Derek Sivers Quotes

Business is not about money. It's about making dreams come true for others and for yourself.

Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it.

Repeated psychology tests have proven that telling someone your goal makes it less likely to happen.

Let’s never forget that whatever brilliant ideas you have or hear, that the opposite may also be true.

Customer service is the new marketing.

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.

You grow (and thrive!) by doing what excites you and what scares you everyday, not by trying to find your passion.

When you make a business, you get to make a little universe where you control all the laws.

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.

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.

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.

Don't be on your deathbed someday, having squandered your one chance at life, full of regret because you pursued little distractions instead of big dreams.

The most important lesson is probably to spend less than you earn.

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.

I love that sometimes we need to go to the opposite side of the world to realize assumptions that we didn't even know we had and realize that the opposite may also be true.

The single most important thing is to make people happy. If you are making people happy, as a side effect, they will be happy to open up their wallets and pay you.

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.

Making a company is a great way to improve the world while improving yourself.

Instead of staying strong and working through when times are really tough, I usually quit this recipe for failure and start a whole new recipe. So if something is too challenging, I tend to chalk it up as not a good fit, and move on to something else.

You can't please everyone, so proudly exclude people.

The first follower is actually an underestimated form of leadership in itself. … The first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader.

When you make a company, you make a utopia. It's where you design your perfect world.

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.

Obvious to you is amazing to others.

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.

Care about your customers more than about yourself, and you'll do well.

Most people don't know what they're talking about. They move their mouth and say things because they don't want to admit they don't know. Or they think they know, but it's just confabulation and biases. So ignore them unless what they say resonates with some real wisdom inside of you. Assume they're a fool and find out the truth for yourself.

If I’m not saying ‘Hell Yeah!’ to something, then I say no.

If you really care about starting a movement, have the courage to follow and show others how to follow. And when you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first one to stand up and join in.

If it's not a hit, switch.

Don’t pursue business just for your own gain. Only answer the calls for help.

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!

Make every decision—even decisions about whether to expand the business, raise money, or promote someone—according to what's best for your customers.

The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000.

Learning. It's really the primary reason behind everything I do. Programming, entrepreneuring, writing.

Programming languages are like girlfriends: The new one is better because *you* are better.

Ideas are just a multiplier of execution.

I'm not interested until I see their execution.

If you're not saying 'Hell Yeah' about something, say 'No'.

When you make a business you're making a little world.

It's only a little difficult to say no. You've got to believe that the work you're doing is ultimately more useful to the world.

The purpose of money is to trade for things that make you happy. So if you can bypass money and get directly to the happy, you've saved a lot of trouble. And it makes others happier, too, when you organize your business around non-monetary things.

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.

If you want to be useful, you can always start now. It will be a humble prototype of your grand vision, but you’ll be in the game. Start by teaching someone this week. Starting small puts 100% of your energy into solving real problems for real people.

Never forget why you're really doing what you're doing.

In the end, it's about what you want to be, not what you want to have.

It was the first follower that transformed the lone nut into a leader.

Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable? Isn't that enough?

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.

Pay close attention to when you're being the real you & when you're trying to impress an invisible jury.