The trick is to know that the very best business books tend not to be written for reasons of business.
I thus have a modest proposal for anyone interested in business books: Read books about specific businesses or industries that you already know a lot about. That way, you will have enough contextual knowledge for the book to be meaningful. Of course, many people don’t work at a company or industry big or famous enough that there are books written about it, so I have a corollary proposition: You will learn the most about management by reading books about sports and musical groups.
Because I know a lot about the background, the stories make sense to me, and I can ferret out some general principles to apply to other business or small-group settings – such as the importance of getting new projects off the ground, which is something Paul excelled at. One of my favourite “business books” is a scintillating autobiography by Alex Ferguson, the famous coach of Manchester United. It was written with Michael Moritz, who used to be a journalist and later became a venture capitalist. It is one of the best books I have read on how to understand and seek out talent.