Don’t worry, I won’t make a big review or anything here. But I’ve read my fair share of books over the years and there are a few I always get or refer back to when being asked where I get things from. So I decided to make a mini-series of a few books I recommend reading if you want to do Startups (in Germany). Todays segment will be about Rework and Delivering Happiness.

Rework

{.right} Rework

The best, the one and only book talking about how to build and run a modern-day tech service company in the times of world wide internet. Written by 37Signals founder Jason Fried this book does not talk about theory but actual practice of running a non-startup. Aside from its great content, this books also trims down on text volume and cuts down anything that isn’t crucial. “Less is more” as one of the leading principles he is talking about, he sticks to it for the book, too and tries to deliver every point with less than two pages. No rambling around their experience and half their biography, just plain simple no bullshit cut to the chase contnent.

This book ruined me; now I get easily upset with books that waste my time by going on for chapters about unimportant non-information. And though it has been three years since this book got published I still quote it frequently and use it as a gift for friends. If you have exactly one book you are allowed to read before starting your business, read this one. “Rework” is available on Amazon (affiliate link)

Delivering Happiness

{.left}"Delivering Happiness"

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, wrote this excellent book. Though it reads itself like a story, the story of the struggles they went through, it is about much more than just starting a business: with this book Tony claims that the most important things for a company are and always should be the happiness of the employees and the customers - no matter what. And he makes a great point, he went through many sacrifices to make this happen, didn’t sell out when he could have but was as loyal to his employees and customers as he could be. And they paid it back by being loyal in the same way. Making this a very successful, but not very classic startup story.

This books explains very well why this company unlike so many others was able to not only get over so many obstacles but also do things so many other business unable to do, like dominating in a highly competitive market, they entered rather late or relocating the whole stuff to a city on the other side of the country. More than a startup story this is a manifest for declaring your company your family and treat them like that as the ultimate way of being successful. Such an inspiring story, I wish more startup were build by these principles. “Delivering Happiness “ is available on Amazon (affiliate link)

What do you think about those books? Do you have recommendations yourself? I bet there is still good stuff out there I haven’t read. Let me know what it is.