Derek Sivers Quotes
-
Everyone who became great at something has a similar story: For years, they worked on their craft every day, even if they weren’t in the mood. Always pushing, practicing, working, and improvingYes it takes thousands of hours of practice, but that’s good news! It’s a clear path and it’s under your control.
→ -
The most important lesson is probably to spend less than you earn.
→ -
Every time you're making a choice, one choice is the safe/comfortable choice - and one choice is the risky/uncomfortable choice. the risky/uncomfortable choice is the one that will teach you the most and make you grow the most, so that's the one you should choose.
→ -
There is no movement without the first follower. See, we are told that we all need to be leaders but that would be ineffective. The best way to make a movement, if you really care, is to courageously follow and show others how to follow.
→ -
In the end, it's about what you want to be, not what you want to have.
→ -
Go find very early versions of things: the first TV pilot of a later-successful TV show; early audition tapes by famous actors; early demos by famous musicians. Focus on these early examples, not what they became over the next 20 years. Remember that what you're doing will constantly improve.
→ -
Let’s never forget that whatever brilliant ideas you have or hear, that the opposite may also be true.
→ -
If anybody ever called our number, it would be picked up in less than 2 rings with a friendly voice answering, CD Baby. From 7 am to 10 pm, there was always somebody to pick up a call in 2 rings. No voice mail system; no routing to different departments. We treated our customers like our best friends. You don't route your best friend's call to an automated system!
→ -
I'm not interested until I see their execution.
→ -
Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable? Isn't that enough?
→ -
How you do anything is how you do everything. Your "character" or "nature" just refers to how you handle all the day-to-day things in life, no matter how small.
→ -
You can't please everyone, so proudly exclude people.
→ -
Steve Jobs gave a small private presentation about the iTunes Music Store to some independent record label people. My favorite line of the day was when people kept raising their hand saying, "Does it do [x]?", "Do you plan to add [y]?". Finally Jobs said, "Wait wait - put your hands down. Listen: I know you have a thousand ideas for all the cool features iTunes could have. So do we. But we don't want a thousand features. That would be ugly. Innovation is not about saying yes to everything. It's about saying NO to all but the most crucial features.
→ -
I realized why I need to start a new company. Not for the money. Not because I'm 'bored'. But because a company is a laboratory to try your ideas.
→ -
If you're not saying 'Hell Yeah' about something, say 'No'.
→ -
Care about your customers more than about yourself, and you'll do well.
→ -
Learning. It's really the primary reason behind everything I do. Programming, entrepreneuring, writing.
→ -
The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000.
→ -
If I’m not saying ‘Hell Yeah!’ to something, then I say no.
→ -
You're free to do anything you want with your company. It's more like art. You don't have to follow any norms. It's an expression of how you feel the world should be. When you make a company, that's your little place to make your own little utopia.
→ -
Five years after I started CD Baby, when it was a big success, the media said I had revolutionized the music business. But 'revolution' is a term that people use only when you're successful. Before that, you're just a quirky person who does things differently.
→ -
Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it.
→ -
For years, I'd say yes to almost everything, trying to be nice and generous. Feeling obliged to be of service to the world. Maybe also a fear of being forgotten if I don't. But I paid the ultimate price in doing that, because for all those years, I got almost no work done! Some famous authors have written about this: that if they said yes to every request, then they'd never have time to write another book again.
→ -
It was the first follower that transformed the lone nut into a leader.
→ -
The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: One is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the task at hand covers both bases, but not often.
→ -
Business is not about money. It's about making dreams come true for others and for yourself.
→ -
Make every decision—even decisions about whether to expand the business, raise money, or promote someone—according to what's best for your customers.
→ -
When you make a business, you get to make a little universe where you control all the laws.
→ -
Programming languages are like girlfriends: The new one is better because *you* are better.
→ -
Pay close attention to when you're being the real you & when you're trying to impress an invisible jury.
→
Related Authors
-
Seth Godin Author -
Tim Ferriss Author -
John Jantsch Author -
Guy Kawasaki Author -
Steven Pressfield Author -
Malcolm Gladwell Journalist -
Chase Jarvis Photographer -
Darren Rowse Blogger -
Chris Guillebeau Author -
David Meerman Scott Strategist -
Danielle LaPorte Author -
James C. Collins Author -
Daniel H. Pink Author -
Ramit Sethi Author -
Peter Drucker Author -
Tom Peters Writer -
John C. Maxwell Author -
Simon Sinek Author -
Suzi Quatro Singer-songwriter -
Gary Vaynerchuk Author