9 of The Best Business Audiobooks: Listen Now

If you’re looking for a decent business audiobook, you’re in the right place. We feature some of the best business audiobooks on the market today.

Finding a few good business audiobooks that you can listen to on your commute, at lunch, or at the gym is a great way to get through the book and learn in a time-efficient way. These titles can teach any business owner how to improve their workflow, marketing or become a successful entrepreneur, during a commute, at the gym or out for a walk.

Get your headphones and begin your journey through this great list of the best business audiobooks.

1. Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg

Lean In

This is a great audio business book by Facebook chief operation office. She explains how women can achieve success in the boardroom. She touches on different areas of work-life and offers insights from her life as a top C-level female.

She breaks the book’s big idea down into several key principles including, mentorship, working together and finding a seat at the table. She also covers issues like sharing parenting with a partner.

Elisa Donvan narrates this audiobook, and it runs for almost 6 and a half hours.

Sheryl says,

“What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”

Sheryl Sandberg
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
  • TEDtalk 50 most powerful women seek challenges take risks
  • Hardcover Book
  • Sandberg, Sheryl (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 240 Pages - 03/12/2013 (Publication Date) - Knopf (Publisher)

2. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Think and Grow Rich

This book dates back to 1937 and surprisingly lives up to today’s business standards. Hill offers listeners fourteen principles that will help them find spiritual and material wealth. Even though the book was published in 1937, some of the advice is around decision making, how to influence people and personal planning applies today.

For this book, the author interviewed some of the greatest business minds of his day, including Henry Ford and J. D. Rockefeller. The book also includes 3 American presidents.

The audiobook is narrated by Erik Synnestvedt and offers over 9 hours of listening time. Hill says,

“You are the master of your destiny. You can influence, direct, and control your own environment. You can make your life what you want it to be.”

Napoleon Hill
Think and Grow Rich
  • Audible Audiobook
  • Napoleon Hill (Author) - Erik Synnestvedt (Narrator)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 10/16/2007 (Publication Date) - Gildan Media, LLC (Publisher)

3. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Blink

Blink is one of Malcolm Gladwell’s most popular pop psychology and marketing books.

Published in 2005, Gladwell combines research with storytelling to illustrate his points about decision-making. Expect advice on decision-making, specifically conscious and unconscious modes of thinking. He narrates this book, explaining how to achieve presence and mastery of a craft. Gladwell also covers how to combine logic and intuition to solve problems.

He says,

“The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.”

Malcolm Gladwell
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
  • Audible Audiobook
  • Malcolm Gladwell (Author) - Malcolm Gladwell (Narrator)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 04/05/2005 (Publication Date) - Hachette Audio (Publisher)

4. The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss

The 4-Hour Work Week

Author Tim Ferriss’s goal is to help readers live on their own terms as nomad entrepreneurs or by working less. He explains how he quit his life in the rat race and revamped his life through a concept he calls lifestyle design.

This book is narrated by Ray Porter, is 13-hour long and a classic from the productivity genre. Some of the tactics in the book are a bit dated, but the general theme of the book is still relevant today.

Ferriss will show you how to quit a corporate job or an eighty-hour week and embrace entrepreneurship on your own terms via outsourcing and other tactics.

If you like this book, you’ll love this follow-up Tools of Titans and Tribes of Mentors.

Ferriss says,

“What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.”

Tim Ferriss
Sale
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (Expanded and Updated)
  • Audible Audiobook
  • Timothy Ferriss (Author) - Ray Porter (Narrator)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 12/28/2008 (Publication Date) - Blackstone Audio, Inc. (Publisher)

5. Good to Great by Jim Collins

Good to Great

This business audiobook is based on a 5-year research project by Jim Collins and his team about company growth. Good to Great profiles the seven characteristics of thriving companies and the great leaders behind them versus ones that stall or fail.

It’s packed full of rich, memorable metaphors that any business leader can use. It’s also sold over four million copies. Jim Collins narrates this audiobook, and it is over 10 hours long.

The book was published in 2001 and some of the companies in this book have since collapsed thanks to subsequent mismanagement, the recession and other issues!

However, the advice for leaders inside of this audiobook is still relevant today. That said, if you want more recent examples consider his 2011 follow-up Great by Choice.

Collins says,

“Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.”

Jim Collins
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't
  • Audible Audiobook
  • Jim Collins (Author) - Jim Collins (Narrator)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 07/13/2010 (Publication Date) - HarperAudio (Publisher)

6. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

The Lean Startup

This title is one of Silicon Valley’s playbooks. It’s popular with startups and news businesses across multiple industries.

