Five Resources to Fuel Your Inner Entrepreneur

LOOKING TO IMMERSE YOURSELF IN ALL THINGS ENTREPRENEURSHIP?

Check out this list on what to read, listen to and learn from in order to prime your mind as a current or future entrepreneur. Who knows, maybe they’ll spark your next big business idea!

READ

THE LEAN STARTUP: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses | Eric Ries

The concepts and frameworks in this book are essential for thinking like a modern entrepreneur, so much so that they actually provided the foundation for DECA’s Entrepreneurship competitive events. Look to this book to learn the principles of operating a modern-day startup, rapid prototyping, ideation and more.

Bonus: Check out the books Business Model Generation and Value Proposition Design, both by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, for more sources of inspiration for DECA’s Entrepreneurship events.

LISTEN

HOW I BUILT THIS | NPR

How I Built This is a podcast about “innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built.” Awesome, right? In each ~30 minute episode, host Guy Raz directly interviews an entrepreneur or innovator from some of the world’s best known startups, and their journeys are epic!

Here are a few favorites:

• Warby Parker: Dave Gilboa & Neil Blumenthal

• Clif Bar: Gary Erickson • Spanx: Sara Blakely

• Five Guys: Jerry Murrell

• 1-800-GOT-JUNK?: Brian Scudamore

THE PITCH | Gimlet Media

When you’re ready to graduate from Shark Tank, start listening to The Pitch, which Forbes called “The best business podcast on startup life.” Each episode takes you behind-the-scenes to hear real-life entrepreneurs pitch their businesses to venture capital investors and all the feedback that follows.

Start with a few of these top picks:

• Nuts Can Kill. Are Seeds the Answer? (#49, Blake’s Seed Based)

• Fitbit…for Dogs (#52, Waggit)

• What Is Michael Phelps Jamming to Right Now? ($70, Earbuds)

LEARN

Successful entrepreneurs will tell you that a huge secret to their success is to never. stop. learning. Even though you may still be in school, start sharpening some additional skills now for a head start on your success. Below are two great resources that allow you to learn some of the most in-demand business and technology skills for free. You may even find a skill that will give you a winning edge in your next written event or role play!

SKILLSHARE: Find hundreds of free classes on everything from graphic design, video and web development to business analytics, marketing and productivity.

CODECADEMY: A little bit of development knowledge goes a long way, especially as the tech industry continues to boom with new startups. Codecademy offers free courses on the basics of computer science, data science, web development and more.

Have some favorite resources of your own? We want to know! Tell us on Twitter by tagging @DECAInc.