How To Live: Derek Sivers’ Most Valuable Life Lessons with Joe Polish and Derek Sivers #190

Episode Summary

In this episode, we’ll learn from Derek Sivers, the Founder of CD Baby, who shares his six secrets for building a successful business and his best success advice for Entrepreneurs.

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Here’s a glance at what you’ll discover from Derek in this episode:

6 secrets Derek used to turn CD Baby into a $100M company
The importance of patience, being frugal, and saying no
Why not focusing on profits can help you profit more
The history behind Derek’s “Hell Yeah or No” philosophy
How To Live: Secrets for making your dreams come true
Derek shares his best success advice for Entrepreneurs

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Show Notes

Derek started CD Baby as a favor to help fellow musicians sell their music and grew it into a hundred million company.
CD Baby had no competition at the time, and Derek built a strong foundation before competition entered the market.
CD Baby had no investors, which allowed Derek to stay true to his mission to serve musicians and make better decisions based on what’s the right thing to do, not just the profitable thing.
Derek was frugal with his expenses and didn’t waste money, which allowed CD Baby to be profitable every month after earning $300 in its first month with only $500 in start-up capital.
Derek exercised patience and focused on the long-term vision of CD Baby instead of trying to get rich quickly, which allowed the company to grow sustainably.
Derek sold CD Baby after 10 years and gave all the money to charity.
It’s better to do almost nothing and then throw yourself entirely into the occasional rare thing that comes up.
“How to Live”, is the best thing Derek has written yet.
The book is described as having 27 conflicting answers in one weird conclusion, with each chapter giving a philosophy that is thoroughly convinced it has the answer for how to live, and the next chapter contradicting it with its own philosophy.
How To Live is inspired by David Eagleman’s book “Sum”, which has 40 little short stories, just two to four pages each, about what happens when you die.
The format of “Sum” is described, with each story contradicting the others and presenting a unique perspective on life after death.
Derek explains that he wanted to write a book in the same format, but about how to live, because he has read a lot of self-help books that all contradict each other but are all correct.
It took two years to edit down the book to 112 pages, and it contains everything he’s ever learned in his life.
The book is described as almost like poetry, unique, and very powerful.