What books should you be reading as a woman entrepreneur?

Finding a business book that offers genuine, high-signal advice can sometimes feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. To save you time, we’ve rounded up four essential reads from different categories (#vibes), complete with our honest pros and cons of each.

Do you wonder how corporations think?

When it comes to translating corporate speak to small business action, a lot of books miss the mark. That’s why this recommendation removes the translation lens completely. It’s a no nonsense transcript outlining systematic frameworks used in almost every major corporation today.

Title: Case in Point: Complete Case Interview Preparation

Author: Marc Cosentino

• Pros: Lays out the exact classic frameworks and analytical concepts taught in traditional top-tier MBA programs—minus the $100k tuition bill.
• Cons: It’s a dry, academic read. You’ll have to put in real muscle to translate these corporate case studies into your own business and actually put the concepts into practice.

How do you manage your energy?

We know that being a woman entrepreneur is exceptionally fulfilling, and can also sometimes be low key exhausting. Understanding your energy is critical. That’s why learning about introverts, extroverts, and how to navigate this spectrum in the world can be extremely helpful.

Title: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

Author: Susan Cain

• Pros: Proof that you don’t need to be the loudest person in the room to build a powerful business. It gives great insight into how introverts and extroverts navigate the world, and why even the biggest extroverts need downtime.
• Cons: It’s not strictly a “business book,” so you’ll need to do a little mental legwork to translate the research into your daily founder journey.

Where do you get your inspiration?

Being an entrepreneur is a hustle and grind that can usually benefit from a confidence boost now and then. Insert inspirational books. There are so many of these out in the world today, and we’re not going to pretend to represent them all in this one article (we’d probably need a full blog series just to scratch the surface). What we have done is pick an easy read, by an incredible female author and entrepreneur in her own right, that we think you’ll love.

Title: Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

Author: Brené Brown

• Pros: Who doesn’t love Brené Brown? If you need a serious pick-me-up, a reminder to ground into your best self, or a dose of external courage to make a tough business call, look no further.
• Cons: Honestly, none. Just be ready to do the actual reflection post-read. (Dare we suggest taking out a journal?)

Are you a startup?

Even if you’re not a startup, you can glean some serious business growth perspective by learning about them. And if you are, I hope you enjoy the hypergrowth ride. We love learning from startups since they’re in a unique position to push limits since they have some backing (aka external investment funds).

Title: Click: How to Make What People Want

Author: Jake Knapp with John Zeratsky

• Pros: If you’ve been searching for the exact playbook tech startups use to hit hypergrowth, this is the latest fairly accurate step-by-step breakdown of how startups approach product market fit.
• Cons: Not every business fits neatly into the “Silicon Valley tech startup” box. Use what you can for your business or industry rather than treating it as a one-size-fits-all silver bullet.