My List of 13 Influential Books to Help Grow Your WordPress Business

Before I get to my list of 13 Influential Books to Help Grow Your WordPress Business, I would like to give a little background on why I created it.

Here’s Why You Should Read a Book Before Posting Silly Questions

If you frequent any of the Facebook Groups for Business Leaders, someone is likely to see a question like this:

> Any sales leader or VP’s of sales in this network? I would like to pick your brains!

Requests that are posed like the example above devalue the network as a whole because it looks like you’re there to get free advice, instead of sharing your knowledge. Therefore, many people will ignore you, but some will tire of these questions and may vote to kick you from the group because they are here to learn, not have their “brains picked” by every noob that just joined the group.

Don’t be that person.

Just as I expected, upon opening the thread, some replies were politely steering this young mind in the right direction. But often, there are the people who you can tell are on the verge of going off the handle when they reply with:

> Really?
> How about just saying I want your expert brain for free for a few hours.

And;

> Why don’t you post your questions?
> Pick your brain = I want free advice.

Or;

> Your question made you look like an amateur.

Things got kind of hostile, right? It’s sad, but that’s how it goes on the internet.

Eventually, someone asked the original poster to pose his question, to which he replied:

> It’s about sales leadership process, working with a team, coaching and development of sales representatives. What processes have you seen work?

It sounds like what this person wants is a ‘sales leader’ to tell them everything they know about their job, right? Well, if you’re that person, you’re better off buying a book (or ten) on the subject. So, I started with my reply, in which I was going to recommend just three books, but soon, it turned into a list of thirteen books. After finishing the list, I started thinking that I might want to reference this list again someday and I didn’t want to search Facebook for hours trying to find it or risk having the post disappear along with Facebook eventually.

Here’s my list of 13 Influential Books to Help Grow Your WordPress Business:

I have gained a great amount of knowledge from the books in this list while building a business around a WordPress plugin, called Event Espresso. I hope these books help you along the path to building and working on your WordPress business:

• Boss Life: Surviving My Own Small Business by Paul Downs (I learned a lot from this book)
• Hight Output Management by Andrew S. Grove (very influential to my project management)
• The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
• The Peter Principle by Laurence J. Peter
• The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Jeff Cox
• The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
• Growth Hacker Marketing by Ryan Holiday
• Zero to One by Peter Thiel
• Linchpin by Seth Godin
• Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman
• The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker
• The New One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard, Spencer Johnson
• Tribes by Seth Godin

Update #1

The list above is primarily made up of books from my Kindle Library. So here’s a short list of physical books I own:

• The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott
• The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
• Made to Stick by Chip Heath, Dan Heath
• Rework by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson
• Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen
• Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson

Update #2

Today’s post from Seth Godin seems relevant:
https://seths.blog/2018/08/the-born-salesperson/

Update #3

This excellent list of books just came across my Quora.com feed:
https://www.quora.com/Which-is-the-best-startup-book

Conclusion

Not only does reading expand your mind, but it can also provide you with the tools to think outside the box when growing your WordPress business, or any business for that matter. I hope this list of my favorite, influential books will help you in your path to leadership. If you have the time, I would love to see your list of recommended books on leadership, team development, and growth.