Like a movie trailer, but for books. Watch, listen, or read along, then go as deep as you want.
Great lessons shouldn't depend on spare time, money, or how you learn. Free in 8 languages, for everyone.
By Farid, founder of StoryShots ·
Biographies are long for a reason, and the good ones reward the full read. These ten are ranked by what they teach, not by who's on the cover, with a free 5-minute summary of each so you know which life to read about first.
If you only read one: Steve Jobs. Isaacson shows you both the genius and the cost, and leaves the verdict to you.
Authorized but unflinching, and the reason every founder now wants an Isaacson. The product stories are great; the sections on how Jobs treated people are the ones that stay with you. Long, and it moves.
Full book: roughly 25 hours. Summary: 5 minutes, free
The founder of Nike on the fifteen years it nearly didn't happen. Knight writes it like a novel and doesn't hide the fear. It's the best answer to the question "what is it actually like?" Read it before starting anything.
Full book: roughly 13 hours. Summary: 5 minutes, free
Raised by survivalists in Idaho, no school, no doctors, and out the other side to a Cambridge PhD. It's a memoir about what education is for, and about the price of leaving. One of the best-written books on this list.
Full book: roughly 12 hours. Summary: 5 minutes, free
Memoir first, psychology second. The camps, then the idea Frankl built from surviving them. Short and permanent.
Full book: roughly 5 hours. Summary: 5 minutes, free
A neurosurgeon diagnosed with terminal cancer at 36, writing about what makes a life worth living while his ends. Unfinished, because he died before finishing it. Short. You'll read it in a sitting and think about it for a year.
Full book: roughly 5.5 hours. Summary: 5 minutes, free
Two years of access to the most divisive builder alive. Isaacson is more admiring than critics wanted and more critical than fans wanted, which is probably right. Read it for the operating style, whatever you think of the man.
Full book: roughly 20 hours. Summary: 5 minutes, free
Shackleton's Antarctic expedition: ship crushed, 28 men, two years on the ice, and every one of them came home. The best leadership book on this list isn't filed under leadership. It's this.
Full book: roughly 11 hours. Summary: 5 minutes, free
The making of the investor, written before the legend hardened. Better than the later biographies on how he actually thought in the early years. Read it if you want the method rather than the folksy quotes.
Full book: roughly 19 hours. Summary: 5 minutes, free
An ordinary man who became president by accident and made some of the century's largest decisions. McCullough's masterpiece, and a study in how character shows up when nobody expected you to have any. It's enormous, and worth it. The summary is the way in.
Full book: roughly 54 hours. Summary: 5 minutes, free
The odd one out, and it's here because it's more honest than most celebrity memoirs and more useful than it has any right to be. It's built from his journals and his mistakes, with a working philosophy of taking what the day gives you. Fun, and not only fun.
Full book: roughly 6 hours. Summary: 5 minutes, free
Founders: Shoe Dog, then Steve Jobs. Leadership under pressure: Endurance. Money: Buffett. A life changed by reading: Educated. Mortality: When Breath Becomes Air or Man's Search for Meaning. Something lighter: Greenlights.
Shoe Dog if you want to be pulled along, Steve Jobs if you want the full picture of a life.
Shoe Dog, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, in that order. Endurance if you want to learn leadership from someone who wasn't building a company.
A memoir is written by the person; a biography is written about them. This list has both, and the memoirs are usually shorter.
Related lists: The 10 Best Books for Entrepreneurs, The 10 Best History Books
