They use it because their parents weren’t rich but they forget about all their employees. Most businesses aren’t built by one visionary without the help of an army of helpers. Few people actually do it all by themselves even if they claim to.

Eric Barone is one of these rare creatures.

Using wages as a part-time theatre usher as funding, he created the massively popular Stardew Valley video game. All by himself. For context, the development of Super Mario Odyessy needed 68 different specialized roles. Eric was the producer, storyteller, developer, audio director, and artist all rolled into one.

It took him over four years but the game was an instant smash hit. Professional game reviewers loved it too; IGN rated it 95/100. It’s sold at least 15 million copies and made at least $34 million for Eric; the revenue is likely to be much higher today as that number comes from 2017.

You might be tempted to follow in his footsteps but when you read on, you’ll see how his obsession almost broke him.

It was just meant to be practice

“I just had my intuition as to what was the next important thing I should work on.” — Eric Barone

Hindsight bias is strong in many entrepreneurs. They’ll preach about how they always had a higher mission when they started their business but it’s easy to say when they’ve already made it.

Eric is more humble. He was a computer science major who no one would hire. He only started working on the game as a way to keep his coding skills sharp so he could impress potential employers. The burning passion to make the game perfect came later on. Maybe if Apple had given him a job, millions of people would never have had the pleasure of playing Stardew Valley.

You don’t need to begin with the end in mind. It’s ok to start something and work out along the way whether or not you’re passionate about it. We’re all muddling our way through life. You can abandon a project if doesn’t light a fire in your belly but you could build something great if it does. You’ll never know unless you try.

Why not me?

The mindset shift from practice to tenacity had one basic pillar.

Whenever he came across a task he didn’t know how to do, he asked himself, “why not me?” If there were other people out there who could do it, why couldn’t he learn how to do it? Pixel art was something he remembers being difficult but he sunk hundreds of hours into getting better. His self-belief meant Stardew Valley was high quality in every measure.

Yet the me-against-the-world mentality also stopped him from ever asking for help. Most of us turn to Google with our problems and we will often find the answer yet sometimes no one has posted about the unique challenge you face. When I worked in tech this is when I would ask a colleague or ask for advice in a forum. I saw no point in re-inventing the wheel as the end product would be the same.

In some ways, Eric succeeded because he took this outlook and in other ways, it was despite it.

The irony

For those of you who have never played Stardew Valley, it’s a refreshingly simple game.

The main character in Stardew Valley quits his job at an inflexible corporation because his grandpa leaves him a plot of land in the middle of nowhere. The character chooses to restart his life out in nature surrounded by beauty. The gameplay is based around farming and interacting with characters who have a human-like depth to them.

This was the complete opposite to Eric’s life. He worked 80 hour weeks and barely left the house. He was his own inflexible boss but there was no plot of land to escape to. His girlfriend remembers what he was like:

“He would be working all day till 11:30 P.M. and I would be like, ‘Hey, you have to get off the computer. You have to do something with me. We have to eat dinner. We have to watch an episode of Star Trek.’ I needed more interaction with him.”

Eric’s obsessive attention to detail made the game as great as it is but the costs to his health and his relationships were great. If I told you that all you needed to do was work 80 hour weeks on top of a part-time job and stay inside all day to make $30 million, would you take it?

He admits “it was definitely a struggle to keep my sanity.”

Burnout strikes

Even after the game was released in 2016, Eric continued being a one-man team for a while. He’d have to be superhuman to provide support to millions of players and eventually all his hard work caught up with him.

In August 2017, he took an overdue break and went on a road trip across America with his girlfriend and housemates. Eric experienced the outside world again with the freedom of one of his virtual characters. They stopped off in California where he allowed himself to relax on the beach like when he was a kid. He later hired someone to help him manage Stardew Valley.

He’s now working on a new project called Haunted Chocolatier by himself again. Yet the unhealthy obsession no longer seems to be there. He’s learned from Stardew Valley and while he wants his new game to be even better, he’s not destroying himself to do it.

I believe he can be proud of is how many people’s lives he has impacted with his game. During the pandemic, the importance of gaming to people’s mental health came into focus. I know many people who used gaming as a way to cope whether it be complex games such as Eric’s Stardew Valley or simple games such as free online solitaire.

It might not have been his intention but there are so many examples of people who say it has made their lives better. Maybe making games despite the money isn’t the best thing for your mental health but playing them could be.

