Key Takeaways
- Make a dream come true
- When you make it a dream come true for yourself, it’ll be a dream come true for someone else, too.
- Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently doing what’s not working.
- 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.
- Never forget that absolutely everything you do is for your customers. Make every decision — even decisions about whether to expand the business, raise money, or promote someone — according to what’s best for your customers.
- It’s counterintuitive, but the way to grow your business is to focus entirely on your existing customers. Just thrill them, and they’ll tell everyone.
- If you find even the smallest way to make people smile, they’ll remember you more for that smile than for all your other fancy business-model stuff.
- Even if you want to be big someday, remember that you never need to act like a big boring company.
- We all need a place to play. Kids need playgrounds and sandboxes. Musicians need an instrument. Mad scientists need a laboratory. Those of us with business ideas? We need a company. Not for the money, but because it’s our place to experiment, create, and turn thoughts into reality. We need to pursue our intrinsic motivation. We have so many interesting ideas and theories. We need to try them!
What I got out of it
- Derek Sivers’ Anything You Want is a refreshing short read that reminds entrepreneurs to focus on happiness, generosity, and building their own perfect world, not just chasing profits.
