Ever since the idea of becoming an entrepreneur came into my head, I’ve been fascinated with reading stories about and interviews with successful entrepreneurs.
I’m a big believer in modeling what works, so I would prowl every word looking for clues as to what made these entrepreneurs successful, picking up clues and trying to piece together the puzzle over time.
After reading countless interview and listening to countless speeches, I noticed that a favorite interview questions was:
“What book had the most impact on you as an entrepreneur?”
Usually, whatever the answer was, I would hustle out and buy the book, figuring it had to contain some gems. And they always did.
One book stood out over time as the most recommended book – Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
A fiction book? No thanks.
A handful of months ago, my stubbornness finally wore down and I bought the book. It took me several months to finish it (it’s almost 1200 pages long and I am almost always reading a few books at a time), but I finally did this last month.
And let me tell you…it is the most important book I have ever read.
That statement deserves an explanation…I will try to give one.
As an entrepreneur and a person very interested in personal development, I think I’ve always struggled to find what I would describe as a “personal philosophy”; a set of rules by which I should live my life.
The beauty of entrepreneurship is that there are no rules. You make your own rules. But that can leave a person with a sense of ambiguity and isolation; sometimes it’s nice to just have someone lay out a path for you and tell you what you are doing is the right thing.
You won’t get that as an entrepreneur; you have to find your own way. If you are lucky, you find a role model early in life that takes the time to really teach you what they’ve learned. If not, you have to find it yourself. By reading books, experimenting, failing, making mistakes, seeking advice from others – it’s not a straight road.
I think Atlas Shrugged lays out the best “personal philosophy” I have ever found. It is captured over the 1200 pages of the book in a fascinating story about the fall of America as we know it due to a lack of personal accountability from our citizens, and then it is summed up briefly in the “About the author” section at the end of the book.
In Ayn Rand’s words:
“My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”
Why is it my favorite business book, as the title of this post suggests?
Because it so clearly lays out what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur – the absolute refusal to give anything less than your best every day; the personal accountability to deal with reality as it exists, not as you wish it existed; and the idea that you are 100% responsible for the quality of your life, as opposed to expecting handouts from the government, your parents, or your employer.
If everyone thought that way, the world would be a better place. If you were able to only hire employees that thought that way, your company would run itself.
I really encourage you to buy and read this book. It will be 250 pages or so into it before you start getting any momentum, so don’t give up too early.
MRC