Ries explains the concept of the minimum viable product and how companies like Dropbox relied on this concept during their early days.

He also explains how business leaders can use decision-making frameworks like the Five Whys to test their ideas and products before investing significant amounts of time and money.

Ries narrates this book. It’s over 9 hours long and has sold over one million copies. He says,

“We must learn what customers really want, not what they say they want or what we think they should want.”

Eric Ries
The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
  • Audible Audiobook
  • Eric Ries (Author) - Eric Ries (Narrator)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 09/13/2011 (Publication Date) - Random House Audio (Publisher)

7. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

The Power of Habit

You are what you do. This audiobook isn’t directly related to the world of business, but Duhigg’s explanation of how to form lasting habits can help any leader or business owner accomplish more. In this audiobook, he explains the concepts of:

  • Keystone habits
  • The golden rule of habit change
  • What a habit loop is and how to use one

Mike Chamberlain narrates this audiobook, and it’s over 10 and a half hours long.

Duhigg says,

“The Golden Rule of Habit Change: You can’t extinguish a bad habit, you can only change it.”

Charles Duhigg
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
  • GOOD
  • Audible Audiobook
  • Charles Duhigg (Author) - Mike Chamberlain (Narrator)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 02/28/2012 (Publication Date) - Random House Audio (Publisher)

8. The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch

The 80/20 Principle

This popular business audiobook, first published in 1997, is kind of like a precursor to Tim Ferriss’s work can’t ignore this one.

The Pareto Principle states that 20 percent of our activities form 80 percent of the results. In this book, Koch explains how to apply this principle at work, in business, with our finances and even with your personal life. It’s critical listening if you want to learn to use your time more wisely.

The unabridged version is narrated by Sean Pratt and is over 12 hours in length.

Richard writes,

“Not only is happiness, not money, it is not even like money.”

Richard Koch
The 80/20 Principle
  • Audible Audiobook
  • Richard Koch (Author) - Richard Aspel (Narrator)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 12/17/2007 (Publication Date) - Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd (Publisher)

9. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

Shoe Dog

This 2016 memoir by Nike founder and former CEO Phil Knight is an engaging story. It’s hard to imagine Nike as an underdog today, but that’s exactly why this company was founded in 1964.

Knight explains how he graduated from business school, borrowed $50 from his father and founded Nike. He explains how he and his team built Nike up to compete with rivals like Adidas over the years and even where the famous swoosh came from.

The audiobook is over 13 hours long and narrated by Phil Knight and Leo Butz.

He says,

“I’d tell men and women in their mid-twenties not to settle for a job or a profession or even a career. Seek a calling. Even if you don’t know what that means, seek it. If you’re following your calling, the fatigue will be easier to bear, the disappointments will be fuel, the highs will be like nothing you’ve ever felt.”

Phil Knight
Sale
Shoe Dog
  • Audible Audiobook
  • Phil Knight (Author) - Norbert Leo Butz, Phil Knight - introduction (Narrators)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 04/26/2016 (Publication Date) - Simon & Schuster Audio (Publisher)

The Best Business Audiobooks: Final Word

These are some of the best business audiobooks available today. Audible is a great service for listening to these during a commute, in the gym or out for a walk. (Check out our Audible review).

Remember, you can spend a lifetime reading books without taking any action. So pick one, read it and put the advice inside to good use.

FAQs

What are the best audiobooks for small business owners?

Check out the 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch. It explains how to accomplish more with less and master Pareto’s Principle in business. The Lean Startup by Eric Reiss is another good choice if you want to embrace the concept of the minimum viable product and test ideas before investing lots of time and money.

How did we select the best business audiobooks?

We listened to these audiobooks and considered that they are engaging, relevant today and useful for listeners. We also focused on business audiobooks that are entertaining, actionable and digestible.

Further Reading

Our Always Up-to-Date List of Great Books to Read

Best Productivity and Time Management Books

Best Self-help Books

The Best Writing Books

Best Leadership Books

Best Grammar Books

Best Sci-Fi Books

Best Dystopian Novels

Audible: Is It Worth It?

Best Philosophy Books

Best Creativity Books

Best Business Audiobooks

Author

  • Bryan Collins is the owner of Become a Writer Today. He's an author from Ireland who helps writers build authority and earn a living from their creative work. He's also a former Forbes columnist and his work has appeared in publications like Lifehacker and Fast Company.

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