Anything You Want
Ideas
Learning coding projects by just doing what needs to be done in whatever way possible (Setting a target instead of a path) Survival Learning
Nothing goes according to plan
Because of What matters morally, the real work of a business is solving real problems for real people. Since execution matters most of all.
Be proudly yourself
Don't punish everyone for one person's mistake: be trusting
Don't just do what others do. Someone no smarter than you made all of this stuff up.
Don't promise things you can't actually promise
Creating systems that will help you long-term with a just tiny bit of aggregate effort in many small instances
Quotes:
Anything You Want, Derek Sivers
Business is not about money. It's about making dreams come true for others and for yourself. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 32-33
“Ah, screw it. I'l just set up my own online store. How hard could it be?” -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 53-54
If you think your life's purpose needs to hit you like a lightning bolt, you'l overlook the little day-to-day things that fascinate you. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 94-95
Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently doing what's not working. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 105-6
No plan survives first contact with customers. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 127-28
Necessity is a great teacher. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 140
If you're ever unsure what to prioritize, just ask your customers the open-ended question, “How can I best help you now?” Then focus on satisfying those requests. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 145-46
You need to confidently exclude people, and proudly say what you're not. By doing so, you wil win the hearts of the people you want. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 211-12
I started this as a hobby to help my friends, and that's the only reason it exists. There's money in the bank and I'm doing fine, so no worries.” -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 273-74
Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable? Isn't that enough? -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 276-77
He was shocked. He had never heard a business owner say he didn't care about the survival of his company. To me, it was just common sense. Of course you should care about your customers more than you care about yourself! Isn't that Rule #1 of providing a good service? It's al about them, not about you. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 292-94
If you set up your business like you don't need the money, people are happier to pay you. When someone's doing something for the money, people can sense it, like a desperate lover. It's a turnoff. When someone's doing something for love, being generous instead of stingy, trusting instead of fearful, it triggers this law: We want to give to those who give. It's another Tao of business: Set up your business like you don't need the money, and it'l likely come your way. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 303-7
When we yel at our car or our coffee machine, it's fine because they're just mechanical appliances. So when we yel at a website or a company, using our computer or our phone, we forget that it's not an appliance but a person that's affected. It's dehumanizing to have thousands of people passing through our computer screens, so we do things we'd never do if those people were sitting next to us. It's too overwhelming to remember that at the end of every computer is a real person, a lot like you, whose birthday was last week, who has three best friends but nobody to spoon at night, and who is personal y affected by what you say. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 343-48
Writing that email to customers—carefully eliminating every unnecessary word, and reshaping every sentence to make sure it could not be misunderstood—would take me all day. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 354-55
When you're thinking of how to make your business bigger, it's tempting to try to think all the big thoughts and come up with world-changing massive-action plans. But please know that it's often the tiny details that really thrill people enough to make them tell all their friends about you. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 374-76
If you find even the smallest way to make people smile, they'l remember you more for that smile than for all your other fancy business-model stuff. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 377-78
With one line of code, I made it so that every outgoing email customized the “From:” field to be “CD Baby loves {firstname}.” -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 388-89
I wanted to say yes but let him know that this was real y hard to do, so I made a policy that made us both smile: “We'l do anything for a pizza.” If you needed a big special favor, we'd give you the number of our local pizza delivery place. If you bought us a pizza, we'd do any favor you wanted. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 392-94
Even if you want to be big someday, remember that you never need to act like a big boring company. Over ten years, it seemed like every time someone raved about how much he loved CD Baby, it was because of one of these little fun human touches. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 404-6
There's a benefit to being naïve about the norms of the world— deciding from scratch what seems like the right thing to do, instead of just doing what others do. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 431-33
It's about being, not having -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 444
They'l assume the only reason we do anything is to get it done, and doing it yourself is not the most efficient way. But that's forgetting about the joy of learning and doing. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 472-74
You might get bigger faster and make mil ions if you outsourced everything to the experts. But what's the point of getting bigger and making mil ions? To be happy, right? In the end, it's about what you want to be, not what you want to have. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 476-78
But I never again promised a customer that I could do something that was beyond my ful control. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 535-36
I asked one person to start a manual, write down the answer to this one situation, and write down the philosophy behind it. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 582-83
- Gather everybody around. 2. Answer the question and explain the philosophy. 3. Make sure everyone understands the thought process. 4. Ask one person to write it in the manual. 5. Let everybody know they can decide this without me next time. After two months of this, there were no more questions. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 584-88
To be a true business owner, make sure you could leave for a year, and when you came back, your business would be doing better than when you left. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 600-601
Trust, but verify. Remember it when delegating. You have to do both. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 641-42
I learned an important word: abdicate. To abdicate means to surrender or relinquish power or responsibility; this word is usual y used when a king abdicates the throne or crown. Lesson learned too late: Delegate, but don't abdicate. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 661-63
Joseph said, “Yes, but I have something he'l never have.... Enough.” When I decided to sel CD Baby, I already had enough. I live simply. I don't own a house, a car, or even a TV. The less I own, the happier I am. The lack of stuff gives me the priceless freedom to live anywhere anytime. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 691-93
Then, when Disc Makers bought CD Baby, they bought it not from me but from the trust, turning it into $22 mil ion cash to benefit music education. It's not that I'm altruistic. I'm sacrificing nothing. I've just learned what makes me happy. And doing it this way made me the happiest. I get the deeper happiness of knowing that the lucky streak I've had in my life will benefit tons of people—not just me. I get the pride of knowing I did something irreversibly smart before I could change my mind. I get the safety of knowing I won't be the target of wrongful lawsuits, since I have very little net worth. I get the unburdened freedom of having it out of my hands so I can't do something stupid. But most of all , I get the constant priceless reminder that I have enough. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 699-705
Just pay close attention to what excites you and what drains you. Pay close attention to when you're being the real you and when you're trying to impress an invisible jury. Even if what you're doing is slowing the growth of your business—if it makes you happy, that's OK. It's your choice to remain small. You'l notice that as my company got bigger, my stories about it were less happy. That was my lesson learned. I'm happier with five employees than with eighty-five, and happiest working alone. -- Derek Sivers, Anything You Want, loc. 712-16