The Art of The Start by Guy Kawasaki

Serving as a primer for those who seek to start a business, this book has a slight ethics problem, as it has a page-weight bias towards venture/angel capital (Kawasaki is a VC), while Kawasaki feels that getting venture capital has worse odds than:

"getting struck by lightning while standing on the bottom of a swimming pool on a sunny day."
-- Bill Reichert, page 79.

Regardless, VC, angels, and businesspeople alike all need a good economic story, and the chapters that involve marketing your idea are quite good. Although a good product will sell itself, it only helps to have a good sales and marketing team (including board members who can evangelize).

All of these product evangelists need a story to sell, making it absolutely imperative to Get Your Idea Out Front. You simply have to be able to succinctly describe what it is your company will do, or else you are either too scattered or have not put forth an effort in explaining your company. For Kawasaki, this means being able to describe your firm's goal in one sentence, and its business plan in 10 slides, 20 minutes, and in a 30-point font.

Kawasaki hits the mark when he says to focus on a goal, set a timeline, and then to run like mad to make that timeline. But that's certainly not a new idea (although I have not been able to ascertain its source).