All entrepreneurs out there seek inspiration from the outside. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is no exception to that. Zuckerberg holds claim as one of the youngest billionaires in the entire globe and has always been considered a voracious leader, irrespective of his regular chock-a-bloc schedule.
Having developed a network that allows the world to be connected adroitly, Zuckerberg decided to create a Facebook-based book club in 2015. It was set out along with a reading list, which imbibed various technologies, histories, beliefs, and cultures.
Here are some of the favorite books of Zuckerberg that you should read as well:
Daryl Collins, Orlanda Ruthven, Stuart Rutherford, and Jonathan Morduch’s “Portfolios of the poor.”
This team of authors is critically acclaimed ones who spent ten years of learning the below-poverty income groups in nations such as South Africa, India, and Bangladesh. They discovered that the areas that are mainly hit by poverty are those where people lack access to financial institutions such as banks.
This book gave Zuckerberg an idea into the lives of folks living below the poverty line and how to support them on a bigger scale.
James Robinson and Daron Acemoglu’s “Why Nations Fail”
This book is the outcome of the fifteen years of cumulative research by Harvard political scientist James Robinson and MIT economist Daren Acemoglu. The reward-winning authors deal with the problem of power being limited to the hands of a select few, courtesy of the system’s extractive governments.
Keeping in mind the global market’s dynamic nature, Robinson and Acemoglu recommend that economic growth might not be lucrative for the long-term gains of specific nations in question. Zuckerberg is based in Silicon Valley, contributing to a massive portion of the American economy.
Ed Catmull’s “Creativty, Inc.”
The story of Catmull of how Pixar was established from the ground-up is an ideal book blend for motivated business owners seeking to combine their management and creative skills with running a business.
To the author, multiple pitfalls, failed risks, and power struggles are part and parcel of a journey to imminent success, credibility, and positive exposure. Zuckerberg, who led the way of a parallel journey with his company, seems to agree with the author.
Ibn Khaldun’s “The Muqqadimah”
The Muqqadimah is a book that was written in 1377, which roughly means The Introduction. The book is known to be a heritage book of history. The author is an Islamic historian Ibn Khaldun who had derived and presented a selection of revolutionary and radical ideas to both human evolution and scientific progress, a feat that gained his authority as one of the fathers of modern historiography and sociology. The interest of Zuckerberg in this book started from it being a source of historical advancement and innovation.
Henry Kissinger’s “World Order”
Kissinger is the former US Secretary of State and had front-row seats to different international conflicts, which threatened to change the balance of world order. The author discusses in his book how countries from different parts of the globe have come to think about the idea of political power and empire through the centuries of social evolution and how a changing economy has brought them into conflict with each other.
According to the tech giant owner, the book provides him a sea of first-hand knowledge about the different power structures of the globe and solutions to when they start to converge or erode, hoping to save the planet from another man-made disaster.
Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”
This book studies the constant racial divisions that still happen in modern society. People should be in an unprecedented time of racial equality. However, Alexander cites that a racial caste system has not been eradicated; instead, it has been redesigned.
The book is a magnificent one about the need to keep going forward toward racial fairness in American society.
Peter Huber’s “Orwell’s Revenge: The 1984 Palimpsest”
Huber argues with the concepts that Orwell put forth in his 1984 novel, as it is extremely evident that Orwell was totally wrong in relation to the role technology would play in controlling the minds of other people.
Keep in mind that Orwell’s Revenge is both a rewriting of 1984 with Orwell himself as the protagonist and a conversation of the key themes of the book.
Henry M. Paulson’s “Dealing with China: An Insider Unmasks the New Economic Superpower”
The author has demonstrated an influential role in the development of China into the economic superpower it has today. In this book, the previous head of Goldman Sachs directs its readers through the organizational structure of corporations in China and how to best benefit from it and work with the nation.
Michael Chwe’s “Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge”
This book of Chwe is a study of the rituals which permeate various cultures and what causes them to be rituals that people efficiently share. Rational Ritual is an extremely intriguing book that looks at the role of common knowledge within the development of rituals.
Sudhir Venkatesh’s “Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets”
Finally, this is a compelling story about Sudhir Venkatesh, a young sociologist who ventured to get an inside look at one of the crack-dealing gangs of Chicago. The author demonstrates the distinct challenges those in a gang experience and how challenging it can be to get out of that kind of life.
What makes this book even more interesting is the unlikely friendship that the author and the gang leader called JT develop later in.
The mentioned books above discover all avenues of the global economy, political structures, and society—three important factors which are bound to influence any business. That’s why make sure you stop by the nearest bookstore on your way home from work today and begin some bedtime reading!
We hope this article has been informative and useful to you. Which of these books will you start reading today? Share your thoughts by leaving your comments below.
