hey everyone ive recently decided to go independant. i must say this site has been quite the inspiration (linked from joelonsoftware).

as of a month ago my skills were pretty much programming and through some independant consulting i had some business relations sense i guess.. what im doing now is reading whatever i can on all areas ill need to know. Marketing, sales, time management.

what id like is for you all to tell me the 'must read' books you think i should get my hands on.

I noticed these books were mentioned in a few articles.

-Frank Bettger's How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success in Selling
-Robert Kiyosaki's book Rich Dad, Poor Dad

also i just recently read How to Win Friends and Influence People
by Dale Carnegie and that was a real eye opener.

Thanks everyone!

Before you go spend money on Rich Dad, Poor Dad, you might want to read the following:

http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html

I'm not saying don't read the book, just that you might want to find a way to read it for free.

hey thats great, thats what im asking, i guess i want all the resources you guys would suggest (or not?).

There's been talk of putting together a recommended book list for a while now. I think it's a good idea. For now, if you're an ASP member, you can find good lists here (http://members.asp-shareware.org/bookreviews/). I've read some of them. They're not all great, but there's something interesting in nearly every one I read. The same thing goes with Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I've read John Reed's analysis, and he's not wrong, but I think he misses some of the point. Each Kiyosaki book is designed to tease you into buying another, no argument there, but there's some good eye openers in Rich Dad, Poor Dad. It gets you thinking about your perspective on money, working for others versus yourself, comfort and security, and perceived risk. And it drives you to action, maybe not by itself but in concert with other motivational books it helps create that critical mass needed to get you off your butt. I used to be down on any book that smelled like a scam, but now my point-of-view is any book that adds to your knowledge or improves your attitude or spins your flywheel is money well spent.

Here are some of the (non-programming) books I've read in the past year: The E-Myth (Gerber)
Spare Room Tycoon (Chan)
Rich Dad, Poor Dad (Kiyosaki)
Start Your Own Business (Lesonsky)
Self Matters (McGraw)
Selling the Invisible (Beckwith)
Search Engine Visibility (Thurow)
Small Time Operator (Kamoroff)
Starting an Online Business (Fiore)
Awaken the Giant Within (Robbins)
Getting the Most You Can Out of All You've Got (Abraham)
There's a few others lying around, I just have to find them. :)

thats great thanks! I think ill look at the ones focused on time managment.. also i guess i need help with my sales releases so ill focus on the sales as well.

Thanks again!