Synopses & Reviews
Finally available in bookstores, the Portfolio edition of Derek Siverss iconic and bestselling manifesto on lessons learned while becoming an entrepreneur Most people dont know what theyre doing. They imitate others, go with the flow, and follow paths without making their own.
Best known for creating CD Baby, the most popular music site for independent artists, founder Derek Sivers chronicles his accidental” success and failures into this concise and inspiring book on how to create a multimillion-dollar company by following your passion.
Sivers details his journey and the lessons learned along the way of creating CD Baby and building a business close to his heart. In 1997 Sivers was a musician who taught himself to code a Buy Now button onto his bands Web site. Shortly thereafter he began selling his friends CDs on his Web site. As CD Baby grew, Sivers faced numerous obstacles on his way to success. Within six years he had been publicly criticized by Steve Jobs and had to pay his father $3.3 million to buy back 90 percent of his company, but he had also built a company of more than 50 employees and had profited $10 million.
Anything You Want is must reading for every person who is an entrepreneur, wants to be one, wants to understand one, or cares even a little about what it means to be human.
Review
“The last music business folk hero”
—Esquire
"One of the best hours youll ever spend will be reading Derek Siverss new book…Anything You Want."
—Forbes
Synopsis
You can follow the beaten path and call yourself an entrepreneur or you can blaze your own trail and really be one.
When Derek Sivers started CD Baby, he wasn t planning on building a major business. He was a successful independent musician who just wanted to sell his CDs online. When no one would help him do it, he set out on his own and built an online store from scratch.
He started in 1998 by helping his friends sell their CDs. In 2000, he hired his first employee. Eight years later, he sold CD Baby for $22 million.
Sivers didn t need a business plan, and neither do you. You don t need to think big; in fact, it s better if you don t. Start with what you have, care about your customers more than yourself, and run your business like you don t need the money."
About the Author
After making a living as a professional musician,
DEREK SIVERS went looking for ways to sell his own CD online and ended up creating CD Baby, once the largest seller of independent music on the Web, with more than $100 million in sales for more than 150,000 musician clients. Since 2008, Sivers has traveled the world and stayed busy creating and nurturing creative endeavors, such as Muckwork, his newest company in which teams of efficient assistants help musicians do their uncreative dirty work.” Sivers writes regularly on creativity, entrepreneurship, and music on his blog.