‘Anything You Want’ by Derek Sivers

“The real point of doing anything is to be happy, so do only what makes you happy.”

—Derek Sivers, Anything You Want


Back in 2015, Derek Sivers wrote an entertaining little book called Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur, which tells the story of how he started, grew, and eventually sold CD Baby {wiki}, and everything he learned along the way about running a business. When I say “little book,” I mean it. At only 92 pages, it's the sort of thing you can read in about an hour, front to back.

From the description:

When Derek Sivers started CD Baby, he wasn’t planning on building a major business. He was a successful independent musician who just wanted to sell his CDs online. When no one would help him do it, he set out on his own and built an online store from scratch.

He started in 1998 by helping his friends sell their CDs. In 2000, he hired his first employee. Eight years later, he sold CD Baby for $22 million.

Sivers didn’t need a business plan, and neither do you. You don’t need to think big; in fact, it’s better if you don’t. Start with what you have, care about your customers more than yourself, and run your business like you don’t need the money.

...and from his site:

In this book, I tell you everything I learned from starting, growing, and selling CD Baby, compressed into an entertaining and useful one-hour read.

No secrets held back, I share the biggest mistakes, keys to its success, and the philosophies behind the big decisions.

Called “40 lessons for a new kind of entrepreneur”, it’s 10 years of experience in one hour, designed to be immediately usable for your own business or project.

There are a ton of great little takeaways and anecdotes from Sivers' experiences as an entrepreneur, and it's all very easy to digest and put to use as soon as you put the book down. Keep a copy handy and come back to it from time to time whenever you're faced with a tough business decision and need some guidance.

Get the book in these formats:

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