7 Best Books for Digital Nomads: Updated List [Must Read]
What are the best books for digital nomads and entrepreneurs? Lets’ find out!
A new age of redefined productivity and creativity has dawned on the global marketplace. Many are not satisfied with monotonous office jobs anymore. The idea of escaping the 9-to-5 grind, earning a livable income online, and still having loads of free time is now more attractive than ever. But how to make this dream reality? Literature is an excellent place to start. That’s why we’ve curated a list of the 7 best books for digital nomads and entrepreneurs that will kickstart your remote lifestyle. We can guarantee that you'll find something for yourself here - whether you are looking for step-by-step guides or theoretical expositions.
These awesome books for digital nomads were the first books I read when I decided to hit the road myself. They will teach you how to find your unique calling, how to hire virtual staff, how to invest, how to adapt. In other words, how to build your business from the ground-up and sustain it. Award-winning authors and professional digital nomads will walk you through some business strategies, tips, and tricks. While most of these are geared towards software startups, you still can use the same principles for your hardware product. We believe that in these digital nomad books, you will find what you're looking for.
Plus, stay tuned to the end (#8) to learn about the blog post that I wrote on digital nomadism.
The 7 best books for digital nomads and entrepreneurs:
The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
Be A Free Range Human by by Marianne Cantwell
The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Remote: Office Not Required by David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried
Virtual Freedom by Chris Ducker
Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin
Bonus Digital Nomad Guide
Top digital nomad Books - reviewed
The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
Starting with the most famous…Timothy Ferriss' "The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich" has been a New York Times bestseller for 7 years. It's considered one of the best books for digital nomads ever published, not by chance.
This is just the resource for all those who want to escape the vicious cycle of a day job. This digital nomad book offers real-life success stories, templates, and tips on how to eliminate the clutter of work through efficiency. Hiring a virtual assistant and a private chef, while staying an employed traveling artist — while it sounds impossible, it is within reach.
"The 4-Hour Workweek" covers advice for economic unrest, which may become useful in the present day of instability. Furthermore, it teaches big and small tricks. For example, how to sort through your e-mail, or how to decrease your workload. It dives into psychology, philosophy, and economy, turning theories into applicable tips. These include negotiations with a client and increased personal efficiency.
At its core, “The 4-Hour Workweek” will show how and why you should substitute drawn-out projects with short bursts of intensive work.
2. Be A Free Range Human by Marianne Cantwell
Do you feel like no career suits you? Marianne Cantwell's "Be A Free Range Human" is the perfect digital nomad book for you. It is all about creating and feeling comfortable in what you create. You don't have to fit into any job; you can always make your custom path, your niche. This book is a step-by-step guide to getting started in 90 days.
One of the best books for digital nomads and entrepreneurs, it includes real stories of people who followed their unique calling and made a living out of it. The humor within the chapters is sure to inspire and motivate you to develop your own plan of escape. And every time you encounter difficulties, don't hesitate to return to these chapters. Through various exercises, it helps you find your inner entrepreneur. Next, it shows you how to test your ideas and move forward. Most importantly, it gives you the power to discover yourself and be a free-range human.
The best books for digital nomads and entrepreneurs
3. The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau
Starting with a small $100 investment, you can earn up to $50 000. At least, this is what "The $100 Startup" by Chris Guillebeau proposes. Any passion can be monetized. And if you find this way for one passion, you can find it for another.
This digital nomad book will tell you exactly how to find that way. It is a distillation of countless interviews with successful entrepreneurs, and the life lessons extracted from them. In a pure business fashion, this book focuses on how to make money off anything. People are willing to pay for anything, you just need to find your niche market. That’s what makes it one of the best digital nomad books.
Traditional jobs do not provide these kinds of opportunities, but this guide will help you create your opportunity. This digital nomad book will walk you through the investments successful entrepreneurs made and what they did in the first few weeks of starting a project. Also, the author included common mistakes to avoid and solutions to those mistakes. Above all, the book is full of concrete and applicable advice with minimal theoretical nonsense.
4. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
"The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries is one of the defining books for startups. It presents a new approach to leveraging the uncertainty of startups. Be that an amateur or a business shark, everyone experiences the anxiety and instability that comes with propelling a new product or service. Ries's approach involves scientific experimentation. He argues that all modern businesses and entrepreneurs need the flexibility to adapt their practices to the ever-changing demands of the market.
The book discusses validated learning, rapid experimentation, and many other concepts from lean manufacturing. All these will help you boost the efficiency of your startup, get continuous feedback from your customers, and improve. Specific management advice from the book guarantees a more sustainable business with a radically different measurement of productivity. However, this digital nomad book is useful for software startups, so if your idea is in the hardware realm, "The Lean Startup" may not be for you.
5. Remote: Office Not Required by Jason Fried and David Hansson
For more theoretical and argumentative read rather than a how-to, look no further than Jason Fried's and David Hansson's "Remote: Office Not Required." In this digital nomad book, they present the emerging model of a remote workplace.
They lay out the benefits and drawbacks of working remotely from the viewpoint of the company and the individual. For example, it allows workers to save time on commuting, and businesses to expand their workforce across the globe. Plus, a rejection of office buildings decreases real estate footprint, meaning that these spaces can be used for other purposes.
This book provides insights into where corporate work is headed. The authors delve into the innovative technologies that enable companies to leave office life behind. Geographic location should not limit you or your employees. Fostering a new kind of trust and care for the workers opens up countless opportunities, and this book goes through them all.
Best books for digital nomads and remote workers
6. Virtual Freedom by Chris Ducker
Do you already have your startup running, but are struggling to keep it up? "Virtual Freedom" by Chris Ducker has some answers for you. It focuses on the growth of a business.
The most crucial topic it presents is: you don't have to do everything on your own. To be a successful entrepreneur, you need employees. And the best way to hire them is online. With the rise of remote workplaces, hiring a virtual consultant, copywriter, manager, or secretary is easier than ever.
"Virtual Freedom" details all the tips, tools, and tricks to build your virtual dream team. It dives into the challenges of training and managing remote staff. However, various online resources are included to help deal with said challenges.
This digital nomad book is a practical step-by-step guide that has already helped countless entrepreneurs outsource virtual professionals. Plus, it can complement "Remote: Office Not Required" quite well!
7. Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin
Today's marketplace looks homogenous. Brands and products blend together and are indistinguishable from one another. This is why new startups need to be different. To gain traction, you must bring something new to the table.
Since the market is so oversaturated, being different is difficult, but the "Purple Cow" by Seth Godin is here for you. This is one of the best books for digital nomads as it outlines how and why you should incorporate unique innovation into your business. All top-tier companies, like Apple and Starbucks, have defining qualities that once separated them from all other brands.
Capturing your 'purple cow' may sound ephemeral, but it is the reality of modern entrepreneurship. Read this book before implementing your startup to help you refine your idea into something more unique. It doesn't have to be your service or product per se, but marketing that stands out is a must. And Godin's writing is excellent for marketing advice. While this isn't a step-by-step book, it is full of essential takeaways for planning.
8. Bonus
It’s not a digital nomad book per se, but I wrote a guide to becoming a digital nomad on this very blog you’re reading right now.
It’s like a 4,000 word blog post. If you’re ready to hit the road, it teaches you some of the steps you should take to have a successful journey.
Things like taxes, health insurance, and finding community while traveling.
What are the best books for digital nomads and entrepreneurs?
Time to get reading: the best books for digital nomads and entrepreneurs
Starting a business is both easier and harder than it's ever been. Technologies make any startup idea possible, yet the competition stifles many new entrepreneurs. Markets call for innovation, creativity, productivity, and flexibility. And what better way to learn about this than to read a book. Here, we presented you with the top 7 digital nomad books.
All of them are different and span a variety of topics and approaches - anything from hiring virtual staff to sorting your professional e-mail to using scientific experimentation. And so, whether you are starting an IT development company or a fashion brand, the advice in these books will help you establish yourself. Not just that, but also teach you how to tackle challenges, analyze your mistakes, and come back from failure. Most importantly, these books are a source of inspiration and motivation. Only having them on your coffee table may prove valuable.
And while choosing gear like books or the best laptop for digital nomads might seem daunting, we hope this list of the best books for digital nomads will give you the confidence to chase your dreams and make them into a reality.