2021 hasn’t been the year we all hoped for but I’m hopeful 2022 will be brighter.

You might have struggled to find the time to keep up to date with the best business books this year so I’ve compiled this list for you. The current times are reflected in what people were reading with several corporate catastrophe books as well as books covering equality and the climate.

Ranking books is always highly subjective and I use a simple formula to order this list. Like movies, the first people to review are super fans or know the author personally. I account for that by giving extra weight to the number of reviews then I normalize the raw figures to give a score out of 100.

This isn’t a list of my favorite books but based on the views of the highly engaged readers of Goodreads.com.

AP: Amardeep Parmar score (books are ranked from lowest to highest score)
GR: Goodreads.com rating and number of ratings
AZ: Amazon.com rating and number of ratings

(Please note that this story contains affiliate links but you can choose to simply google the titles instead should you wish to purchase elsewhere. You can find the 2020 list here.)

#20 Huddle: How Women Unlock Their Collective Power by Brooke Baldwin

AP: 72/ GR: 4.2 from 260/ AZ:4.8 from 236

Brooke is a CNN journalist and explores the importance of women supporting each other. Now I’m not a woman but her advice has been well-received by many. It offers practical tips for women to work together to achieve their collective goals within an organization.

#19 Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone by Sarah Jaffe

AP: 74/ GR: 4 from 1387/ AZ: 4.4 from 130

If you’re looking for an upbeat book, keep scrolling. Sarah unleashes a strong critique of the way we look at work by exploring how we got to where we are. The central message is stop seeking to love what you do for money because it’s all part of the system. Whether you find that depressing or empowering is down to you!

#18 Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam by Vivek Ramaswamy

AP: 74/ GR: 4.17 from 538/ AZ: 4.8 from 1312

Potentially the most controversial book on this list though it’s not as aggressive as the title might suggest. Vivek argues companies across America are only taking stands on certain topics as a form of marketing rather than believing in what they say. If you think an advert is just to tick a box, you might be right.

#17 A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload by Cal Newport

AP: 75/ GR: 3.95 from 2681/ AZ: 4.4 from 956

I confess I check my emails obsessively even though I know I shouldn’t. Emails were designed to be asynchronous but too many people expect instant replies. Cal offers a guide to change this damaging culture in your work and business.

#16 The Unfair Advantage: How You Already Have What It Takes to Succeed by Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba

AP: 76/ GR: 4.12 from 1016/ AZ:4.4 from 336

This is the only book on this list where I have personally met one of the authors! So much business advice relies on a mantra of hard work and sacrifice but Hasan and Ali reveal unfair advantages is the secret. We all have something we can bring to a business that our competitors can’t. They provide a roadmap for exploiting your unfair advantages.

#15 The Key Man: The True Story of How the Global Elite Was Duped by a Capitalist Fairy Tale by Simon Clark and Will Louch

AP: 76/ GR: 4.23 from 549/ AZ: 4.4 from 243

An insane story. Simon Clark and Will Louch expose Arif Navqi who cheated investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars. Both Obama and Bill Gates were amongst his victims. Compared to other tales of massively fraudulently businessmen, Arif’s is relatively unknown but no less riveting.

#14 The Conversation: How Seeking and Speaking the Truth about Racism Can Radically Transform Individuals and Organizations by Robert Livingston

AP: 76/ GR: 4.42 from 206/ AZ: 4.8 from 109

The protests of the last few years have increased the importance of workplace equality and Robert Livingston’s book is a useful aid. He aims to open up conversations rather than shut them down. It’s a thoughtful read which is heartfelt rather than preachy.

#13 Ask Iwata: Words of Wisdom from Satoru Iwata, Nintendo’s Legendary CEO by Satoru Iwata, Hobonichi, Sam Bett

AP: 77/ GR: 4.19 from 1071/ AZ: 4.8 from 1231

A short book with a collection of insights about the revolutionary leader who drove Nintendo between 2002 and 2015. He’s the man who chose to not compete with Sony and Microsoft on hardware and focus on creating games people loved instead. So many joyous moments in living rooms around the world have occurred because of his vision.

#12 An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination by Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang

AP: 79/ GR: 4.08 from 2946/ AZ: 4.4 from 701

You have to wonder if Facebook renamed itself to Meta just so history doesn’t immediately associate them to the stings like this. It won’t work. If you want to be up to date on how much the company has abused its power, read this.

