Summary
Derek Sivers a musician disrupts the music industry and creates CD Baby after being turned away from music distributors as “only record labels are allowed to deal with us, we dont work directly with the artists”. Sivers creates CD Baby to sell his music. Anything You Want describes 40 lessons learned during this time.
My Takeaways
A short book meant to be read in about an hour, I really liked it, I think because its so short it really cuts to the chase without any of the usual bumf. I like Sivers cynicism of how he didn’t really want to have a business or expand as rapidly as he did. With the book being so short I dont have a huge amount to say about it, being able to get though it in an hour does anything I think really matter you may as well just pick it up and see for yourself.
Favorite Quotes
“Most people don’t know why they’re doing what they’re doing. They imitate others, go with the flow, and follow paths without making their own. They spend decades in pursuit of something that someone convinced them they should want, without realizing that it won’t make them happy. Don’t” – Derek Sivers
“Don’t be on your deathbed someday, having squandered your one chance at life, full of regret because you pursued little distractions instead of big dreams.” – Derek Sivers
“In the end, it’s about what you want to be, not what you want to have.” – Derek Sivers
“If you think your life’s purpose needs to hit you like a lightning bolt, you’ll overlook the little day-to-day things that fascinate you.” – Derek Sivers
“any business that’s in business to sell you a cure is motivated not to focus on prevention” – Derek Sivers
Closing Words
A short blog post for a short book, I would recommend this book as a must read, I really enjoyed it, I enjoyed Sivers humor and had an interest in what he had to say. Buy it, read it, if you like it great, if not you’ve only lost an hour.