What is the #1 book you would recommend to young entrepreneurs?

"Atlas Shrugged" -- Ayn Rand
I give this as a gift to all young people whether they are embarking on business ownership or just starting college.

This book is old but still a broad favorite. "THINK AND GROW RICH" by Napoleon Hill.

"The 85% Solution - How Personal Accountability Guarantees Success. No Nonsense. No Excuses." by Linda Galindo

This message came to the co-author of my next book:

"At the WPO/YPO education program that took place in your office last year, you talked about the book “The 85% solution” and told us of the difference the book had made in your company. You even gave us a copy.

I read the book, liked it and gave it to my 24 year old daughter. In reading the book, she had a transformative experience. She now comes from the perspective of being responsible about everything around her, whether she perceives it as hers or not. In the company she works for, even when a project is not owned by her, when she sees something that is wrong, she points it out to the person that owns it. It is remarkable to see the change.

http://www.amazon.com/85%25-Solution-Personal-Accountability-Guarantees/dp/04...

So, I want to thank you for making such a significant contribution to my daughter’s life. I and she so appreciate your thoughtfulness."

I would recommend "Rich Dad,Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki. When I first read it, I was employed. The book helped me to work out a way of being my own boss so that I could have a happy retirement. I then took early retirement and am now my own boss. Any young entrepreneur will benefit a lot from this book.

First of all, you need to know how to manage your money if you are bootstrapping your business so I recommend "Richest Man in Babylon" from George Clason. Should be a mandatory read after finishing high school. Your business and personnal life shall be forever changed after.

When it comes to starting a business, I can't recommend enough "The Lean Startup" it will help you save countless hours on project without any future and focus on those who has. Its one of the rare book in business that the person who wrote it can actually say they have done it and for me this is priceless. Hope you found this answer helpful. Good luck!

I would also recommend some of the often forgotten by the new generations and still superlative pieces of art like Machiavelli's The Prince and The Art of War.

Roger Ailes "You Are the Message - getting what you want by being who you are".

"The 4-Hour Work Week" by Timothy Ferris.

There are a lot of books out there about the whats and hows, but if you really have the drive and the passion to achieve then you will figure out your own answers along the way. I recommend this book because of its right-side-up approach to the ownership of your business. It focuses on leveraging the time of others in order to maximize your own whereas most books of its type focus primarily on how to make more work for yourself. : )

How To Sell Your Ideas by Jesse S. Nirenberg; an excellent perspective on how people receive, digest, formulate and retain ideas or messages.

Communicating How To Organize Meetings and Presentations by Joseph A. Callanan; your presentation fits in a process, knowing this allows you to narrow the objective hence the focus hence the results

Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples; read the chapter the rules to creating a headline, then the rest will make sense. This is the best read ever.

Cutting Paperwork in the Corporate Culture by Dianna Booher; you will find the most effective letter writing formula here, MADE, message, action, details, evidence. If you read how to sell your ideas, this book makes good sense.

If you want to tie it all together
How to Manage by Results (third edition) by Dale D. McConkey

And if you see yourself as a key element in the presentation
The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
The Fire Within by Carlos Castaneda
Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher & William Ury
The Prince and His discourses by Niccolo Machiavelli
Tales of Power Carlos Castaneda

You are going to need a few OLD books if you expect to be able to face the NEW challenges
The process of convincing someone hasn't changed since the beginning of time. Nothing changes, except the mediums; they have made it faster and more compressed.

How to Be a Rainmaker by Jeffrey J. Fox - great book to keep you prospecting and closing deals

Two great books for young entrepreneurs:
1. The Lean Start-up - Eric Ries
2. The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development - Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits

Both great books that will help early companies avoid a bunch of mistakes (all of which I made the first time around!).

One of the first books I offer to any entrepreneur or someone thinking of starting their own business is The Go-Giver by Bob Burg. http://amzn.com/159184200X. Timeless lessons able to be applied immediately by anyone.

Many books are philosophical and are great to help confirm and streamline one's thinking - but take a long time to digest and integrate into practice. Most wand to get started now. As Scott Cook, Intuit's Executive Committee Chair states : "Business is too important to be left to luck." Scott has made Eric Ries' book a centerpiece of how teams work at Intuit. In his words: "It works! This book is the guided tour of the key innovative practices inside Google, Toyota, and Facebook that work in any business."
This book will save a high percentage of start-ups from failure. It's by Eric Ries, Harvard's Entrepreneur-in-residence: "The Lean Startup": 'How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses' [Hardcover]

I've read many but the one that left the most lasting impression is 'Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure' by Jerry Kaplan. While you may not like to hear this, the likelihood of startup failure is VERY high, and this book provides a very 'real' firsthand perspective on how to deal with the possibility and reality of failure - both personally and professionally.

Leadership and Self-Deception -- Getting Out of the Box by The Arbinger Institute

Here's two books I have all new small business clients read ...

