Customer Reviews

Anything You Want

5 star:		(75)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

While there is little here that you can't find in many other business books, it sounds like a very honest account of one man's journey. It's a short book that details the decisions (good and bad) and events that happened on the way to creating and eventually selling CDBaby. There's no secret in the book that will help you succeed in a similar way, but there are some important mantras that can be taken away, such as the importance of focusing on the customers above everything else. Due to the length of the book, it's hard to rate this book as you would a 300 - 500 page work. The book is worthwhile, but not great. Think of it as an opportunity to sit down with the author for an hour and having him tell you about the experience... definitely worthwhile.

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

If you agree with that statement (I think my favorite quote from this book), you need to read this book.
If you're looking for inspiration.
If you're afraid of failure.
If you want to start something.
You need to read this book.

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

Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby shares his success and his failures in this remarkably straight forward and honest book about how he basically accidentally founded a remarkably successful internet company - long before the internet bubble and without knowing anything about it.

I read this book in a couple of quick subway rides, to and from work. Don't be fooled by its ease, though. While you'll zoom through it, you'll close it feeling inspired and ready to start something new and, most importantly, you'll close it feeling less afraid of failure and less self-conscious about doing what makes you happy in life.

One more favorite quote: "... if you think true love looks like Romeo and Juliet, you'll overlook a great relationship that grows slowly." Revolution - in business and in life - often starts with a small step.

This book will help you remember that.

I've never met Derek Sivers. Never bought a CD from him and don't know of anyone who has. As far as I know, Derek doesn't know me either.

But I get him. I think.

I get that he likes to solve problems. I get that money isn't his sole or main goal. I get that he wants to live life on his terms.

I get that some of the best, most enriching ideas in the world never started out that way.

And that's what this book is about. How to create, maintain and let go of an dream that morphed into an idea that morphed into a solution that morphed into a business that morphed into something that made money.

Too many of us are always looking for the next thing. We're looking for whatever comes next.

We'd be well served just solving problems now and see where that goes.

I think Derek would agree.

This book is primarily a self indulgent account of how to stumble into a niche business, mismanage it (as it continues to make money despite a lack of business skills) and then bail out when all of the poor management advice (or lack of) fails. It is 80 pages of generously spaced poor advice that is so not worth your time or money.

This book is written for a new generation of entrepreneurs. It's written for those who would rather be happy than rich. It's written for those who would prefer to make a difference than make a paycheck. It's a written testament that the definition of success is changing in our culture.

If you want to be inspired by a real story by a real guy who helped to transform an industry simply by following his heart, and filling a need that both needed to be filled, and that he was passionate about, this is the book for you.

If you're trying to start a business, and you think you need a round of funding, and a team of experts and advisers... this book is for you.

If you hate your job, and wish you could be doing something you love every day, this book is for you.

If you think that being happy is more important than having a million dollars, this book is for you.

Read it. Love it. Change your life. Change your definition of success. Be happy.

I used to be a fan of the self-help books, all the way from Norman Vincent Peale to Dale Csrnegie to Anthony Robbins. The point of all of the reading was to just learn about living life at a higher frequency. But I started to move away from these because they made things look so very easy, to the point where I think they are almost irrelevant to the real world.

I was brought to this book through Seth Godin's Blog. It was an excellent read to me because it seemed to be a very honest and realistic discourse. The points of inspiration in this book are not Pollyanna-ish in the least. Sivers made errors, retreated, emerged, retreated again and then emerged again. Ups and downs. No smooth path. And he relates it very clearly.

I have built a successful business over the past 7 years but I have not enjoyed the ride. I am always looking to the end. But now that things are much better, I look back and see that I could have really enjoyed the process much more, and really it is the process that is the juice for me.

Sivers distills this very very well in writing about his experiences. Reading this has shaken me up tonight and brought to the forefront of my mind thoughts that I need to make some serious changes finally that will make me happier and my business more successful.

Thank you Derek Sivers for this book!

This is a short, well-written, thought-provoking, deep, entertaining and useful book. Ostensibly a set of stories about Derek Sivers's journey building and selling CD Baby, it's actually a philosophy (but not a dogma) and an illustration of how being an entrepreneur is entirely compatible with leading a life well lived. A brilliant book, well worth reading.

Derek's advice in this book can be summarized with the lyrics of a popular South Park song:

"Do what you wanna do
as long as what you wanna do
is what everyone wants you to."

In other words, he thinks you should do what you love. He also thinks you should only do what is successful and abandon stuff that isn't making you money.

What isn't blatantly contradictory advice is simply rambling nonsense (I'm making a leap of faith by separating the two). Like how Derek recounts how incredibly customer-centric it was for him to ship a guy a squid. Why? Because the guy asked for one. Of course this generated some internet video that Derek thinks you should go watch.

Like many books of this mold, it is ridiculously well loved by people who like the guy who wrote it. But that doesn't stop it from being a waste of time and money for anyone who bought this expecting to find any level of insight, no matter how shallow it might be.

I loved this little book! It's really easy to read, there's no fat or filler, and it gets straight to the point. Derek's insights are wonderfully clear and they leave you with a GREAT mindset for doing the work you really want to do.

I was really delighted by this. I think it might be my favorite from the Domino Project so far.

I have read a number of books put out recently by the Domino Project. For the most part, I have been impressed. This one, well it really fell short of the mark. It does give a personal account of doing what you love instead of picking something to get rich. However, it didn't offer anything new or educational. Poke the Box and Think and Grow Rich were better at making the same points. It didn't hold my attention even though it was short. It rambled. Time is valuable, if I am reading a business or other self-improvement book; I want to get value from it. This book did not provide value for me.