MY TOP 3 BUSINESS BOOKS

Keli H, founder of The KREST House 

Let me be vulnerable for a moment. The image above was created for a very different blog post. My business, The KREST House, a publishing company based in South Africa, is going to turn 5 years old in September. I had intended to celebrate the moment with a blog post to share the top business lessons that I believe propagated my business journey. But in the last couple of months I've had some business setbacks that really brought my self confidence to its knees. Today I don't feel confident enough to impart business lessons to anyone. Perhaps I'm not the right person to give advice on this topic. Not yet anyway. 

But I know that no faltering mistake and no fleeting fear that can change the fact that I was born to own the greatest storytelling empire in the word. So this image isn't going to go to waste in my temporary fear. I'll use it to talk about another business topic, one I feel immeasurably capable of discussing: my top 3 business books.

This list is different from my top 3 non-fiction books, which includes titles about finances, self development, metaphysics. This list is specifically about books that revolutionized the way I do business. Let's get into it.

#3: Start With Why - Simon Sinek

 

I've read all sorts of business books about hard numbers, strategy, systems - all the technical things that ensure business success. While all these books all contain useful advice, none of them ever feel differentiated from each other. Start With Why is a refreshing look at something not talked about enough in the business book landscape - the human beings. And before you let out a groan and tell me human resources books do exist, I can assure you this is not an HR manual. It is part leadership book, part market trend analysis, and part psychology. It is an overall advocate for the people that make a business. Start With Why is about ensuring that every person in a business understands the impact the business wants to make in the world, equipping them to do it, and looking after them well while they carry out the business mission. In fact, one of my favourite pieces of business advice comes from this book:

The purpose of a business is not to make a profit. The purpose of a business is to carry out a mission in the world. The profit is just there to make sure the business can carry out its mission for a long time to come. 

At my publishing company , The KREST House, our team of 10 people was curated for a singular mission: we are going to share the most inspiring stories the world will ever read. I am thankful that I read Start With Why before I made the first hire. The dedication to the mission was the thing that kept us going over every mountain we encountered on our journey. There were days we worked without payment because funds needed to be conserved, nights we stayed up late to complete grand projects, and moments we made difficult and uncomfortable decisions - because we knew that whatever we chose to do in any moment had to be the choice that furthered our mission. Beyond just making money for ourselves, every team member at The KREST House knows we are doing good work in the world. And this has given us the strength to do great things, beyond any motivation simple money could have ever provided. 

#2: The Win Without Pitching Manifesto - Blair Enns 

This is a gem of a book for anyone who owns a business in a creative arts field - like design, art, fashion, culinary, music, copywriting, photography, media, advertising, and - like my own - publishing. This is because artists and business people value different things in different quantities. Artists value the propagation of their work, the individual appreciation and impact of it. Business people value the increased return of what they put out. Neither are wrong. Art-based businesses, therefore, are a complex topic that cannot be satisfied by traditional business books. The Win Without Pitching Manifesto combines both ideas masterfully. 

Let's talk about the lengthy title for a second. In the arts industry, it is a disadvantageous, yet common, practice for clients to call for multiple businesses to present ideas, research, and preliminary creative work before they give the project to the company they like most. This is called 'pitching'. Pitching takes time, money, and resources for the businesses - someone needs to design the work, someone needs to compile notes and action plans, a team needs to work on the project as if they are already hired. It's bad enough that the businesses do not get paid for this work that they have put in, but worse yet that clients often end up stealing ideas from the pitches and handing them to the chosen company to pull off. Blair Enns has recognized that this is an archaic practice, and has put together this manifesto to empower arts businesses to step away from fruitless pitching, and yet still win clients. 

At KREST, we no longer audition for clients. We hold ourselves in our worth, and we are sought out by clients who already know and appreciate our kind of work. 

#1: The Personal MBA - Josh Kaufman 

This book has consistently featured at number 1 on this list for the last 4 years. I doubt I'll ever read a book that will knock it off the podium. This is a big statement because the book is that good. This book is simply a collection of business concepts, practices, and terminology. Think of it like an extended dictionary about business jargon. The book is divided into sections like marketing, systems, human resources, financial, sales. And then, under each section, it lists different business terms and concepts, and explains them. The explanations are in enough detail that you can have an accurate understanding of them, but basic enough that someone with no business experience can still feel comfortable reading it. 

This book has proven so helpful that even I, with no prior business background, have been able to sit in boardrooms and engage comfortably in discussion. 

This book is probably best used as reference or occasional brushing up. It's, of course, no fun reading a dictionary leisurely. 

So those are my top 3. I've read a couple worth mentioning, over the years - The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, Atomic Habits, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Think and Grow Rich. Not all are strictly business books. But what is business, after all, but the greatest self development journey one could undergo in life. 

For more articles written by Keli H, the author, visit this blog's home page on keli-h.com

Keli H is the award winning author of the 400 series, which includes The Four Hundred Club and Splitting an Empire. The 400 series is high brow contemporary fiction revolving around the lives of wealthy circles. Keli's other works include Creating Literary Art. She is also the founder of The KREST House, a storytelling empire.