To understand the tone and message of this book, I’ll explain who Derek Sivers is:
- Musician
- 1990s
- Wants to sell CD
- Makes a website to sell said CD
- Starts selling his friends’ albums on website
- Relentlessly focuses on doing right by musicians and being chill as fuck for better part of a decade
- Sells company for $22 mil
- Puts this money in a trust for music education
The book is: simple, to the point, insightful. Sivers basically says “here’s my story; some of this might be useful; hope you get something from it; cheers brah.”
You can read this book in less than an hour. I’d recommend it.
Key topics
- Start a business because you want to solve problems
- Do what makes you happy, not what makes you rich
- Focus on customer value
- Don’t stress the bullshit
- Empower employees
- Execution is critical
- Sometimes being small and broke is a huge advantage