DEREK SIVERS‘ NEW BOOK, Anything You Want, was released on March 27th and immediately became a bestseller on Amazon. The book has already received positive feedback from readers with many claiming that it delivers in just 140 pages which many other business books fail to deliver in 700+ pages. What exactly do they mean by that? And should you buy this book? Keep reading to find out!.
DEREK SIVERS’ NEW BOOK, ANYTHING YOU WANT
Derek Sivers is an American entrepreneur known for his website and business CD Baby. He is also the author of three books; his latest book is ‘Anything You Want 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur, where he discusses how to run your own business effectively. The book advises on what people can do in their businesses from start to finish. It is broken up into six parts; Ignore Everybody, Make Something People Love, Tell People About Your Product, sell at a Higher Price, Do Things That Don’t Scale, and finally, Create A Business That Lasts. Each part has its lessons that will help you be successful with your company. There are forty lessons total in all that you can learn from reading it. This book was written by Derek Sivers who has been involved with music since high school when he started making mix tapes for friends. He later turned it into a business called CD Baby which was an online store selling independent musicians’ music online and became one of the largest sellers of independent music online.
The Importance of Constraints
If you’re going to write a book about creative entrepreneurship, it may not be a bad idea, to begin with, a little business inspiration from one of history’s greatest (arguably) thinkers. When famous novelist and screenwriter William Goldman was asked for advice by aspiring writers, he said It helps if you have no talent. He later explained that it wasn’t snark but rather an attempt to remind others that anyone can be an author as long as they know what they’re doing. At its core, Goldman’s comment reflects a belief in practice and hard work over natural talent or genius. The same principle applies to starting a new business. In his new book, Anything You Want 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur, founder and former CEO of CD Baby Derek Sivers shares his own experience with building up an online music store into something bigger than he ever imagined. His message is simple: No matter how wild your dreams are, there are ways to make them happen and you don’t need any special talent or skills to do so. The key is being willing to learn along the way and have enough grit to overcome obstacles along the way too.
The Power in Negative Thinking
One lesson we can learn from Derek’s story is to not wait around for others to give us permission or guidance. When he was younger and still working for his first company, Derek would often think that if he waited long enough someone would hand him an idea and tell him it was a good one. He didn’t want to spend too much time worrying about an idea that wasn’t given to him by others. But then he started thinking differently he didn’t want other people making decisions for him. What if his idea wasn’t all that great? What if others were telling him what they thought he wanted to hear? What if someone else is putting their vision out there instead of his own? So, he decided to start taking action on his ideas himself. It may have been scary at first, but once he realized how empowering it felt to take control of his destiny, Derek realized how foolish he had been in waiting for something outside himself. He writes: The power in negative thinking isn’t in being pessimistic; it’s in being realistic and honest with yourself about your abilities. The power comes when you stop waiting for someone else to do something amazing and decide you are going to do something amazing instead. The bottom line: Don’t let anyone hold you back from doing what you know is right (even if no one thinks so). Trust yourself!
Don’t Make Yourself Needy
Many entrepreneurs make a mistake by moving too fast and asking for things that will help them get traction with their idea. But don’t immediately ask your customers what they want. Understand their problems and needs first so you can solve them. If you work at a startup, practice these words: I am not needy. Don’t send a barrage of emails to everyone in your network; don’t connect on LinkedIn right away; take a deep breath before reaching out to anyone. Don’t force it to let it happen naturally. It’s much better to grow organically than aggressively in any circumstance, especially when you’re small and just starting. When your product or service is great and solves real problems, people will come to you eventually!
Where To Find an Audience
Sometimes it’s best to keep things simple: start by finding your true fans people who already pay you for your services and ask them if they’d be willing to pay more. Find five people in that group who are likely to want even more from you and would be willing to pay a little extra for it. Start with those people, and then scale up as needed. The truth is that whenever you are selling a product or service online (or even offline), you are always selling not just what you do but also yourself as well.
