The book Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur is written by Derek Sivers. Derek describes here his own experience of how he started a little hobby. How did he work for it on his terms? And how he grew this to a big business that was later sold for $22 million.
He has put here all of his 10 years of experience in only 88 pages of great wisdom. You would find value in every single sentence of the book. You can learn a lot. You can learn some great principles here which can help you in starting, running, and growing your business.
Book Review of Anything You Want by Derek Sivers
Here is my review of the book: Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur is written by Derek Sivers. I read the book in May 2020.
Here are some key points from the book which are worth sharing and noting down.
- What makes you happy, find it out, and work for it. Life is wonderful and it is the most precious of all the things. You just got one. Would you like to regret on a deathbed for the things you like but did not do?
- Success comes from improving and inventing persistently not from promoting something persistently that does not work.
- If you don't have money then don't worry because it is an advantage. You have to learn a lot of things that would hone your skills and you can know them better.
- You can't please everybody so don't worry about this. Do what makes you happy.
- Where there is a problem, there is a solution. But sometimes, the solution itself is a big problem. If you could find a simple solution to it then this is what everyone wants.
- When your dream comes true, someone else dream is also fulfilled.
- Your business plan must be simple. The best business plan does not take more than a few minutes of work. It would change while your business grows.
- When you're working for something great to achieve, even the small day to day things will fascinate you.
- Don't do like pushing the walls. If people don't like something, don't come up with the same thing again and again. Instead, improve often and come up with something that people like the most.
- Don't say" yes " to everything until it fascinates you. You have limited time here, but the things to do are more.
- You don't need funding to carry on helping people through your business. You only need your focus on how you can help your customers. If something does not help your customers, you don't require it.
- Start now, start small, don't wait for perfection because you can always grow if you start. The only thing that is the biggest obstacle on your way to success and growing big is making excuses for not starting due to reasons that don't matter at all.
- You don't need an MBA, a big client, an endorsement from a well-known person, or anything to start working for your dream.
- The idea is not as important as execution is. Even a weak idea with brilliant execution worth millions.
- Have a large number of small clients who love what you offer than a small number of big clients who control you. You're your boss. You're not here to please everybody and learn excluding people who truly don't need your services/products.
- There are many ways to do things and you have to practice going that way. There is no best way to do something. Once the best way may turn to the worst in days to come. Something working now wonderfully may be an obsolete thing after 5 years. You have to always strive for the current best way to get going. And stay focus on helping people.
- If you want to do well then your number one rule must be, care about your customers more than you care about yourself.
- You're serving people who're like you with emotions, anger, and all and you must be carefully crafting your messages to communicate with them. If you're communicating with your clients, give some time and write not a message but a personal note to have a smile on the face.
- If you want your customers would love you, start doing something that could make them smile. Even a small favor matters a lot so why do you not try this?
- You don't need to have a jury of MBA professors to hire talented people for your work. You can even be casual and get the right candidate doing the job the next day. You can even get the talent in nongraduates.
- Your business can expand fast, and you would need to accommodate things accordingly. Are you prepared for it? Well, you can also get it done every time it doubles in the capacity or something like that.
- You can improve on anything if you consistently practice it. You can do anything. You can learn anything. You can even beat the talent if you consistently work on it. You can become a programmer, a musician, a producer, or anything you want if you work on it and learn it with all the resources you have available now.
- Don't promise your customers more than you can do for them. Promise only that is in your total control.
- Make your team that knows the philosophy of your business and understand the decision-making process so that your presence is not required for everything. You have now more time that you can use for growing your business or on something that could improve your business.
- Money does not buy happiness after a certain limit. Would you want to grow your business beyond the limit or you just want to be happy and keep on helping the customers who need your focus on their demands? Decide what makes you happy and come up with a plan to follow that path.
- You can't delegate to someone something very important to your company's reputation. You need to trust and verify that everything is going right periodically. Remember don't over delegate and always have your point of view on important things else you may lose company and the employees both. Delegate not abdicate.
- The less stuff you own the less responsibility you have. You're a free man and enjoy the freedom wherever you go.
- It is not always earning a huge profit from your business that makes you happy. So, what does make you happy is the thing that is important. Some people want to be billionaires, some want to stay small or anonymous. What makes you happy is your personal choice. Stay real and do the things that make you happy.
