Anything You Want, by Derek Sivers
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
Anything You Want, written by Derek Sivers, the founder of CD Baby is a guidebook for the new millennia entrepreneur.
Those of us who have chosen the entrepreneur path have done so for varied reasons. Yet, I think at the core of our decision is a want to provide a worthwhile service, and the desire to create something that is uniquely all our own.
I just reread Anything You Want, for the third time, and I will recommend this book by Derek Sivers as required reading for every entrepreneur in this millennia. If your desire is to create a business from your vision that is a true child of our persona, Anything You Want will give you some direction and insights to how to do just that.
Anything You Want is 10 years of lessons condensed into a little more than an hours reading. In Derek Sivers’ words it is, “40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur”.
If you aren’t aware of what CD Baby is … a quick summary.
Derek Sivers & CD Baby
Derek Sivers is a musician. He is a graduate of a premier music university. He was making his living as a musician, not signed to any major label. He was loving the life he had created, but was unable to sell his music CDs in any of the major stores because he was not affiliated with a major label. Otherwise known aas being an “independent”.
CD Baby was begun in 1999 in Derek Sivers living room in Woodstock NY for the purpose of selling his music CDs. He was denied access to the big record stores as an independent and chose to figure out how to sell his music online.
CD Baby quickly grew to include friends’ CDs as well, and then more people asked to have their work sold there. Pretty soon CD Baby was “a business by accident”, because Derek Sivers had only wanted to sell his own music.
At this point he decides to create his “Utopian Dream Come True Distribution Model” which turned into his mission statement for Anything You Want.
In his own words, “I wasn’t trying to make a big business. I was just trying to daydreaming about how one little thing would look in a perfect world”.a retail store for independent music.
Not too bad huh?
Anything You Want
CD Baby was run counter to many of the accepted practices we have become to equate with “business”, yet it was massively successful. It doubled in profitablility every year for the first 6 years!
Anything You Want is filled with what has been termed “revolutionary ideas”. Derek Sivers just calls them common sense, with the qualifier that because they worked they were “revolutionary”.
In these easy to read 77 pages, Anything You Want delivers a multitude of gold nuggets for entrepreneurial business success. My copy is filled with underlines of valuable tidbits.
Derek Sivers has written Anything You Want in easy, plain English; no trendy business speak. He is direct, while using stories to illustrate every point clearly.
Anything You Want is a book about starting simple, keeping focused on your principles, helping people, not giving into pressure to be like everyone/everything else.
Anything You Want is about Being, rather than Having. It seems one of the themes of this book is, if entrepreneurs focus on Being something unique and stay true to their vision while proving a service that is truly helpful, the Having ($$$) will come naturally.
Derek Sivers seems to have written Anything You Want to provide a construct for entrepreneurs to realize the whole point of doing anything is because it make you happy. The point is, it’s about what you want to Be, not what you want to Have.
Highlights of Anything You Want
There are 40 chapters, if you can call them that. It’s more like mini-stories to illustrate a lesson.
Here are a few of the lessons Derek Sivers feels important enough for success, to share them with us:
• You need to know your personal philosophy (your compass) & what’s worth doing
• Business plan – The best business plan starts simple
• You need to be able to say HELL YEAH!
• Everything you do is for your customers
• Lots of little clients is better than a few big clients
• Loudly exclude people, it’s a big world pleasing 1% is enough
• Don’t think you need a huge vision to begin helping people TODAY
• Know how to grade yourself
• Know how much is enough
Derek Sivers’ successful endeavor is the proof that entrepreneurs can be successful “doing it your way” and the world will acknowledge and flock to genuine individuals and firms that are providing a service that is truly helpful.
Anything You Want is filled with great insights, tips & tidbits to speed you towards you unique business success. It’s sort enough to be read in an hour or two, and easily reread regularly. Anything You Want is thoughtful, humorous, direct, simple and without unnecessary fluff or filler.
If you have already read Derek Sivers’ Anything You Want, you know what I write is true. Go back and reread it today!
If you haven’t read this wonderful book … BUY IT NOW ?
here is a link … Anything You Want
Anything You Want, Derek Sivers’ biography of a business he didn’t want to grow, is a must have for anyone in business and especially for the entrepreneur of this millennia.
Go For Your Dreams!
Gregory
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