Inside Ryan Holiday’s $250K Reading List

Ryan Holiday (0:00)

An MBA can cost as much as $250,000.

Meanwhile, Warren Buffett's Business Empire, one of the most successful companies and investment runs in human history, was built on the knowledge he got from a book that he paid less than $2 for in the 1960s. My whole life was changed by a copy of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations that I bought for $9 on Amazon. It changed me personally and also professionally. This bookstore, my books, which was sold millions of copies, none of that would be possible if I not learned what was in between those two covers. So I wanted to give you some book recommendations, that even if you buy all of them, even if you bought signed first editions of all of them, would be cheaper and better than an MBA.

Let's start with some of my favorite business books. Not that business books are the end all be all. In fact, I think philosophy and psychology and books about history and human nature are more important, but we'll start with some business ones. Here is Trillion Dollar Coach. This is written by Eric Schmidt, one of the most successful business CEOs of all time. But this is about one of the greatest leadership coaches of all time, who mentored and coached Steve Jobs, Larry Page and some of the biggest CEOs in the history of Silicon Valley. This one is great. Everyone should read What I Learned, Losing A Million Dollars. It's about a trader on the Chicago Stock Exchange, who blows it in the 80s and loses over a million dollars. Obviously, today they're playing with slightly larger amounts of money. But this one is really good. I would also pair it with another book about failure, which we should have here somewhere. A Billion Dollar Lessons. Again, you can learn as much from people's very expensive failures than you can from their successes. Guy Raz has interviewed basically every CEO of a big or new company of the last generation or so. This book, How I Built This, is incredible. Actually, funny story, we have a hard cover of How I Built This up there in the book tower. Can't have that one. I don't think it's coming out anytime soon. Jim Collins, Good to Great. This one's very important.

Unreasonable Hospitality. One of the great restaurant tours and hospitality experts. This book is great. Pair that with Danny Meyer.

Peter Thiel, who I wrote a book about, Zero To One.

Obviously, controversial guy, but his thinking here is incredible. Everyone should read this. And then maybe let's do personal MBA since we're talking about how to get an MBA. As far as marketing goes, I'd also throw in. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. This is both a marketing and a business and a life strategy. Blue Ocean Strategy. The best businesses, the most successful businesses, the most successful entrepreneurs, the most successful artists, they're not better than the people that are doing what they do.

Usually they got there because they were the only one doing what they do. You want to go to where you have a monopoly. Peter Thiel talks about that in Zero To One. And you don't do that by kicking out all the competitors. You do that by going to where there are no competitors. Be a one of one. Be the only one doing your thing. We're all unique. We are all different. Don't try to be like everyone else. Go to the Blue Ocean. This book is very important. Very instrumental in my career and my business strategy. Again, when you're thinking about an MBA, it's costing $250,000. People think starting a business is so, so expensive. And some of them are. Some businesses are really capital intensive. But I do like the $100 Startup. Noah Kagan's also written some interesting stuff on how it is much cheaper and easier to start a company if you start really small. Eric Ries talks about this in The Lean Startup.

Very good. Annie Duke talking about this, Thinking in Bets. Shrinking the risks that you're taking is really important. Ben Horowitz, Hard Thing About Hard Things. You will have to make hard decisions in life and in leadership. Very important. McKeown's, Essentialism, also really good. As Mark Skrula says, When you eliminate the inessential, get the double benefit of doing the essential things better. I'd also throw in Robert Greene's stuff, 33 Strategies of War. This is an incredibly powerful book for anyone launching a campaign or in the midst of a battle of some kind of literal or figuratively. I would also add in the 48 Laws of Power. You don't have to be one of the people in the book, but you want to be able to protect against the people who operate like that in the book. And then I would, I could see this book being on the desk of any student or future CEO. It's one lesson a day from all of his books. 33 Strategies of War, Laws of Human Nature, 48 Laws of Power, Art of Seduction, Mastery. So this is Power, Seduction, Mastery, Strategy, and Human Nature. These are all things that hopefully you would learn in an MBA program, but clearly most people don't. Let's go over here to Leadership, because that's what ultimately you are being primed to do.