I grabbed Anything you want on Kindle because it was short. I was in the mood for a quick read. Sometimes you get like that right? Every where I looked (on Twitter) were people quoting parts of it, so I figured that was enough social proof to check out just who this Derek Sivers person was!
I was not familiar with the website CD Baby. I am not super into the indi music scene, so no surprise there. It sounds like it was a brilliant, disruptive idea that was almost ahead of its time. Through sheer blood, sweat and tears, Derek walked his own path, and managed to find some amount of success.
I can't say I can identiy much with Derek. As a product manager, some of his decisions seem pretty foreign to me. He sounded like a control freak in some cases (around the web code) and in other cases didn't want to be bothered to a point of general neglect for his company. If there is one lesson I learned, it is that a good idea with amazingly strong product/market fit will succeed, even when you do everything possible to keep it small.
Given that I was reading this on Kindle, I did highlight a few quotes. Kindle is nice enough to save these on the web where I can easily find them, so here you go... some interesting stuff/advice from Derek Sivers:
Every event you get invited to. Every request to start a new project. If you're not saying “HELL YEAH!” about it, say “no.”
No plan survives first contact with customers.
None of your customers will ask you to turn your attention to expanding.
When you build your business on serving thousands of customers, not dozens, you don't have to worry about any one customer leaving or making special demands. If most of your customers love what you do, but one doesn't, you can just say goodbye
You need to confidently exclude people, and proudly say what you're not. By doing so, you will win the hearts of the people you want.
Have the confidence to know that when your target 1 percent hears you excluding the other 99 percent, the people in that 1 percent will come to you because you've shown how much you value them.
You can probably read this book in a single sitting. I blasted through it on the train during my morning commute in two days. I can recommend Anything You Want as a unique perspective on brute forcing a company your own way no matter what anyone tells you. There are lessons here for sure on being true to yourself, but I can't help but ignore that Derek really didn't want to start a company. He wanted to be a musician. He loves music. The company just sort of happened because he was there with the right idea and the right execution at the right moment. Timing as it turns out, continues to be everything.
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