My Favorite Builder Autobiographies
Priceless lessons and entertainment from people with scars and successes
If you’re an active book reader or listener, there’s a high chance you’ve gone down a rabbit hole of biographies now and again. I’ve got a weakness for stories of wartime leaders (Churchill, Patton, Napoleon) and rock stars (Richards, Hagar, Bono). But as an innovator and startup guy, I have a weak spot for autobiographies of famous founders.
The brands, products, and names we know often have fascinating origin stories. And for the price of a few cups of Starbucks, those of us who are struggling to get something off the ground can glean success shortcuts, feel better when we’re down, and gain invaluable perspective. Page-for-page, nothing is more entertaining and educational than reading about people who have made the journey before us.
Here are autobiographies of founders and early-stage leaders whose stories have impacted my life and work. The list below is ordered by how many kindle highlights I made in the books (except where I listened on Audible).
Principles - Ray Dalio (224 Kindle highlights) - The founder of the legendary investment firm, Bridgewater Associates, focuses his book on how to build a high-performance organization as well as how to make some really big bets.
The Score Takes Care of Itself - Bill Walsh (184) - This is a book about how one of the most successful sports franchises. It’s a turnaround story that starts with putting a positive culture at the core.
The Messy Middle - Scott Belsky - (148) - Scott tells the story of building and selling his startup, Behance, to Adobe. He’s now a senior exec at Adobe and shares stories from his company and personal investments in Uber and Pinterest.
The Great Game of Business - Jack Stack - (132) - This is a story of turning around a rural manufacturing business by creating a game where every employee is educated and has incentives to rebuild together.
Steve Jobs - (114) - It’s technically not an autobiography, but Walter Isaacson got strong participation and approval from Jobs. Love and/or hate the man, the stories and lessons are required reading for anyone building technology products.
Behind the Cloud - Marc Benioff (107) - Salesforce is a daily operating system for many millions of us today. This is the story of a rebel who created a category.
Lost and Founder - Rand Fishkin (68) - This is mostly a cautionary tale from a very candid founder whose ups and downs are very familiar to those of us who have been in the trenches.
Creativity, Inc. - Ed Catmull (65) - Ed tells the story of Pixar, turning around Disney Animation and building an organization that keeps creatives on top of their game.
The Hard Thing about Hard Things (37) - Lots of good lessons from Ben Horowitz, the co-founder of Loudcloud and VC firm A16Z. Most of my highlights were around his tips for hiring.
The Execution Factor - Kim Perell (33) - Kim is a powerful entrepreneur who gives much-needed focus on getting stuff done rather than just dreaming big.
The Birth of a Brand - Brian Smith - UGG (30) - Brian’s idea was simple: Bring sheepskin boots from Australia to the U.S. But ideas are easy, and execution is sooooo much harder. Things turned out well for Brian, but his rollercoaster ride is another cautionary tale.
Shoe Dog - Phil Knight (19) - Everyone knows a little about the history of Nike, but there are lots of juicy details and an exciting story here.
Amp it Up - Frank Slootman (Audible) - Frank is not a founder. He’s a guy who jumps into promising startups and takes them up several levels. Whether you love or hate it, his leadership strategy is worth careful study.
Play Nice But Win - Michael Dell (Audible) - Smart and nice guys can push past the biggest bullies in business and win. Dell shares everything from his childhood businesses to turning a Titanic of a business toward renewed success.
It was fun to look back on years of reading and the highlights and notes they left me with. Big picture, they are a good reflection of what I love most in business: Building organizations that bring out the best in the people who work for them. Ideas are great, and founder stories are fun, but there’s nothing harder—and more positively impactful—than moving from a visionary founder who makes the calls to an organizational leader that gives ownership to others.
Have some favorites of your own to share? Drop ‘em in the comments so the rest of us can discover something new to read!
Bob Gilbreath is a 2x-exit entrepreneur and co-founder of Hearty, a curated matchmaking service that combines top software developers with early-stage, venture-backed startups.