"Anything You Want" by Derek Sivers<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nThis book is so good, so chock full of nuggets, that I had to stop reading it and e-mail you, even though Derek says it will only take an hour to finish.<\/p>\n
Derek is you.\u00c2\u00a0 An outsider.\u00c2\u00a0 Who’s not trying to be an insider, just looking to find a way to make his life work.<\/p>\n
In case you don’t know, Derek started CD Baby.\u00c2\u00a0 And sold it ten years later for $22 million.<\/p>\n
Minus startup costs…<\/p>\n
THERE WERE NO STARTUP COSTS!\u00c2\u00a0 CD BABY WAS STARTED BY ACCIDENT!\u00c2\u00a0 IT WAS PROFITABLE FROM DAY ONE!<\/p>\n
You’re gonna like this book because it’s deals with something you’re familiar with, the music business.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not like buying a business book written by a corporate kingpin or an entrepreneur with a personality brighter than a 100-watt bulb who could sell ice to Inuits.\u00c2\u00a0 This is a musician, telling his story.<\/p>\n
And his story is so different from the one being told by everybody else.<\/p>\n
First and foremost, he made money.<\/p>\n
And he did it by himself.\u00c2\u00a0 His way.<\/p>\n
Let’s start with a few lessons…<\/p>\n
1. "Start Now. No funding needed<\/span><\/p>\nWatch out when anyone (including you) says he wants to do something big, but can’t until he raises money.<\/p>\n
It usually means the person is more in love with the idea of being big big big than with actually doing something useful.\u00c2\u00a0 For an idea to get big big big, it has to be useful.\u00c2\u00a0 And being useful doesn’t need funding."<\/p>\n
In other words, START TODAY!\u00c2\u00a0 NO WAITING NECESSARY!<\/p>\n
If you’ve got a good idea.<\/p>\n
Every day I get e-mail from people waiting to start, getting their ducks in order, bitching that they can’t get funded.\u00c2\u00a0 All you’ve got to do is begin.
2. "Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently doing what’s not working.<\/span><\/p>\nWe all have lots of ideas, creations, and projects.\u00c2\u00a0 When you present one to the world, and it’s not a hit, don’t keep pushing it as-is.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead get back to improving and inventing."<\/p>\n
If no one reacts to your music, write new tunes.\u00c2\u00a0 If you still don’t get traction, change styles.<\/p>\n
People hate to hear this.\u00c2\u00a0 BUT WHAT ABOUT MY INVESTMENT!<\/p>\n
You never forget what you’ve learned.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, read "What Color Is Your Parachute?", you’re developing transferable skills.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t be married to failure.\u00c2\u00a0 This doesn’t only apply to the music business.\u00c2\u00a0 If you can’t make it as a lawyer or a doctor…change course!\u00c2\u00a0 Doesn’t matter if someone else is successful, they’re not you.<\/p>\n
3. "A business plan should never take more than a few hours of work.\u00c2\u00a0 Hopefully no more than a few minutes.\u00c2\u00a0 The best plans start simple.\u00c2\u00a0 A quick glance and common sense should tell you if the numbers will work.\u00c2\u00a0 The rest are details."<\/span><\/p>\nYou can do the business plan in your head.\u00c2\u00a0 It should be just that simple.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re paying an MBA to write it, you’re just justifying the price of his education.\u00c2\u00a0 As for impressing investors, Derek didn’t take any money.\u00c2\u00a0 He built upon his success.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’ve got no success, stop.
4. "Any time you think you know what your new business will be doing, remember this quote from Steve Blank: No plan survives first contact with customers."<\/span><\/p>\nVoila!<\/p>\n
You’ve got no idea what’s gonna happen until you open your store, until the audience hears the first note.\u00c2\u00a0 Turns out people like a different track than you do.\u00c2\u00a0 Turns out that little thing you do that embarrasses you audiences love.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe your instrumental passage is the highlight of the show.\u00c2\u00a0 Or vice versa, maybe it’s when you sing a cappella.\u00c2\u00a0 You won’t know until you try.<\/p>\n
Last night Jim e-mailed me to ask if I too wouldn’t take the $1.3 million paid to Nathan Hubbard.\u00c2\u00a0 If they offered me that gig.<\/p>\n
They’re never gonna offer me that gig.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not the right person.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t play well with others.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to kiss a lot of ass to succeed in the corporation.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to hold your tongue when the President acts like an idiot.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about being a member of the team, and you’re not the coach, you’re not even the star player.<\/p>\n
I don’t work that way.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m in an endless pursuit of the truth.\u00c2\u00a0 I can’t suffer incompetency.\u00c2\u00a0 Even worse, I can’t handle when people don’t work.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m paying you, PAY ATTENTION!<\/p>\n
But if you run your own business…<\/p>\n
I know Derek Sivers.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s not like the people at Live Nation.\u00c2\u00a0 He confided personal information to me right off the bat, unafraid I would use it against him, that I would hurt his career by revealing it to his superiors.\u00c2\u00a0 When you run your own operation, you can be free!<\/p>\n
And Derek is nice.\u00c2\u00a0 But he’s not Steve Jobs.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s not so charismatic that you’d follow him anywhere, he’s not a super-salesman. He’s a musician who thinks.\u00c2\u00a0 Who is willing to get his hands dirty.\u00c2\u00a0 Who will try something new and make mistakes.\u00c2\u00a0 We all hate making mistakes, but when we own the company we’re not worried about retribution, we’re not worried about losing our jobs. And we learn from our mistakes.<\/p>\n
5. "Five years after I started CD Baby, when it was a big success, the media said I had revolutionized the music business.<\/span><\/p>\nBut ‘revolution’ is a term that people use only when you’re successful.\u00c2\u00a0 Before that, you’re just a quirky person who does things differently."<\/p>\n
And there’s no room for the quirky person who does it differently at the corporation.\u00c2\u00a0 They call that person an artist.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe that’s why Derek could be so successful, at his heart he’s an artist, willing to take his own path, not susceptible to corporate reviews and not beholden to the HR department.<\/p>\n
AND FINALLY:
6. "Business is not about money.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about making dreams come true for others and for yourself.<\/span>
Making a company is a great way to improve the world while improving yourself."<\/span><\/p>\nThat ain’t Wall Street.\u00c2\u00a0 That ain’t Pandora or LinkedIn.<\/p>\n
Do you know how boring it is to work for Goldman Sachs?\u00c2\u00a0 How unfulfilling?\u00c2\u00a0 Working with numbers just so you can make enough coin to vacation in a first class way, buy tickets to the shows of people you wish you could be if you could only take a risk?<\/p>\n
Life isn’t about money.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about personal fulfillment.<\/p>\n
But you can’t do it without money.\u00c2\u00a0 And Derek Sivers acknowledges this.<\/p>\n
Just like I could never be Nathan Hubbard, I could never be those people writing business books.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why I’ve completely given up on self-help tomes.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not me.\u00c2\u00a0 Yeah, that guy could become rich, BUT ME?<\/p>\n
But reading Sivers’s book I feel like I’m listening to a soul brother.\u00c2\u00a0 It gives me hope.<\/p>\n
Read it.\u00c2\u00a0 It’ll inspire you too.<\/p>\n
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