Former Apple CEO John Sculley says this is the one book every entrepreneur should read in 2016
He writes in his new book, "Moonshot!" that the four game-changing technologies of today - cloud computing, wireless sensors, Big Data, and mobile devices - are cheap and readily available to all entrepreneurs who want to think up new ways to use them to solve consumer problems, so now is "the perfect time to build a billion-dollar business."
But before you launch your career as a tech entrepreneur, Sculley suggests picking up a copy of "Zero to One."
He told Business Insider that this New York Times bestseller by PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel is his number one book recommendation for techies trying to make it big.
The book's title refers to the transition from nothing to something when you create a new, ground-breaking business, rather than just a competing business."Tomorrow's champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today's marketplace," says the book's summary. "They will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique."
Sculley, who is currently invested in a number of tech startups and sits on the board of 15 different companies, says this book is important for two reasons: first, because it focuses on how you can harness technology to build a business of the future; and second, because it enforces the importance of knowing what you're doing before you dive into a startup.
"You've got to think through, 'Why am I trying to build this business? What's in it for anybody?'" he advises.
Sculley says aspiring entrepreneurs should also read his new book, "Moonshot!" because it focuses more on the consumer, while Thiel's book focuses more on technology.
Both are essential, he says. "The real differentiation in any business may initially be technology, but ultimately it's going to be the domain expertise that you have - the ability to do something with that technology to solve a really big customer problem," Sculley explains.