I’m trying to be helpful and listing some good Business Biography books recommended by others, sort them into categories and link to them. 🙂

I’ve also bolded the books that received numerous mentions.

Comments and book suggestions come from replies to Andrew Wilkinson’s tweet, What’s the best business biography you’ve read in the past 5 years?

Found this list helpful? Feel free to shout me a coffee (or flick some coin on PayPal if ya prefer). I also post my random thoughts on business and investing fortnightly on my Substack.

Best Business Biographies

Biographies

• American Kingpin by Nick Bilton
• Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender
• Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson
• Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street by John Brooks
• Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw
• Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace
• Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush by Jon Meacham
• Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
• Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance
• Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton
• Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson
• Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America Hardcover by Christopher Leonard
• In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules by Stacy Perman
• Irrational Persistence: Seven Secrets That Turned a Bankrupt Startup Into a $231,000,000 Business by Dave Zilko
• Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
• Nuts!: Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success by Kevin & Jackie Freiberg
• Prescription for Success: The Life and Values of Ewing Marion Kauffman by Anne Morgan
• Railroader: The Unfiltered Genius and Controversy of Four-Time CEO Hunter Harrison by Howard Green
• Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle by Matthew Symonds
• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
• The Billionaire Who Wasn’t: How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune by Conor O’Clery
• The Everything Store by Brad Stone
• The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles
• The Gambler: How Penniless Dropout Kirk Kerkorian Became the Greatest Deal Maker in Capitalist History by William C. Rempel
• The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty by Julia Flynn Siler
• The House of Morgan by Ron Chernow
• The King of Vodka: The Story of Pyotr Smirnov and the Upheaval of an Empire by Linda Himelstein
• The Man Who Gave His Company Away by Susanna Hoe
• The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution by Gregory Zuckerman
• The Outsiders by William Thorndike
• The Players Ball by David Kushner
• The Polyester Prince: The Rise of Dhirubhai Ambani by Hamish McDonald
• The Reichmanns: Family, Faith, Fortune, and the Empire of Olympia & York by Anthony Bianco
• The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: King Solomon’s Secrets to Success, Wealth, and Happiness by Steven K. Scott
• The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Shroeder
• The Fish That Ate the Whale by Rich Cohen
• The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World by Randall E. Stross
• The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
• To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History by Lawrence Levy
• Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow
• Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler

Autobiographies

• Am I being too subtle by Sam Zell
• Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh
• Eat a Peach: A Memoir by David Chang
• Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s by Ray Kroc
• How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis
• I Love Capitalism! by Ken Langone
• Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard
• Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World by Rand Fishkin
• Made in America by Sam Walton
• Made in Japan – Akio Morita and SONY by Mitsuko Morita Akio
• Maverick by Riccardo Semler
• Miracles Happen by Mary Kay Ash
• Personal History by Katharine Graham
• Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio
• Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Howard Schultz
• Setting the Table by Danny Meyer
• Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight (Easily the most recommended)
• That Will Never Work by Marc Randolph
• The CEO Factory: Management Lessons from Hindustan Unilever by Sudhir Sitapati
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
• The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time by Jim McKelvey
• The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger
• The Story of Lululemon: Little Black Stretchy Pants by Chip Wilson
• The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur’s Vision of the Future by Steve Case
• Total Recall by Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell by Eric Schmidt
• What I Know For Sure by Oprah Winfrey
• What it Takes by Stephen A. Schwarzman
• When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man by Jerry Weintraub
• Who is Michael Ovitz by Michael Ovitz

Misc

• Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar
• Boyd by Robert Coram
• Built to Sell by John Warrillow
• The Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Managing Your Business and Your Life by Geshe Michael Roach and Lama Christie McNally
• The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood by James Gleick
• The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron by Bethany McLean & Peter Elkind
• Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World by Mark Pendergrast

Related Posts of Mine

• Best Biz Biography/Company History & Fiction You Can’t Put Down?
• Best Long (>600 Pages) Book You’ve Read?
• Best Piece of Investing Research?

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