Books Recommended by Gilles Bernhard

In the process of an acquisition of my business by a bigger company, I was reading Zero to One by Peter Thiel, and it helped me understand the meaning behind an acquisition, and what to expect from it.
I really enjoyed this book because it is very easy and quick to read, but still has a lot of value. Still today its lessons are keys to how I chose to invest, how I see companies and how I tend to think when working on mine.

I bought this book as soon as it came out. I was following Elon Musk's work for quite some time and this book opened my eyes to a lot of things about him that I didn't know. It also taught me what "working hard" really meant, and what a true modern inventor looks like! It also taught me the process of starting from nothing, a small idea, and going taller every time.

I wasn't expecting anything particular from it, and feared to be overwhelmed by technical terms about how the brain works and such. But I am extremely happy with it! It is very simple and explains a lot of traps our mind falls into when making decisions. It definitely changes the way you make and see decisions in personal and business life. The book explores cognitive biases in everyday's life as well as in finance, marketing and business, and shows us what is the process thinking behind these biases.

Often seen as controversial, I have to say this book is my favorite. There is so much wisdom in it, but what fascinated me the most is all the historic situations, the poems and all the anecdotes that are alongside the different Rules. It makes a great book to enrich one's culture, but also learn how to maneuver in today's world, plan business or social interactions and set goals.
This book took me a very long time to finish but I will happily read it again as soon as I can. What is really interesting about it is how the author depicts a side of human nature we often don't want to see.

I will be honest and say that the book in itself was only the final step in a process that took me years. This helped me understand a lot of things about myself and others, why I am acting the way I am when alone or in social events. So, the book in itself hadn't had the biggest impact on me nor my career, but was part of the journey to dive into myself and understand how my brain works. This helped me gain confidence in myself and yielded great results.

If you are building a business or a brand and want to know how to make it go “viral”, if you want your idea to be talked about, or if you simply want to know some of the science behind it, this book is a must have. It gave me a lot of ideas for my business, and I didn’t even scratch the surface of what can be done thanks to it! The next time I read it, I will write down everything that comes to my mind.

Very simple book, it won't take long to read it, yet it has great value to offer! It will give you guidelines on how to act, react and fail. This book has an interesting approach to ideas and how to turn them into bigger opportunities. I used it to understand where I failed my previous business and how I could gain from it, build a better business from those mistakes.