Here are the 12 favorite books of Jeff Bezos that you should read next. These books will help you develop fresh insight into life, business, and relationship. Read on to learn more!

It’s official:

Jeff Bezos is the richest man on earth!

Yes, you read that right.

When I was growing up, I consistently hear that it was Bill Gates.

Now, Jeff Bezos overtook him with a net worth $113.0 billion (Just about 6 billion wealthier than Bill Gates).

With this in mind, you might be thinking, how did Jeff become so rich?

I won’t go through the details and I’m confident that the answer can be a little more complicated.

However, if you want a simpler answer, let me tell you this:

Jeff Bezos loves to read.

And what he reads immensely affected his way of thinking.

I would even venture to say that these books have later helped him create billions.

These books are so powerful that when Jeff applied the principles he learned from them, he was able to make the decisions that led to the massive growth of his company.

By looking at his favorite books, we also get an idea of how his mind works.

It shows us what the brain of the richest man on earth prefers to read.

Sounds interesting, right?

So, what are the favorite books of Jeff Bezos?

In this post, let me share with you 12 of them.

Who is Jeff Bezos?

Jeff Bezos changed that way we do shopping.

He is an American entrepreneur who founded Amazon – the biggest and most profitable online retailer.

Amazon wasn’t this big before.

In fact, Jeff started Amazon as an online bookstore.

However, finding a bigger opportunity in selling other stuff, he later expanded his website to include almost anything you can think of.

That’s why, if you look at Amazon’s logo, you will see an arrow pointing from ‘A’ to ‘Z’.

So, without further delay, here are the 12 favorite books of Jeff Bezos that you should read.

(Note: the books on this list came from the best-selling biography book written by Brad Stone, “The Everything Store.”)

Book no. 1: Built to Last

For Jeff Bezos, vision is important in any company.

If you intend to start a company, you need to ensure you have a clear vision of where your company is going.

When Jeff started Amazon, he has the vision that his company will become big.

That’s why he chose the name Amazon.

Amazon is the biggest river in the world and he intended to make his company as big as possible.

Built to Last is a great book that Jeff used to learn more about becoming a visionary company.

The book includes the findings of Jim and Jerry throughout their six-year research project at the Stanford University Graduate School of Businesses.

The authors selected 18 top-notch and exceptional companies that have stood the test of time.

These companies are nearly a hundred years in existence and have outperformed its many competitors.

It is these companies that the authors studied and see what made them last.

Truly, it is the ideal book for Jeff Bezos.

And it is also an ideal book for you if you’re starting a business that you want to last your lifetime!

Book no. 2: Creation

Jeff Bezos knew that the next big thing is the Internet.

Thus, he made it a point to capitalize on that before anyone else.

When everyone is ready, his Amazon Empire is already on the rise, leaving everyone else behind.

I think the book, Creation, has made an impact on Jeff’s thinking.

Creation is a book about creating artificial life through technology.

In this book, Steve Grand, the author of the book, explored the various questions such as:

• What is life?
• What philosophical guidelines artificial life should follow?
• How should they think, talk, and behave?

Steve Grand gives a glimpse of what the world would be like with artificial life living among us.

Book no. 3: Data-Driven Marketing

If you want to make your business successful, you need to have hard data to help you make the right decisions.

Jeff knew this very well.

He recognized that making decisions based on blind chance can prove to be fatal to your company.

That’s why he likes this book.

In Data-Driven Marketing, you will learn the 15 metrics that you should never ignore when running your marketing campaign.

Named as the best marketing book in 2011, Data-Driven Marketing helps readers to know how to improve the effectiveness of their sales across all spectrum of marketing activities.

Whether it is about branding, improving people’s awareness, establishing brand loyalty, internet marketing or launching new products, this book is here for you.

Book no. 4: Good to Great

When Jeff was just starting his own company, he knows that he is up against already established bookstores.

His is just a small company that is trying to make a name of itself on the Internet.

The book, Good to Great, is the perfect mentor for him.

Written by Jim Collins, the book discusses the formula of how mediocre, small, and even bad companies can rise to greatness.

If you have a company you want to transform, from good to great, then this book is the right one for you!

Book no. 5: Lean Thinking

Subtitle: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation

 Author: James Womack                                       

Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars from 190+ customers

Lean Thinking is actually a classic business book.

It has helped a lot of businesses in the past.

With its updated versions, Lean Thinking is set to help more businesses today.

The book is not about reinventing business models.

But it is about going back to the basics – discovering what customers see as valuable.

