The best biographies I’ve read over the last two years

Last week I shared the list of the 8 best business books I’ve read over the last two years. These are the best biographies I’ve read, hope you enjoy!

Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life (autobiography of Steve Martin) – My blog review.

Becoming Steve Jobs – Another great Steve Jobs bio. Here’s a summary of the other one by Walter Isaacson, which I read in 2011. My blog review.

Call Me Ted by Ted Turner. Fantastic story of Ted’s life, albeit told from his perspective. I think for Atlantans, this is a 5-star read.

Born to Run by Christopher McDougall – Possibly the best book I read in 2016. LOVED it.

Living with a Seal by Jesse Itzler. I give this book 5 stars for a few reasons. Its extremely entertaining, its extremely motivating, its a great entrepreneurship story as well, it’s read by the author (on Audible), and its only 5 hours long. I highly recommend it.

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. I am on a huge biography kick and am picking some of the most successful people to read about. I’ve never had an interest in Buffett and knew very little about his life before I read this book. And I really, really enjoyed it.

Total Recall – Arnold’s story. Really, really enjoyed this book. The back 1/3 that describes his time in politics was interesting, but less so than the first 2/3. But his story is incredibly inspiring; a must read for any entrepreneur.

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight of Nike fame. Terrific. Recommend it to any current or would-be entrepreneurs.

Elon Musk: Telsa, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. Solid book. Definitely glad I listened to it as the author dives deep into many people’s backgrounds that personally weren’t super interesting. But the deep dive into Musk’s life was really interesting. I didn’t know much about him and came away very impressed by how ambitious he is. More ambitious by a great margin than the likes of Jobs and Bezos.

Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success by Phil Jackson. As a huge Michael Jordan / Chicago Bulls fan group up – let’s be real, who wasn’t? – I really enjoyed Phil’s story as he went through both his Bulls and his Lakers tenure. It’s a leadership book disguised as a sports book. I really wish Phil had read it himself, as the book is written in 1st person, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.