Along with finding a coach I am trying to build a strong network of professional entrepreneurs; a strong group of successful people that I can surround myself with, as you are only as good as the company you keep.

I once read that if you can’t surround yourself with those you want to be like, don’t spend time with anyone! Better to be alone for a while than to bring yourself down with sub-par company.  Obviously that is a little hardcore, but at the same time it is good practice.

For now my coaching and sphere of professional influence lies in the pages of authors I look up to.  Below are three great books that are sure to be inspiration for entrepreneurial greatness:

Low Risk, High Reward: Practical Prescriptions for Starting and Growing Your Business
Bob Reiss with Jeffrey L. Cruikshank

Contrary to popular belief, most entrepreneurs don’t like risk. While they are not afraid to take chances, the most successful entrepreneurs do what they can to anticipate, minimize, and offset risk at every opportunity, insists Bob Reiss, who in his own flourishing entrepreneurial career has managed to turn risk reduction into a science. Now this successful self-starter, whose exploits have been featured in The Wall Street Journal and have become case studies for Harvard Business School classes, shares the lessons of a lifetime.

By following his own prescription for managing risk, and using real-life success stories from experienced entrepreneurs, Reiss covers every obstacle the entrepreneur is likely to encounter. Where do ideas come from and how do you get started? Where can you find money and expert advice? How do you hire the best people and build credibility? How do you get orders and reorders? How do you develop and introduce successful products? Should you go public? Through every step in the process, Reiss emphasizes how risk can be anticipated, managed, and significantly reduced.

Full of practical suggestions and insights, this easy-to-read book is an indispensable guide for anyone thinking about starting a business and particularly for those would-be entrepreneurs without experience or much capital. It is equally valuable to entrepreneurs looking for ways to make their businesses more successful.

Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
Seth Godin

You’re either a Purple Cow or you’re not. You’re either remarkable or invisible. Make your choice.

What do Starbucks and JetBlue and KrispyKreme and Apple and DutchBoy and Kensington and Zespri and Hard Candy have that you don’t? How do they continue to confound critics and achieve spectacular growth, leaving behind former tried-and true brands to gasp their last?

Face it, the checklist of tired ‘P’s marketers have used for decades to get their product noticed -Pricing, Promotion, Publicity, to name a few-aren’t working anymore. There’s an exceptionally important ‘P’ that has to be added to the list. It’s Purple Cow.

Cows, after you’ve seen one, or two, or ten, are boring. A Purple Cow, though…now that would be something. Purple Cow describes something phenomenal, something counterintuitive and exciting and flat out unbelievable. Every day, consumers come face to face with a lot of boring stuff-a lot of brown cows-but you can bet they won’t forget a Purple Cow. And it’s not a marketing function that you can slap on to your product or service. Purple Cow is inherent. It’s built right in, or it’s not there. Period.

In Purple Cow, Seth Godin urges you to put a Purple Cow into everything you build, and everything you do, to create something truly noticeable. It’s a manifesto for marketers who want to help create products that are worth marketing in the first place.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t
Jim Collins

Five years ago, Jim Collins asked the question, “Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?” In Good to Great Collins, the author of Built to Last, concludes that it is possible, but finds there are no silver bullets. Collins and his team of researchers began their quest by sorting through a list of 1,435 companies, looking for those that made substantial improvements in their performance over time.

They finally settled on 11–including Fannie Mae, Gillette, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo–and discovered common traits that challenged many of the conventional notions of corporate success. Making the transition from good to great doesn’t require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner.

Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not so great, the book offers a well-reasoned road map to excellence that any organization would do well to consider. Like Built to Last, Good to Great is one of those books that managers and CEOs will be reading and rereading for years to come.

Torie
Inspiring Greatness