The Art of War

Reid Hoffman CEO/LinkedInReid read Carl von Clausewitz and Sun Tzu as a boy, which informed his strategic thinking. (Source)

Evan Spiegel After meeting Mark Zuckerberg, [Evan Spiegel] immediately bought every [Snapchat] employee a copy of 'The Art Of War'. (Source)

Neil deGrasse Tyson Astrophysicist, Author & Science CommunicatorWhich books should be read by every single intelligent person on planet? [...] The Art of War (Sun Tsu) [to learn that the act of killing fellow humans can be raised to an art]. If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world. (Source)

Steve Blank Recommends this book

Ryan Holiday AuthorI know this will offend many strategy purists, but for most audiences I recommend these two books only with a pretty strong disclaimer. While both are clearly full of strategic wisdom, they are hard to separate from their respective eras and brands of warfare. As budding strategists in business and in life, most of us are really looking for advice that can help us with our own problems. The reality is that Napoleonic warfare does not exactly have its equivalents in today’s society. On the other hand, Sun-Tzu is so aphoristic that it’s hard to say what is concrete advice and what is just... (Source)

Virginia LeBlanc Question: What books had the biggest impact on you? Perhaps changed the way you see things or dramatically changed your career path. Answer: The Art of War by Sun Tzu Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson, M.D. Our Iceberg is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions by John Kotter Conscious Capitalism by John Mackey The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle Divergent series by Veronica Roth A mash up, I know…some simple others profound but just as important, eye-opening, and affirming. These and so many more helped change how I see things, my thinking and being, and helped to understand... (Source)

Boban Dedovic When I was starting my career I wasn’t very even tempered, especially when dealing with people who I believed wronged me. This demeanor wasn’t helpful when I started running my own company because things go wrong every day—it’s just the way of things. I found myself spending lots of time chasing down contractors who didn’t finish work properly, domain squatters...etc. We were planning to initiate legal action against a party who was misusing our copyright when I recalled Sun Tzu’s famous The Art of War, a short read on dealing with military conflict. The book outlined how any conflict should... (Source)

Audrey Russo Question: What books would you recommend to young people interested in your career path? Answer: Anything by Peter Senge. The Hard Thing About Hard Things – Ben Horowitz Once you are Lucky, Twice you are good – Sara Lacey Revolutionary Wealth – Alvin Toffler Black Swan – Taleb Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change, by Ellen Pao. Creative Class – Richard Florida Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull & Amy Wallace Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis American Government 101: From the Continental Congress to the Iowa Caucus, Everything You Need to Know About US Politics – Kathleen Spears The Tao... (Source)

Bernard Tan The “Tao Te King” by Lao Tzu probably resonated with me the strongest, but others like the “Art of War” by Sun Tzu, “Bhagavad Gita” or Zen Buddhist scriptures were also real eye-openers, even for a non-religious person like myself. (Source)

Bill Liao The human world occurs in language so best get good at it! (Source)

Michael Hebenstreit If you want to become an entrepreneur and succeed in a competitive environment, then there are some evergreen books as well, for example: The Art of War by Sun Tzu. (Source)

Robert Hajnal eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'theceolibrary_com-large-mobile-banner-2','ezslot_6',164,'0','1'])); Because running is, first of all, a mental sport and you need to learn how to dominate your opponent. (Source)

Steve Sanchez Chinese general Sun Tzu wrote in chapter 6 of his timeless book “The Art of War” about how the successful military leader wins a battle before the fight even begins. Trump knows chap. 6 well; “Art of War” is his favorite book and he fashioned his book “Art of the Deal” after it. https://t.co/R6m64TzcZb (Source)

Dave Camarillo Another [book] I have to mention. (Source)

Antulio Echevarria II It has survived, partly because of the way it was written—as aphorisms or pearls of wisdom regarding how to view strategy or to fight wars. That made it easily transferrable from one historical era to another. (Source)

Foti Panagio Honestly, it’s not really as simple as following a career path, at least not anymore. I’d recommend instead reading books on innovation and leadership because that can give you the confidence you need to blaze your own trail and to take your career as it comes. I’d suggest that a good background reading list would include [...] Art of War by Sun Tzu. (Source)

Gilles Bernhard A classic everyone should read. It only takes a few hours to read as well. It is fun to read, doesn't relate explicitly to business but yet connections with business can be drawn easily. I am sure there are loads of information online about it if you want to really go deep with this book and its lessons! (Source)