I stumbled upon Derek Sivers when he was on the podcast of Tim Ferriss. I both loved his way of looking at business and life in general, but also his very comforting voice. In his short book «Anything You Want» he tells the story and the learnings of CDBaby which grew from a hobby to a multi-million dollar business and which sold eventually for $22 millions.

The title gives the hint of the author’s background as a artist. When creating his business, he also wanted to create a world where anything was as he wanted. He advises not to copy other’s conceptions how a business should be but to invent our own perfect world. He never aspired to grow big and to lead as many employees as possible. He still kept programming CDBaby himself because this gave him the most pleasure and he delegated everything else. Being happy in the moment and at what you are doing is the most important thing. Being a good musician or a good programmer is more important than achieving a thing or having a thing.

Although I think that Derek Sivers simplifies a few things and reality probably looked a bit different in everyday life, his book is a good reminder about what is important in life and what you should ask yourself when starting and growing a business.