#11 Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire by Brad Stone

AP: 80/ GR: 4.15 from 2676/ AZ: 4.5 from 1008

Brad’s earlier book on Amazon, “The Everything Store”, was a huge bestseller in 2013. A lot has happened in the last eight years and that’s the subject of this book. It covers all the major events in detail with an often positive lens but Brad doesn’t avoid the difficult questions.

#10 My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future by Indra Nooyi

AP: 81/ GR: 4.4 from 808/ AZ: 4.7 from 288

As someone of Indian heritage, Indra’s ascent to Pepsi CEO was a landmark for many in my community, especially for women. Her story is far more relatable than many other founders because she doesn’t try to create a sense of aura around herself. It’s a great read for anyone who wants to understand the decision-making process for someone at the top of a huge global company.

#9 Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon by Colin Bryar, Bill Carr

AP: 82/ GR: 4.27 from 2028/ AZ: 4.6 from 1227

What’s great is Colin Bryar and Bill Carr both have over 20 years of Amazon experience. They break down the culture and the principles which have led to the company’s huge success. It’s an overwhelmingly positive book because of the history of the authors but one which has many practical lessons for entrepreneurs.

#8 The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion by Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell

AP: 82/ GR: 4.34 from 1558/ AZ: 4.7 from 434

WeWork tried to be a sexy company but in reality, they were a low-margin office rental company. The hype around them was overblown and the fall was fast. $47 billion in 2019 to under $3 billion in 2021. Who can keep their eyes off a car wreck? It might help you to not fall for a similar delusional founder’s charisma in the future.

#7 The World For Sale: Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources by Javier Blas, Jack Farchy

AP: 82/ GR: 4.42 from 995/ AZ: 4.7 from 569

Commodities are big business but the average person doesn’t understand how the physical trade works. The people who control the trade of chemicals like cobalt, bauxite, and alumina have far more power than could ever dream of. They can choose to support or topple national governments.

#6 This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race by Nicole Perlroth

AP: 85/ GR: 4.38 from 2362/ AZ: 4.6 from 1647

The dark side of the explosion of the importance of technology. Businesses of any scale are going to need to start paying greater attention to security as the wars of the future will be held online. A reminder to anyone in the SaaS world to make sure their code has no loopholes even in MVP.

#5 Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman

AP: 86/ GR: 4.36 from 3497/ AZ: 4.6 from 671

Oliver aims this book at people obsessed with productivity. He reminds them the average human only has 4,000 weeks. Do you want to spend it crossing off meaningless tasks from your to-do list? For entrepreneurs, it makes you think about your mission rather than just short-term thinking. I love Oliver’s style which is full of nuance.

#4 Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX by Eric Berger

AP: 89/ GR: 4.52 from 2694/ AZ: 4.8 from 2057

Everybody loves writing about Elon Musk but few had the access Eric did. He is the senior space editor at Ars Technica and reported on SpaceX for over a decade. In Liftoff, he summarises everything including all of his direct interviews with Elon himself. If the innovation behind the space race fascinates you, you’ll love this.

#3 How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need by Bill Gates

AP: 91/ GR: 4.18 from 26881/ AZ: 4.5 from 7714

If you’re surprised by a book about climate being so high up then you haven’t been paying attention. Rather than just telling everyone to consume less, he accepts the developing world needs the energy to lift people out of poverty. He wants the businesses of the world to focus on clean energy instead.

#2 Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam M. Grant

AP: 94/ GR: 4.25 from 33231/ AZ: 4.6 from 6991

Adam Grant appears to have the Midas touch with yet another bestseller. His core argument here is you should always challenge why you think the way you do. He uses famous examples from history to illustrate how people didn’t have the right answer the first time around but adapted to achieve success.

#1 Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe

AP: 100/ GR: 4.59 from 18563/ AZ: 4.7 from 3089

It seems this year, people love reading about companies behaving badly! Few companies in recent memory have created more tragedy than Purdue Pharma. They intentionally triggered an opioid epidemic to increase their profits. The story is riveting and it’s a handbook of what you shouldn’t do in your own business.

Falguni called her company “Nykaa” after the Sanskrit word for heroine. With her massive success, she is undoubtedly a Nykaa herself.

She breaks every stereotype about unicorn tech founders. She’s not white. She’s not a man. She’s not a college dropout in her 20s. Yet she is a business powerhouse who now has a net worth of over $7 billion.

