By Derek Sivers
Derek is an exceptional guy. Service to others is his big theme and he went from building CD Baby as an act of service for selling his friends’ cd’s online to building a $100mm dollar business and then selling it fo $22mm. As an “accidental” entreprenuer he provides fresh insights on how to build a company without any of the formalities and why he was so successful doing so. This book only took me 1 hour to read. It will be the best 1 hour you spend reading anything on entrepreneurship.
1. It’s a big world. You can loudly leave out 99% of it.
2. Never forget why you’re really doing what you’re doing.
3. If I create something that’s not useful to others, it doesn’t count.
4. Your company should be willing to die for your customers.
5. Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently promoting what’s not working
6. The real point of doing anything is to be happy, so do only what makes you happy.
7. Starting with no money is an advantage. You don’t need money to start helping people.
8. We’re all busy. We’ve all taken on too much. Saying yes to less is the way out.
9. When you write emails be as concise as possible
10. When you sign up to run a marathon, you don’t want a taxi to take you to the finish line. (be happy with the climb)