Every so often a book will catch me by surprise and cause me to rethink what is important and more importantly, what is unimportant.
Anything You Want, by Derek Sivers is such a book. The subtitle, 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur, is not just for those that wish to run a business. These are some great life lessons. You can read it in about an hour or if your are really smart, and savor the lessons a bit, you can make it last a few hours. Sivers invites you into his life, and after the first few lessons, it is easy to want to journey with him.
A quick overview of the book.
Sivers is a musician and he wants to sell his music online. Unfortunately, (or fortunately) no one would agree to list his music and sell it. So he created a business to sell his music. When his friends found out they began asking if he would list and sell their stuff as well. He agreed and grew a business to 85 employees and sold it all for 22 million dollars 10 years after starting. Sivers didn’t have a business plan, he didn’t think big. He cared more about his customers than himself and ran it as if he didn’t need the money. He followed a very intuitive process in a world of MBA’s and success formulas. Turns out his intuition is very counter-intuitive.
A few things to ponder:
- What is enough?
- Why do we fear an invisible jury?
- Does our work solve a problem?
- Do you need a business plan? Do you need investors?
I won’t spoil it. Read it. Enjoy it. Share it. I know I will.
Here is the Amazon link for the book.
Cheers
ks