Falguni didn’t start Nykaa until she was 50 and she had no previous experience in retail or e-commerce. Her attempt to create India’s dominant beauty and wellness company could seem like a massive risk. She admits she “had few believers and many naysayers”.

She proved them all wrong.

She gave Indians access to global brands from an app and the demand was unstoppable. Nykaa now has 80 stores in 40 Indian cities and the parent company had $330 million in revenue last financial year.

The crazy thing is the Indian market isn’t even close to fulfilling its potential yet.

“For everyone across India who has ever had a dream, especially women, I hope the Nykaa journey — an Indian-born, owned and managed dream come true — can inspire each of you to be the Nykaa of your lives.” — Falguni Nayar

Her old day job got her here

So many internet gurus scream at you to quit your job today and become your own boss. As if it were so easy. Falguni proves there is another way and what you do in your day job can fuel your business success later.

If you look at her resume, you’ll see she was always a high achiever. She has an MBA and worked at India’s top investment bank for 18 years. Especially as a woman, you don’t become the Head of Institutional Equities unless you are seriously good at what you do. Everyone around her respected her competence.

Her banking knowledge is why her net worth is so enormous and how she kept control of 53.3% of her company’s stock. For comparison, Twitter’s founders only had 17% when they went to IPO. Falguni’s smart decision was avoiding venture capital funding and instead relying on high net worth individuals.

“Being a banker, I knew VC funds come as conditional funding; it’s not really equity. If you don’t do well, it’s debt. I wanted pure equity. We have raised Rs 185 crore over three rounds with 20 unique investors. We’ll list the company.” — Falguni Nayar

Many founders find their vision distorted by the influence of other investors and Falguni’s deep experience in the sector meant she could protect herself.

My background in tech and business has helped me succeed in online business in a way most other people simply couldn’t compete with. I see too many people ignore the competitive advantages they gained from past life experiences when starting a new venture. What is your day job? What skills do you have that others in your target market don’t?

“I hope more women like me dare to dream for themselves.”

When Whitney Wolfe-Herd took Bumble public at the start of 2020, it was a significant milestone for women in tech. I would call Falguni’s story even more remarkable because of the country she grew up in.

India ranks 140th out of 153 countries in The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021. The country’s female labor force participation rate went down from 26% in 2005 to 20.5% in 2019. There is much change to be made to empower women and lift the economy as per Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen’s groundbreaking thesis.

I know many brilliant Indian women who feel stifled by cultural expectations. To do their own thing, they’ve had to fight against the wishes of their parents. Falguni was lucky in this regard as her father treated her the same as her brother. He taught her the basics of business management and inspired her to take the route she did.

To Indian fathers out there, don’t limit the potential of your daughters. They can take on the world.

“I don’t think men are waiting to not allow women to do what they want. I think women have to want it for themselves. And if they want it for themselves, they will have it.” — Falguni Nayar

Get on the rollercoaster early

The average spending power of an Indian is just over 10% of an American. This inequality can’t survive in the long term. Indian living standards and their influence on global demand will continue to rise. The problem is no one knows how fast this will happen.

Falguni had the foresight so many others lacked. She knew India would have a huge online retail market and realized the competition was weak. This allowed her to get in early and capture a significant market share of a fast-growing segment. It would be much harder for a copycat business to launch today because Nykaa has such a strong reputation.

Just as how Amazon started in the book market then expanded, Nykaa moved into the fashion business and created private labels. It’s smart business sense to dominate a small sector first where the competition is weak to gain the strength to take on larger segments. Now 20% of Nykaa sales are in fashion.

Many entrepreneurs start from their idea rather than looking at what the world will need in the future. Competition is vicious in markets where people have a short-term outlook. It’s much calmer where you need a longer-term perspective. If you can take this path and focus on upskilling in the meantime, you may have a better chance.

What’s great about Falguni’s story is even her intense analytical brain, she loves what she is doing. I wish we could all be so lucky.

“The size of the prize doesn’t really matter. Being rewarded for doing what I love doing is the key. Share prices are the bonus.”

Things weren’t as I expected.

It’s been four months since I left the safety of my full-time consulting role to join the online entrepreneur ranks. I’m living what so many people sell you on the web as the dream. I earn more than I did in my old job and have greater freedom. I’m my own boss and I’m more fulfilled.

