Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time
Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection
The Mom Test: How to Talk to Customers and Learn if Your Business Is a Good Idea When Everyone Is Lying to You
The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs
Frequently asked questions
What are the best Business & Leadership books?
Among the most widely read business & leadership titles summarized on SummaryShelf are The 48 Laws of Power, How to Win Friends and Influence People, The Art of War, Zero to One, and Surrounded by Idiots — ordered here by how many readers have shelved them.
Where should I start with Business & Leadership?
The 48 Laws of Power is the most-read pick in this topic and a solid place to begin. Each summary is a 4–5 minute read, so you can sample a few before deciding what to read in full.
How many Business & Leadership book summaries are on SummaryShelf?
80, and growing — each distilled to its core ideas in a few minutes.