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20 books that Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates recommend you read
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20 books that Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates recommend you read
Sarah Jackson
Updated
2024-12-11T16:01:10Z
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Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates have some reading advice.
Yasin Ozturk/Getty Images; Paul Ellis/Getty Images; Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
Many executives say they've learned valuable lessons on business from books.
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates are no exception.
Here are 20 books they've said taught them a lot about business, leadership, and the forces shaping our world.
You learn by doing — but you can also learn a lot by reading.Many influential business figures, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon cofounder Jeff Bezos, and Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates say they've learned some of the most important lessons in their lives from books.
They've recommended countless books over the years that they credit with strengthening their business acumen and shaping their worldviews.Here are 20 books recommended by Musk, Bezos, and Gates to add to your reading list:
Jeff Bezos
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Some of Bezos' favorite books were instrumental to the creation of products and services like the Kindle and Amazon Web Services.
"The Innovator's Solution"
Harvard Business Review Press
This book on innovation explains how companies can become disruptors. It's one of three books Bezos made his top executives read one summer to map out Amazon's trajectory.
"The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement"
Amazon
Also on that list was "The Goal," in which Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox examine the theory of constraints from a management perspective.Buy it here >>
"The Effective Executive"
Amazon
The final book on Bezos' reading list for senior managers, "The Effective Executive" lays out habits of successful executives, like time management and effective decision-making.
"Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies"
HarperCollins Publishers/Amazon
This book draws on six years of research from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business that looks into what separates exceptional companies from their competitors. Bezos has said it's his "favorite business book."Buy it here >>
"The Remains of the Day"
Vintage International/Amazon
This Kazuo Ishiguro novel tells of an English butler in wartime England who begins to question his lifelong loyalty to his employer while on a vacation.Bezos has said of the book, "Before reading it, I didn't think a perfect novel was possible."Buy it here >>
"Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation"
Simon & Schuster/Amazon
This book imparts lessons about improving efficiency based on case studies of lean companies across various industries.Buy it here >>
Elon Musk
Yasin Ozturk/Getty Images
The Tesla CEO has recommended several AI books, sci-fi novels, and biographies over the years.
"What We Owe the Future"
Amazon
One of Musk's most recent picks, this book tackles longtermism, which its author defines as "the view that positively affecting the long-run future is a key moral priority of our time." Musk says the book is a "close match" for his philosophy.
"Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies"
Amazon
Musk has also recommended several books on artificial intelligence, including this one, which considers questions about the future of intelligent life in a world where machines might become smarter than people.Buy it here >>
"Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era"
Amazon
On the subject of AI, Musk said in a 2014 tweet that this book, which examines its risks and potential, is also "worth reading."Buy it here >>
"Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence"
Amazon
In this book, MIT professor Max Tegmark writes about ensuring artificial intelligence and technological progress remain beneficial for human life in the future.
"Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future"
Amazon
Peter Thiel shares lessons he learned founding companies like PayPal and Palantir in this book.Musk has said of the book, "Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how."Buy it here >>
"Einstein: His Life and Universe"
Amazon
Musk's reading list isn't without biographies, including this Walter Isaacson book on Albert Einstein as well as Isaacon's biography of Benjamin Franklin. Isaacson more recently published a biography of Musk himself.Buy it here >>
Bill Gates
Leon Neal/Getty Images
The Microsoft cofounder usually publishes two lists each year, one in the summer and one at year's end, of his book recommendations.
"How the World Really Works"
Penguin Random House
In his 2022 summer reading list, Gates highlighted this work by Vaclav Smil that explores the fundamental forces underlying today's world, including matters like energy production and globalization."If you want a brief but thorough education in numeric thinking about many of the fundamental forces that shape human life, this is the book to read," Gates said of the book.
"Why We're Polarized"
Simon & Schuster
Ezra Klein argues that the American political system has became polarized around identity to dangerous effect in this book, also on Gates' summer reading list in 2022, that Gates calls "a fascinating look at human psychology."
"Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street"
Amazon
Gates has said this is "the best business book I've ever read." It compiles 12 articles that originally appeared in The New Yorker about moments of success and failure at companies like General Electric and Xerox.Buy it here >>
"Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World—and Why Things Are Better Than You Think"
Amazon
This book investigates the thinking patterns and tendencies that distort people's perceptions of the world. Gates has called it "one of the most educational books I've ever read."Buy it here >>
"Origin Story: A Big History of Everything"
Little, Brown and Company
David Christian takes on the history of our universe, from the Big Bang to mass globalization, in this book.Buy it here >>
"The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History"
Amazon
Elizabeth Kolbert plumbs the history of Earth's mass extinctions in this book, including a sixth extinction, which some scientists warn is already underway.Buy it here >>
"The Myth of the Strong Leader: Political Leadership in the Modern Age"
Amazon
This Archie Brown book examines political leadership throughout the 20th century.Buy it here >>
"The Coming Wave"
Amazon
One of Gates' most recent book picks comes from the head of Microsoft AI.Mustafa Suleyman's "The Coming Wave" explores the opportunities and risks posed by scientific breakthroughs like AI and gene editing."If you want to understand the rise of AI, this is the best book to read," Gates wrote of the book.
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