Yet to say things have been easy would be a lie. There have been struggles and I believe everyone reading should be aware of them. Life is different now and it always comes with positives and negatives, don’t let anyone trick you into thinking otherwise. Entrepreneurship porn will taint your mind and give your unrealistic expectations of what things are like on the other side.

If you’re considering quitting your job and pursuing your passion then you must know what you’re giving up. For many people becoming an entrepreneur is the wrong choice and there’s no shame in admitting that. If you’re an employee then I envy you despite my success. These are the reasons why.

#1 Was Loki right?

Loki in the first Avengers film claims “it is the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation.” I remember the line because I thought it was nonsense at the time. Now I am forced to make a million tiny decisions every day, I’m starting to see his point.

One of the best things about being your own boss is you have full control over everything. It’s also one of the worst things too. The honeymoon period of the giddiness of power wears off quickly. Decision fatigue kicks in as the lack of restrictions gives you too much choice. I often dance on the edge of overwhelm.

I didn’t appreciate how many tasks were taken care of for me at my day job. There’s comfort in being told what to do and just doing this task to the best of your ability. Needing to be the judge, jury, and executioner is exhausting. The pressure is suffocating at times. Employees should be more grateful for all the support staff at their company who handle the things they never need to think about.

Maybe you’re sitting thinking you can handle this. That’s your ego talking. I’m looking you dead in the eye right now and can tell you however hard you think it will be, it will be harder.

#2 The lone wolf dies, the pack survives

Let’s be honest, the stereotype of the digital solopreneur is a bit of a loner and introvert. There are some like this but none of us are islands, we all need to work with others to grow and learn.

Dealing with the loss of colleagues has been my greatest struggle. I now have brilliant collaborators from all over the world but it’s not the same. I was at my last company for seven years and could bounce ideas off people all day then go to the pub with them when work ended.

Don’t underrate being part of a team from a mental health perspective. It’s priceless to know people have your back and can relate to your exact circumstances.

On the internet, everyone seems to hate their colleagues but I think this is selection bias. Only frustrated people have the fire in their bellies to smash the keyboard and publish a rant. The people who like their colleagues don’t have as raw emotion to drive them. If you’re new to your career then don’t be put off by all the bitter people out there, you can become real friends with the people you work with.

Entrepreneurship can be lonely; it’s an occupational risk.

#3 The 9–5 lifestyle is underrated

I only “work” around 30 hours a week now. This only counts the dedicated time where I’m sitting in front of my laptop taking action. Yet the truth is I’m almost always working.

Your business becomes your baby and your to-dos plague you throughout your downtime. Ideas will pop into your head at the least convenient moments. My mind is noisier than it’s ever been despite my greater focus on being mindful. I’ve got a lot of interesting things going on but the problem is there’s only so much I can process.

People like me quit their jobs thinking they will take more time off, but the opposite has been true. There are only been two days in the last three months where I haven’t done anything at all for my business including weekends. It’s often only an hour or two on Sundays but this is an exponential increase from zero hours when I was an employee.

I would never let an employer expect me to think about their company all the time but it’s hard to set those internal boundaries with yourself. When you love what you do, it can kill you slowly because you enjoy the pain. Being able to rebel against a boss and close your laptop at 5 pm is a luxury I miss.

#4 Boring stability

In pop culture, entrepreneurs are all daredevil risk-takers but these people are a minority of who I’ve interacted with. Most are way more scared about where their next paycheck is coming from than you might think.

There needs to be significant risks for there to be potential for extraordinary gains. You can have your best-ever month and the next few months crush your spirits to mush. The highs and lows feel like a cruel game dictated by cruel Norse gods for their entertainment.

Some seek to have their cake and eat it. They want to do what they want when they want but have a minimum income secured with unlimited upside. These are the most unhappy entrepreneurs I know. Others give in and seek out stable income at the expense of some of their freedom. It’s an awkward compromise between two worlds.

Fearmongers preach you can lose your day job at any time and how there is no security. Ignore them. They say this to justify their own life choices. The more big and bad they make the corporate world seem, the smarter they can convince themselves they are.

Two-thirds of people say they have never been fired and 18% have only been fired once. It varies significantly depending on your circumstances but the idea companies enjoy firing people is nonsense. Replacing employees is expensive and a hassle for employers.

Most employees can be far more certain about their next paycheck than most entrepreneurs can. I’d be lying if I said we didn’t secretly hate for you that.