5 Non-Fiction Books About Business Success

Whether you’re a business student or a working professional, take some time out of your busy schedule to read a few of the best books about business. While fiction books take a comedic or dramatic look at the industry, non-fiction books let you pick up tips from some of the top names of all time. Take a look at some of those books before creating your reading list.

For Beginners

One of the best books about business for beginners is “Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work” by Liz Wiseman. Wiseman wrote this book after hearing from beginners about all the problems they experienced when making the transition from school to work. She talks about how veterans often avoid learning new skills and how others will overlook what those veterans do because of their experience. The book also discusses what rookies can do to stand out.

Resource: The Top 10 Best Business Schools

For Major Companies

“The Compass and the Nail: How the Patagonia Model of Loyalty Can Save Your Business and Might Just Save the Planet” by Craig Wilson is one of the top books about business for employees who work for major companies and anyone who runs a small business. This interesting books looks at how Patagonia worked with their customers to create one of the most loyal customer bases of all time. You may even pick up some tips on ways you can make your own customers more loyal and how you can reach out and connect with those shoppers.

For Marketing Professionals

Marketing experts look at how to make products and companies more appealing to customers. When USA Today created a list of some of the best books about business, it added “Influence” by Robert B. Cialdini to that list. This intriguing non-fiction book focuses on the techniques and methods that marketing professionals use on a daily basis and how those tricks cause customers to fall in line and buy specific products. While it can help you learn how to focus on creating your own marketing campaigns, it can also help you learn how to identify the marketing techniques that you see every day.

For Those Who Want to Get Ahead

Originally published in 1936, “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie is one of the all-time best selling business books. Carnegie used his own success in the business world and put pen to paper to come up with a list of tips that others could use. Some of the top business professionals credit this book with helping them succeed. It comes with advice designed to help readers better understand how to work with supervisors and how to work their way up the corporate ladder as well as how to make friends and improve their personal lives.

For Those in the Corporate World

“In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies” by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr. has millions of copies in prints and ranks among the best books about business. The two men spent a number of years looking at the country’s top companies to find out what made each one succeed. They then created a book that focuses on the eight steps used by all those companies that even the smallest of companies can now use.

The best business books provide valuable and useful information that resonates as strongly today as when those books first landed on store shelves. Those books are suitable for managers, workers and everyone in between. Some of the top books about business focus on things like management, marketing and getting ahead.