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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