Our Reading List

If we are looking to start or grow a business, we must first grow ourselves. When it comes to growth as entrepreneurs, we need to increase our knowledge, develop our skills, gain perspective, boost our creativity, learn from others, manage stress, improve our communication skills, and fine-tune our decision-making process. All of that leads us to… reading, of course!

In the short-term, reading helps ease stress and provides us with information and inspiration. Over the long-term we gain expertise, refine our skills, and become more creative. Sadly, many of us are probably not reading a whole lot. In fact, Americans on average read about one book per year, whereas most CEOs read over 50 per year!

This page is our recommended reading list for anyone on this path, broken down into categories for easier browsing. If you’re looking for some encouragement to keep you on track with your reading, consider participating in our weekly book club! You can join through our MISO Facebook group, or get weekly videos and discussions in MISO+.

What We Can Say

Have you ever asked a friend for their opinion on a legal, financial, or medical topic?

This is… somewhat like that.

We are not lawyers, doctors, or certified accountants, so we cannot give you legal, financial, or medical advice.

What we CAN give you is a carefully selected list of resources for finding those types of professional services along with many others. We can also provide our thoughts and insights on a wide range of topics related to businesses, nonprofits, personal growth, web design, and more – based on our experience.

If you’d like to learn more, please read our full disclaimer here.

Why We Can’t Guarantee

We cannot make any guarantees as to the results you may achieve through the products and services we recommend for the simple reason that we don’t know you!

Your results will vary and depend on many factors, including but not limited to your background, experience, and work ethic.

THE most important note – nothing that we promote or encourage on this site is a get-rich-quick scheme – can we all agree that success does not happen overnight? It doesn’t!

We believe it takes hard work, consistent effort, personal and professional growth, and compliance with legal and ethical practices in order to start and grow any source of income.

Please remember that all business entails risk as well as consistent effort and action.

If you’d like to learn more, please read our full disclaimer here.

How We Make Money

We cannot do this for free – but it won’t cost you extra either!

Some of the products and services we list on this site pay us a commission when someone signs up. Don’t worry – this does not cost you any extra, and we only include products and services we truly believe in.

Our mission is to help you get your business or nonprofit started and successful as quickly as possible, which is going to require various products and services along the way. We have curated this resource section to provide you with what we’ve found to be the best out there, though we may not be able to include every possible option here. In order to keep our site running and continue to offer guidance and resources to anyone seeking assistance, we partner with various businesses that we love and trust.

If you’d like to learn more, please read our full disclaimer here.


Confident Creativity

Big MagicElizabeth Gilbert
Daring GreatlyBrené Brown
FlowMihaly Csikszentmihalyi
OutliersMalcolm Gladwell
Zero to OnePeter Thiel
Start with WhySimon Sinek
The Introvert
Advantage
Marti Olsen Laney Psy.D.
The War of ArtSteven Pressfield

Psychology & the Brain

Brain RulesJohn Medina
Super ThinkingGabriel Weinberg & Lauren McCann
Emotional
Intelligence
Brandon Goleman
FlowMihaly Csikszentmihalyi
How to Read a BookMortimer J. Adler
& Charles van Doren
InfluenceRobert B Cialdini PhD
Start with WhySimon Sinek
Habits of a
Happy Brain
Loretta Graziano Breuning

Leadership and Communication

TribesSeth Godin
Start with WhySimon Sinek
InfluenceRobert B Cialdini PhD
Rehumanizing
the Workplace
Rosie Ward & Jon Robison
The Introvert
Advantage
Marti Olsen Laney Psy.D.

Perspectives and Wisdom


Economics, Society, and World

NudgeRichard H. Thaler
& Cass R. Sunstein
FreakonomicsSteven D. Levitt
& Stephen J. Dubner
Merchants of DoubtNaomi Oreskes
& Erik M. Conway
Blue Ocean StrategyW. Chan Kim
Renée Mauborgne

Business for Good


Innovation and the Future

Crossing
the Chasm
Geoffrey A. Moore
Life 3.0Max Tegmark
DrawdownPaul Hawken
Army of NonePaul Scharre