My notes: Anything You Want by Derek Sivers

[1] Read it aloud, and contemplate in Derek’s Philosophy!

[A] Business is not about money. It’s about making dreams come true for others and for yourself.

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

[C] When you make a company, you make a utopia. It’s where you design your perfect world.

[D] Never do anything just for the money. Don’t pursue business just for your own gain. Only answer the calls for help.

[E] Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently promoting what’s not working.

[F] Your business plan is moot. You don’t know what people really want until you start doing it.

[G] Starting with no money is an advantage. You don’t need money to start helping people.

[H] You can’t please everyone, so proudly exclude people.

[I] Make yourself unnecessary to the running of your business.

[J] The real point of doing anything is to be happy, so do only what makes you happy.

[2] Do what’s working, ditch what’s not.

We’ve all heard about the importance of persistence. But I had misunderstood. Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently doing what’s not working. We all have lots of ideas, creations, and projects. When you present one to the world and it’s not a hit, don’t keep pushing it as is. Instead, get back to improving and inventing. Present each new idea or improvement to the world. If multiple people are saying, “Wow! Yes! I need this! I’d be happy to pay you to do this!” then you should probably do it. But if the response is anything less, don’t pursue it. Don’t waste years fighting uphill battles against locked doors. Improve or invent until you get that huge response.

[3] Always Start small

Starting small puts 100 percent of your energy into actually solving real problems for real people. It gives you a stronger foundation to grow from. It eliminates the friction of big infrastructure and gets right to the point. And it will let you change your plan in an instant, as you’re working closely with those first customers telling you what they really need.

[4] Execute, execute, and execute

Ideas are worth nothing unless they are executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions

[5] Do it if it makes you happy.

When you want to learn how to do something yourself, most people won’t understand. They’ll assume the only reason we do anything is to get it done, and doing it yourself is not the most efficient way. But that’s forgetting about the joy of learning and doing. Yes, it may take longer. Yes, it may be inefficient. Yes, it may even cost you millions of dollars in lost opportunities because your business is growing slower because you’re insisting on doing something yourself. But the whole point of doing anything is because it makes you happy! That’s it!

You might get bigger faster and make millions if you outsource everything to the experts. But what’s the point of getting bigger and making millions? To be happy, right? In the end, it’s about what you want to be, not what you want to have. To have something (a finished recording, a business, or millions of dollars) is the means, not the end. To be something (a good singer, a skilled entrepreneur, or just plain happy) is the real point. When you sign up to run a marathon, you don’t want a taxi to take you to the finish line

[6] Delegate with trust but verify

Never forget that you can make your role anything you want it to be. Anything you hate to do, someone else loves. So find that person and let her do it.

Read it also from his blog : Trust but verify

[7] Be a business owner instead of self-employed

There’s a big difference between being self-employed and being a business owner.

Being self-employed feels like freedom until you realize that if you take time off, your business crumbles.

To be a true business owner, make it so that you could leave for a year, and when you came back, your business would be doing better than when you left.