How to Avoid Helping People Take Advantage of You
Do you find that people take advantage of your good nature and generous spirit? Do they constantly ask for help with their projects and then ignore your advice or give up on their dreams when things get tough? To keep from being taken advantage of by those around you, make sure you set clear expectations about what it is that you will do. For example, when someone asks for help starting a business or pursuing a goal, explain that you can’t guarantee to invest in them (since money doesn’t necessarily equal investment) but that you’ll do everything possible to support them professionally. Remember: nothing hurts feelings more than not offering help when someone needs it most. It might sting now to say no but in time people will understand why and respect your honesty and integrity.
Learning From (and Loving) Your Enemies
The good news is that you don’t have to be limited by your mistakes. Learning from them is a big part of growing as an entrepreneur. That doesn’t mean you have to put up with bad behavior, but it does mean you should pay attention to how other companies are handling certain situations. By studying competitors and their strengths and weaknesses you can start to figure out how you want your company to stand out in the market. If one competitor seems particularly adept at dealing with customer service issues or responding quickly on social media, for example, think about how you might incorporate those strengths into your business model
How To Build a Better Business Without Busting Your Balls?
Anyone who’s ever worked for someone else or who has run a small business is probably familiar with that gnawing pit in their stomach: what do they think of me? Do they like my ideas? What if my boss finds out about that mistake, I made last month? Sure, these feelings may not be justified (after all, your boss should want you to succeed), but there’s nothing wrong with having them. It might be good to feel a little nervous from time to time. That feeling is often referred to as gut instinct, and it can be an important tool for improving your performance at work. In his new book, Anything You Want 40 Lessons For A New Kind Of Entrepreneur, author Derek Sivers uses stories from his own life and career as a musician and entrepreneur to illustrate some important lessons about building better businesses without busting your balls.
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Here are five of my favorite takeaways from his book
- Decide what your values are: If you want to start a business that is aligned with who you are and what you care about, it’s important to be clear on exactly what those things are. For example, if money is your primary motivation, but you also love helping people out through philanthropy and volunteer work, then maybe starting a non-profit might make sense for you. To figure out what motivates you most and will help guide your decisions in life start with answering questions like: What do I want? What makes me happy? What do I value most? And try not to overthink it; simply writing down one-word answers should suffice in getting started (e.g., money, happiness, love).
- Don’t expect anything from anyone: This was my favorite lesson from Derek’s book! It boils down to three simple words: Do it yourself. It doesn’t matter whether you’re trying to get into college or running a multi-million-dollar company if you don’t take action yourself, nothing will happen. Don’t wait around for someone else to give you permission or validation before doing something; just go ahead and do it.
- Make sure you’re doing something valuable enough to spend time on: In other words, ask yourself: Is what I’m working on truly meaningful? Or am I just wasting my time here? Too often we get caught up in our daily routines without stopping to think about how they fit into our long-term goals. Instead, we need to remember that every hour spent at work can either move us closer to our dreams or further away from them.
- Sometimes quitting is okay: Sometimes giving up on an idea means giving up on a dream but sometimes it means waking up and realizing there’s no point in continuing down a path that isn’t taking you anywhere good anyway. The key is knowing when to quit so you can focus your energy elsewhere because there’s always more than one way to achieve success.
- Remember why you wanted to do something in the first place: When you’re feeling frustrated by challenges along your journey, it’s easy to forget what drove you to pursue that goal in the first place. But as Derek reminds us: If you ever feel stuck or bored or tired, stop and ask yourself why you got started in the first place. Then write down your answer somewhere where you’ll see it every day so whenever you need inspiration, all you have to do is look back at your original reason for pursuing whatever it is.
Conclusion
In summary, we can all learn a lot from Derek’s story. As he writes in his introduction in more than a decade since starting CD Baby, it was so easy to forget that what we were doing was rare and special. It is very important to always keep in mind how lucky we are to be able to do something that not everyone can do. We need to remind ourselves daily why we got into business in the first place whether it is for passion or profit and follow our inner voice which will guide us towards success. Life will give you plenty of excuses not to get started or make things happen. All you have to do is take action and think big.
