Many people share “essential” books to be read for business.  I have tweeted many of these articles as I come across them and may agree with a few of the selections.  Well, I decided it is my turn to spout off 10 books that I’ve found very useful regarding business and entrepreneurship. I will list them in no particular order:

- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

- Good to Great by Jim Collins

- Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

- Bootstrap Business by Rich Christiansen and Ron Porter

- The E-Myth by Michael Gerber

- 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

- Rich Dad Poor Dad & The Cashflow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki

- The Entrepreneur’s Manual by Richard White

- The Experience Economy by James Gilmore and Joseph Pine

These are just a sampling of books chosen by looking at my shelf as I write this.  Get them at the store here.  I enjoyed each one and feel that each contributed significantly to my understanding and opinions toward business, entrepreneurship, success, etc.  Some more than others.  I can say that I recommend any and all of them without hesitation.  Let me know what you think of any of these.

Also, what would you say is the most significant book you’ve read on business?

I have been running with an MSi Wind for a while now (6 months or so) and must say that I’m sold! I love the netbook far more than my ol’ laptop (and the laptop even was a tablet, which I miss on rare occasion). At first, I was wary of losing the laptop so I claimed the Wind as my 3rd option (desktop, laptop, netbook). Once I started using it however, I never used the laptop again. I have been operating largely in the “cloud” for some time, utilizing web apps for nearly everything. This decreased the necessity for much computing power and any that I do need, I reserve for use on the powerhouse desktop, (which has 4 monitors for further productivity. We’ll talk about that at another time…). So why do I like it?

The portability is phenomenal and comes in handy for each meeting I have, carrying it from room to room.

Battery life is exceptionally better than my last laptop (battery needed replaced anyway). It is the best I’ve used.

Extra RAM! One concern I had was multitasking with it but was consoled by the additional slot making 2gig of ram after the addition of a chip. The Wind was one of the only netbooks I found that had that extra slot.

I am running Windows 7 on it and it just plugs along like a trooper! The most robust apps I run would include MS Office Suite and the like. Most of my apps anymore are web-based, however. I sync most files through Microsoft LiveMesh (a sweet service that is little known, another post will share more) which makes it even more convenient, not having to remember to sync files manually, or where the most recent version is.

The 10″ screen is adequate and balanced (portability vs visibility).  This doesn’t mean it never feels cramped but what can you expect?

Just to make it more my own, I added a skin of Jackson Pollock’s 1949 painting, number 1, customized from SkinIt.

Affordable… I paid $400 with the RAM upgrade.

Gripes:

The latches that hold the battery connected broke quickly (little flimsy plastic things) so I rigged it with velcro. It works well now although not aesthetically award winning.

Occasionally the wireless adapter is not recognized and must be reset but not too often does it happen.

Overall, good times with my netbook.  The Netbook is a great tool for any entrepreneur as an additional comp or for those not needing substantial computing power.   They come in much more affordable than any laptops or desktops making them even better for bootstrappers.