12 books on leadership and success billionaire Jeff Bezos thinks everyone should read

Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos. MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
  • With a net worth of $185 billion, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is the richest person in modern history. 
  • Bezos often credited his ideas and success to the lessons he learned in books. 
  • Brad Stone, a New York Times best-selling author, published "The Everything Store" in 2013 and told the story of Bezos and Amazon.
  • In the book, Stone disclosed the top books that Bezos counted on for career advice. 
  • The list includes "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro, a Nobel Prize-winning novel about a butler who recalls his career in service during wartime in England, and "Good to Great" by Jim Collins, an analysis of what sets great companies apart from the good ones. 
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos devours bookstores. But he also devours books. 

Bezos is the richest person in modern history. During the coronavirus pandemic, his fortune soared to $185 billion. The Amazon founder and CEO is among a small list of billionaires who made an average of $42 billion each week during the current crisis, Business Insider previously reported. Amazon reported record profits and 40% sales growth during its second quarter earnings report

On July 29, Bezos alongside Apple's Tim Cook, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, and Google's Sundar Pichai appeared before Congress to testify as part of an investigation by the House Judiciary's Antitrust subcommittee into the power of tech platforms. Bezos said at the hearing that he couldn't guarantee Amazon hadn't violated company policies and used trend data about third-party sellers to help drive its private-label products.

Brad Stone, a New York Times best-selling author, published "The Everything Store" in 2013 and told the story of Bezos and Amazon. Stone wrote about the mindset that helped Bezos expand his online bookstore into a online retail empire, and how the billionaire often depended on books to shape business ideas.

"Books have nurtured Amazon since its creation and shaped its culture and strategy," Stone wrote. "Here are a dozen books widely read by executives and employees that are integral to understanding the company."

Business Insider compiled a list of books that Bezos read, along with Stone's explanation on why each made the list. 

This is an update of an article written by Max Nisen.

"The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro

'The Remains of the Day' by Kazuo Ishiguro
Vintage International/Amazon

Bezos' favorite book has nothing to do with business.

In fact, it's a compelling portrait of a butler who recalls his career in service during wartime in England. This books deals with age, memory, loss, and love during turbulent times, and the CEO said that he tends to learn more through novels than nonfiction, Stone wrote. 

"Before reading it, I didn't think a perfect novel was possible," Bezos said previously. "I am entranced by that: The idea of the impossible achieved." 

Get it here >>

"Sam Walton: Made in America" by Sam Walton

sam walton made in america
Amazon

In this book, Sam Walton detailed how he founded Walmart and his principles of discount retailing and willingness to try a lot of things and make many mistakes. This memoir is filled with Walton's anecdotes and "rules of the road" as he built the largest retailer in the world. 

His openness to experimentation inspired Bezos to do the same and apply those same core values, Stone wrote. 

Get it here >>

"Memos from the Chairman" by Alan Greenberg

'Memos from the Chairman' by Alan Greenberg
Workman Publishing/Amazon

Alan "Ace" Greenberg, the former CEO and chairman of Bear Stearns and a Wall Street legend, was famous for the memos that he'd send to his traders. And "Memos from a Chairman" is ultimately a collection of his notes to employees that reflected his management philosophies. 

Greenberg encouraged leaders to make decisions based on common sense, avoid herd mentality, and always stay humble of their successes. 

"His repetition of wisdom from a fictional philosopher presages Amazon's annual recycling of its original 1997 letter to shareholders," Stone wrote.

Get it here >>

"The Mythical Man-Month"by Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.

'The Mythical Man-Month' by Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.
Addison Wesley Longman, Inc/Amazon

This book lays out the theory behind Amazon's two pizza teams, Stone wrote.

Bezos believes teams shouldn't be larger than what two pizzas can feed, and that smaller teams can create more effective communication and higher autonomy, Business Insider previously reported.

In "The Mythical Man-Month," Frederick P. Brooks draws from his experience as a project manager for massive software companies, and how he pinpointed the various management problems that come with larger projects. The author argued that small groups are actually more productive and proactive at handling complex tasks. 

Get it here >>

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

good to great
HarperBusiness

Stone wrote that Jim Collins, the author of "Good to Great," actually briefed Amazon executives on his seminal management book. It's among the leadership books that's most applicable to today's rapidly-changing workplace. 

