Business Books are for the Birds

I agree about Jim "Business Guru" Collins: his books seem a bit like "empty calories" to me. I was left without much of a sense of any practical takeaways.<p>My favorite business book, I think, is "Growing a Business" by Paul Hawken. Pretty down to earth and he says a lot of things you'll see by people like 37 signals, except he said them back in the 80ies: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0671671642?tag=dedasys-20" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/dp/0671671642?tag=dedasys-20</a>

I've read just as many books relevant to running a startup as those that aren't. Books on the finer details of giant corporations probably aren't going to help, but stories of developing small business' will.<p>And while I believe that the best teacher is experience, books on business allow you to develop the insight necessary to see where you went wrong and how to do things differently.