Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur

by Derek Sivers

Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently promoting what’s not working.

When you make a business, you get to make a little universe where you control all the laws. This is your utopia.

Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently doing what’s not working.

Anytime you think you know what your new business will be doing, remember this quote from serial entrepreneur Steve Blank: “No business plan survives first contact with customers.”

Never forget that absolutely everything you do is for your customers. Make

every decision—even decisions about whether to expand the business, raise money, or promote someone—according to what’s best for your customers. 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.

me, “What if every musician just set up their own store on their own website? Since that’d be the death of CD Baby, how do you plan to stop that?” I said, “Honestly, I don’t care about CD Baby. I only care about the musicians. If someday, musicians don’t need CD Baby anymore, that’s great! I’ll just shut it down and get back to making music.” He was shocked. He had never heard a business owner say he didn’t care about the survival of his company.

business: Care about your customers more than about yourself, and you’ll do well.

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.

To be a true business owner, make it so that you could leave for a year, and when you came back, your business would be doing better than when you left.

Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller were at a party at a billionaire’s extravagant estate. Kurt said, “Wow! Look at this place! This guy has everything!” Joseph said, “Yes, but I have something he’ll never have. . . . Enough.”