The eMyth Revisited by Michael Gerber and 9 Lies That Are Holding Your Business Back by Steve Chandler.

Additional books I recommend to small business owners are available on my website under resources. http://hybridbizadvisors.com

I guess folks are discussing about all-time favorite books rather than #1 book for young entrepreneurs... lol - if that's the case, I'd say "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari" and of course "Rich Dad Poor Dad"...

But, for young entrepreneurs - well none of the above! I'm also a young entrepreneur - CEO of Webfosys Networks Pvt Ltd, but I read more about Internet Marketing, rather than entrepreneurship! :)

Good to Great has to be one of my all time favorites and was hugely influential for me when I was in a large corporation. Another favorite is Reality Check! by Guy Kawasaki - hey if it worked for Apple...

"Three Feet from Gold", Sharon L. Lechter/Greg S. Reid
Don't feel sorry for yourself when things don't happen as you 'planned' or 'expected'.

The Entrepreneur Equation: Evaluating the Realities, Risks, and Rewards of Having Your Own Business by Carol Roth and Michael Port (Mar 22, 2011)

The Entrepreneur Equation helps you do the math before you set down the entrepreneurial path so that you can answer more than just "Could I be an entrepreneur?" but rather "Should I be an entrepreneur?" By understanding
what it takes to build a valuable business as well as how to assess the risks and rewards of business ownership based on your personal circumstances, you can learn how to stack the odds of success in your favor and ultimately decide if business ownership is the best possible path for you, now or ever.

The New Small by Phil Simon
What Would Google Do by Jeff Jarvis

Venture Capital and the Finance of Innovation by Andrew Metrick. Nerdy for sure but very hepful. The best review I have read on it complains most entrepreneurs found and sell their companies before they even understand the basic elements of a 'deal'. As a result work like crazy and don't receive the reward they are due. Or wait too long and ask too much thinking their companies are worth more than they are. I've seen both. This book addresses all that and more. And it even comes as an ebook so can be loaded on their iPad. Cool.

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Get this part right early on and then they can focus on the products and customers and everything gets a lot easier.

Actually " Rich Dad, Poor Dad" to understand you are building a business and a legacy.and "The Millionaire Next Door" to help them realize the Appearance of wealth does not mean proper money management.

I'd pick Outliars by Malcolm Gladwell, it really puts into perspective the amount of work it takes to become remarkable.

I agree with "Good to Great" and I'd also suggest a book I just finished "The Thank You Economy" by Gary Vaynerchuk. Great book on engaging with customers and building advocates.

Machiavelli's "The Prince"
If after reading it they ask for the next suggestion I would walk away knowing that they did not understand the first suggestion (;)

Rework by Jason Fried,David Heinemeier Hansson of 37 Signals is an awesome book by young entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs of any age. It is a fresh, provacative and inspiring book. http://37signals.com/rework/

Good Business
by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

All about creating a culture of "flow" in an organization where everyone performs at their personal best while being aligned to the vision of the organization.

Good Business
by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

All about creating a culture of "flow" in an organization where everyone performs at their personal best while being aligned to the vision of the organization.

I recommend The Entrepreneur Equation by Carol Roth. Anyone who thinks becoming an entrepreneur is all about making more money and being your own boss will quickly be proven wrong. Her book makes you seriously consider whether running your own business is worth it or not. Well worth a read.

Sorry for the self promotion, but my eBook, "How to start a business from scratch...Without having any." has real practicle advice - from the trenches. Books like Good to Great are indeed great, but come after you get things off the ground. First-timers and bootstrappers need ideas and tips that fit the stage of the business.
You can find it on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0050QII9O

This book will give you the 22+ years of CEO small business experience that I have to prepare them.
It covers:
Chapter 1: Do You Have What it Takes?
Chapter 2: Getting started – How to Choose a Business
Chapter 3: The Right Tools
Chapter 4: Your Web Site
Chapter 5: Marketing
Chapter 6: Marketing In A Down Economy
Chapter 7: Sales
Chapter 8: Negotiating
Chapter 9: Bankers, Lawyers and Accountants
Chapter 10: Employees – “If” You Have to Have Them
Chapter 11: Internet Marketing
Chapter 12: When It All Hits the Fan
Chapter 13: A Business Plan and Investors
Chapter 14: How to Turn Adversity into Opportunity
Chapter 15: To Chase Or Not To Chase – What Business Am I In?
Chapter 16: Recession

This book also has a ton of reference links as well as videos and stories.

"My Book of Life":Words of Emotion by: Lori Ann Kerrigan

Wow, I'm amazed at some of these suggestions. Are you kidding me?

How about the best book of our generation on business growth Good to Great by Jim Collins? I've used elements of this book and Collins' research with companies from start-ups to huge firms ever since it was published around 2000.

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

IF you can't this down and at least 50% won't; no non-picture book with grown up analogies is going to help any Entrepreneur.