What are the best books by CEOs?

For many entrepreneurs, the most important lessons are the ones they learn while working and creating—not the ones taught in a business school classroom.

However, for any aspiring business person, it can be helpful to learn from people who have already experienced the successes and failures of creating or running successful companies.

If you’re one of the lucky few lucky enough to already have a relationship with an outstanding founder or CEO, having direct access to their insights can be invaluable. If you’re like us, however, another option is to simply read the first-hand accounts of already successful entrepreneurs.

CEOs at a range of companies, from General Electric to Disney, have written accounts of their experiences in the business world. Even for people less interested in the world of entrepreneurs, these books can also provide insights into the minds of some of the world’s richest and most powerful people.

For example, Stephen Schwarzman, the co-founder and CEO of Blackstone, explained his decision to pursue extremely ambitious goals in his 2019 memoir “What It Takes.”

“It’s just as hard to start and run a small business as it is to start a big one,” he wrote. “So pick one with the potential to be huge.”

In other cases, the memoirs reveal the sometimes tortuous paths to success taken by people who weren’t born with access to wealth or power.

“No young child growing up ever dreams of one day becoming a businessman,” Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard wrote in his book “Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman.”

“He wants to be a firefighter, a sponsored athlete or a forester. The Lee Iacoccas, Donald Trumps, and Jack Welches of the business world are heroes to no one except other businessmen with similar values. I wanted to be a fur trapper when I grew up.”

Read on to learn more about the best-selling books written by CEOs.