In 1998, when Derek Sivers started CD Baby, he was just a musician who wanted to sell his and his friends’ CDs. He never knew that in 2008; 10 years later, he would sell the exact same company for $22 million dollars. Running a business is undoubtedly one of the most difficult things to master. However, with Derek Siver’s new book – Anything You Want, it becomes as easy as eating a piece of cake. In this book, you will learn how to promote your business and more importantly, create a successful one. There are 40 tips in this book, however, in this review, I will be sharing – in-depth – the most important three tips.
- Start Now. No Funding
When many people want to start their business, one of the most frequently used excuses is that they have no funding, and therefore they cannot start their business. However, when Derek started CD Baby, he had barely any funding. He had a mission though. To sell his and his friend’s CDs so that not only he could pay for himself, but also so that other people could hear his and his friends’ music, as none of the other companies wanted to sell his CDs. Sivers says that by starting now, you’ll be ahead of everyone, who is waiting for a finish line of funding to magically appear. When businesses usually first start, they usually do a service that requires no funding. Take CD Baby for an example – Derek Sivers mentioned that for the first year of CD Baby, all he did was make CD Baby’s website, which only had a list of a few CDs, and when somebody wanted to buy a CD, it asked the customers for info, and that info would be emailed to Derek. How does that work need funding?
2. You don’t need a Plan or Vision
Many people believe that having a plan or vision is one of the main steps to success when having a business. However, Derek says that having a plan or a vision is not compulsory, and you can start without one. Derek also says that you should focus on what is happening now – in the present. Sometimes, when you set goals for yourself, they can be very unrealistic. For example, if you wanted to set up an Airline business, one of the unrealistic goals could be overtaking Qatar Airways as a better airline within 5 years of opening your company. Instead, your foremost goal should be helping out people, in their daily lives, and sticking to the reason why you opened your company in the first place.
3. Missing the Mob
In this short paragraph, Derek shares an anecdote of one time he met a taxi driver in Las Vegas. Derek asked him a couple of questions and then got shocked at one reply. The taxi driver said that he missed the mafia that used to control Las Vegas. When Derek asked him why, the taxi driver had a simple response. “When they [Mafia] controlled the two, there were only two numbers that really mattered. How much money was coming in and how much money was going out (expenses). But when these new companies came in, they tried to maximize profit every small way.” The driver then went on to quote an example, as his local Hot Dog chain demanded an extra 25 cents for ketchup on his hot dog. Whenever you are about to charge extra for a petty service, remember why you’re doing what you’re doing. Are you helping people? Are people happy? Isn’t being profitable enough?
These are just some of the tips from Derek Sivers record record-winning book. If you want to read the book, you can order it online and if you want to learn more about Derek Sivers, you can visit his website at http://sivers.org. There are many more lessons to learn that can help you become an excellent CEO and a successful one. If I had to summarise this book in a sentence, it would be “Money doesn’t matter, make people happy.” I hope you enjoyed this book review, and check out my other articles!