James Womack focuses on taking out the clutter from marketing and ensuring that the main need of customers is met.

That’s how Toyota outgrew Ford and other big car companies.

For Jeff, he recognized how important it is to stand out among his competition.

Because of his constant search for what’s really valuable to his customers, Jeff was able to build his company.

Jeff learned from the book how to improve his company through the step-by-step action plans laid out in the book.

You, too, can learn from this book just like Jeff Bezos.

Book no. 6: Memos from the Chairman

Alan Greenberg is the former chairman of Stearns and Bear.

In this short book, you get to read the wise and invaluable memos of Alan Greenberg.

This book isn’t just read by Jeff Bezos, but also some of the most successful business people such as Warren Buffett and Tom Peters.

So, this only shows how this book becomes a great source of wisdom to many accomplished people.

Book no. 7: The Remains of the Day

It is not a huge surprise why Jeff would have loved this novel.

This book is the –

• Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature
• The Booker Prize winner
• The basis of an award-winning film

With these accolades, you would surely expect something good from the book.

So, yes, even the wealthiest man on earth loves to read novels and one of them is “The Remains of the Day.”

Book no. 8: The Black Swan

No, this is not about the movie, The Black Swan.

This is a book written by Nassim Taleb.

To give you a background, a black swan is a positive or negative event that is considered to be a rare occurrence.

Though it is rare, a black swan leaves a massive effect in history and causes long-lasting consequences to the people around it.

The book has a unique way to change people’s view of the world.

Perhaps, this is the reason that Jeff Bezos loves this book.

Taleb talks about various “black swan” events down the history.

Most people don’t even know that a black swan happened.

Many didn’t recognize these black swans until it is too late – until they had already caused a major change in the world.

Book no. 9: The Mythical Man-Month

The Mythical Man-Month is a book about software project management.

Understandably, a man who started the biggest online retail store would be interested in reading this kind of book.

There are a lot of things you can learn from a book written by a project manager who worked in IBM.

The book comes with a wide range of thought-provoking opinions by the author and of course, software engineering facts.

Book no. 10: Sam Walton: Made in America

If you want to build the biggest online store, you would need to first study the biggest brick-and-mortar store – Walmart.

It is actually the biggest and largest retailer in the world.

Jeff Bezos loves this book because it talks about how Wal-Mart began and how it has come the big business it is today.

The best thing about this book is that it is a book written by no other than the man himself, Sam Walton.

In this book, he chronicles his journey from a humble beginning to his adventure in Wall Street, where he further expanded his business.

No doubt: this book did not just inspire Jeff but also anyone who reads this.

Be one of them and read the book.

Book no. 11: The Innovator’s Dilemma

Jeff Bezos is not the only one who loves this book.

Consider this: The Innovator’s Dilemma is –

• Named one of the 100 Leadership & Success Books to Read in a Lifetime by Amazon Editors
• A Wall Street Journal bestseller
• A Businessweek bestseller
• Named as one of the most influential leadership books by Fast Company
• Cited by some of the world’s renowned thinkers such as Malcolm Gladwell and Steve Jobs

Clayton’s book is remarkably written for the benefit of any company.

I’m sure this is what made Jeff loved this book.

The book talks about how technology and marketing innovations shaped some of the biggest companies today.

It gives you signs when you need to retain or abandon business practices.

Failure to recognize innovations could limit the growth of your business or worse, bring down your company.

The Innovator’s Dilemma is a great book that gives you a set of rules for capitalizing on disruptive innovations.

When you are able to take advantage of innovation within your field, you can take the lead and get the edge over your competitors.

I suspect this is exactly how Jeff grew his world-renowned company.

Book no. 12: The Goal

This amazing book is unique in such a way that it combines the novel genre to business management.

Though written decades of years ago, this book never fails to transform management thinkers.

As a novel, the story revolves around Alex Roo, who frantically and desperately works hard to improve his plant’s performance.

Not only is his job in trouble, but also his marriage.

He was given 90 days to save his factory before the corporate HQ would close it down.

When you read the novel, you will read the various principles Eliyahu tries to teach his readers.

It talks about his Theory of Constraints (TOC), which he himself developed.

So, if you like a novel and learn management skills at the same time, then this book is for you.

Jeff Bezos likes it and so, I’m sure you’ll also love this book.

Final words

These are the books that Jeff Bezos loves.

When you read the books successful people read, you also get the insights and ideas that made them who they are.

Be sure to check out the books mentioned on this blog to learn more.

Who knows, you might become the next richest man in the world!