Collins spent five years researching which qualities allow companies to excel, and the results prompted him to identify eight common traits, that "good to great," companies share.

"Companies must confront the brutal facts of their business, find out what they are uniquely good at, and master their fly wheel, in which each part of the business reinforces and accelerates the other parts," Stone wrote. 

Get it here >> 

"Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies" by Jim Collins

'Built to Last  Successful Habits of Visionary Companies' by Jim Collins
HarperCollins Publishers/Amazon

In "Built to Last," coauthors Jim Collins and Jerry Porras analyze the most prominent industry leaders and companies and explain why some companies have endured throughout the years, while others in the same industry and the same size didn't. 

This book is based on more than six years of research, and it's filled with hundreds of real-life examples of visionary companies like Walt Disney and General Electric. 

"A core ideology guides these firms, and only those employees who embrace the central mission flourish; others are 'expunged like a virus' from the companies," Stone wrote.

Get it here >>

 

"Creation: Life and How to Make It" by Steve Grand

'Creation  Life and How to Make It' by Steve Grand
Amazon

Stone explained that Steve Grand's "Creation" inspired Bezos to develop Amazon Web Services, or AWS, the service that popularized the notion of the cloud. 

Grand is a computer scientist and roboticist who single-handedly coded a computer game that allowed players to create living creatures that would live and breath in real time. This book explores Grand's reflections on artificial life, technology, and society's growing dependence on cyberspace. 

Get it here >>

"The Innovator's Dilemma" by Clayton Christensen

the innovators dilemma
Harvard Business Review Press

More than two decades after its publication, Clayton Christensen's "The Innovator's Dilemma" remains a must-read for business-school students. 

"An enormously influential business book whose principles Amazon acted on and that facilitated the creation of the Kindle and AWS," Stone wrote of this book. 

Drawing from real-world examples, "The Innovator's Dilemma" argues innovation and doing what's out of the ordinary can transform a market or sector. He also provides cases where corporations failed solely because they did everything right — but did not innovate. 

By applying the term "disruption" as the redesign of how things are done, Christensen advises leaders not to get too comfortable with their business models. 

Get it here >>

"The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement" by Eliyahu Goldratt

'The Goal  A Process of Ongoing Improvement' by Eliyahu Goldratt
Amazon

Bezos asked his executives to read "The Goal," a best-selling novel about a manager who must turn around a failing manufacturing plant. 

"The book encourages companies to identify the biggest constraints in their operations and then structure their organizations to get the most out of those constraints," Stone wrote.

Get it here >>

"Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation" by James Womack and Daniel Jones

'Lean Thinking  Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation' by James Womack and Daniel Jones
Simon & Schuster/Amazon

In this book, coauthors James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones based their title on the Toyota lean model, a concept that is centered around creating perfect value for customers with zero wasted resources

"The production philosophy pioneered by Toyota calls for a focus on those activities that create value for the customer and the systematic eradication of everything else," Stone wrote. 

Get it here >>

 

"Data-Driven Marketing: The 15 Metrics Everyone in Marketing Should Know" by Mark Jeffery

'Data Driven Marketing  The 15 Metrics Everyone in Marketing Should Know' by Mark Jeffery
John Wiley & Sons Inc./Amazon

"Data-driven Marketing" was named the best marketing book in 2011. It serves as a crash course in how companies can improve efficiency and drive growth through strategizing a number-centric approach. 

"Amazon employees must support all assertions with data, and if the data has a weakness, they must point it out or their colleagues will do it for them," Stone wrote when referring to this book. 

Get it here >>

"The Black Swan" by Nassim Taleb

'The Black Swan' by Nassim Taleb
Random House

In "The Black Swan," investor-philosopher Taleb diagnoses the way people misguidedly lean on prediction as a way of moving through the world, and reveals how the most structured of systems are the most vulnerable to collapse — like the financial system in 2007.

"People are wired to see patterns in chaos while remaining blind to unpredictable events, with massive consequences," Stone wrote. "Experimentation and empiricism trumps the easy and obvious narrative."

Get it here >>

 

Read more: 

Jeff Bezos Amazon Books