Derek Sivers podcast

Chinese characters look complicated, but they’re mostly made up of smaller, simpler characters. For example: language 语 = words 讠 + five 五 + mouth 口 thanks 谢 = words 讠 + body 身 + inch 寸 younger sister 妹 = woman 女 + not-yet 未 you 你 = person 人 + bow 𠂉 + small 小 name 名 = evening 夕 + mouth 口 I love learning these because every character is like a tiny poem. A language is words that f...

Fish don’t know they’re in water. If you tried to explain it, they’d say, “Water? What’s water?” They’re so surrounded by it that it’s impossible to see. They can’t see it until they jump outside of it. This is how I feel about culture. We’re so surrounded by it that it’s impossible to see. Many things we think are true are really just our local culture. We can’t see it until we get outside of it....

Are you trying to pursue many different directions at once? Are you frustrated that the world wants you to pick one thing, because you want to do them all? The problem is thinking short term — assuming that if you don’t do all the things now, they won’t happen. The solution is to think long term. Do just one thing for a few years, then another for a few years, then another. You may have heard this...

Most self-employed people get caught in the delegation trap. You’re so busy, doing everything yourself. You know you need help, but to find and train someone would take more time than you have! So you keep working harder, until you break. Here’s my little tale of how I broke into the delegation mindset. In 2001, CD Baby was three years old. I had eight employees but I was still doing everything el...

Any creator of anything knows this feeling: You experience someone else’s innovative work. It’s beautiful, brilliant, breath-taking. You’re stunned. Their ideas are unexpected and surprising, but perfect. You think, “I never would have thought of that. How do they even come up with that? It’s genius!” Afterwards, you think, “My ideas are so obvious. I’ll never be as inventive as that.” I get this...

In May 2003, Apple invited me to their headquarters to discuss getting CD Baby’s catalog into the iTunes Music Store. iTunes had just launched two weeks before, with only some music from the major labels. Many of us in the music biz were not sure this idea was going to work. Especially those who had seen companies like eMusic do this exact same model for years without big success. I flew to Cupert...

When I’m hot, it’s hard for me to imagine that others in the room are cold. I think it really is hot, not that it’s hot only for me. It feels like a fact, not an opinion. When I do something that’s really valuable to me, it’s hard for me to imagine that it’s not valuable to others. I think it really is valuable, not that it’s valuable only for me. It feels like a fact, not an opinion. This is unde...

Ninety-six percent of cancer patients claim to be in better health than the average cancer patient. Ninety-four percent of professors say they are better-than-average teachers. Ninety percent of students think they are more intelligent than the average student. Ninety-three percent of drivers say they are safer-than-average drivers. When I learned this, it shook my soul. At first, like almost ever...

Since the age of fourteen, I was determined to be a great singer. But my pitch was bad, my tone was bad, and everyone said I was just not a singer. At seventeen, I started taking voice lessons and practicing two hours every night. I’d go into a soundproof room to sing long tones, scales, arpeggios, and specific song phrases over and over. At eighteen, I started touring, performing two to four show...

In 1991 I was 22 years old, and had moved to New York City to be a professional musician. I had a little home studio, and was doing some random gigs around town. My roommate, Hoover Li, was an assistant engineer at a huge recording studio in midtown. Ryuichi Sakamoto was there recording his new album “Heartbeat”. Ryuichi mentioned to Hoover that he was looking for a guitarist for his next tour of...

My first real job was as the librarian at Warner/Chappell Music. I loved it. I was 20 years old, just graduated college, just moved to New York City. I took it really seriously and learned a lot. After 2½ years, though, I decided to quit to be a full-time musician. (Partially because I was too happy there! I was scared that if I didn’t force myself to quit, I’d never leave. Too comfortable.) Since...

My friend Sara has run a small online business out of her living room for twelve years. It’s her whole life. She takes it very very personally. Last week, one of her clients sent her a 10-page-long scathing email, chopping her down, calling her a scam artist and other vicious personal insults, saying she was going to sue Sara for everything she’s worth as retribution for her mis-handled account. D...

The old saying, “ It’s all who you know ,” used to feel so defeating. I wanted to be a famous musician, but I didn’t know any famous people. I didn’t grow up in Hollywood. None of my friends were successful. Fame was a secret insider’s group. So when I heard, “It’s all who you know,” it felt like the rest of that sentence was, “and you don’t know anyone. So forget it.” One day in college we had a...

The little diner near me has these big warning signs posted everywhere: WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE SERVICE TO ANYONE FOR ANY REASON ALL ORDERS ARE FINAL! ABSOLUTELY NO REFUNDS! NO SHOES, NO SHIRT, NO SERVICE NO CELLPHONES. NO PHOTOS. NO VIDEOS. NO LOITERING! RESTROOM FOR CUSTOMERS ONLY! ALL VIOLATORS WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW Poor business owner needs a hug. Every tim...

People sometimes ask my help in making big decisions. They’re usually trying to decide between two options. But that’s not a decision — that’s a self-created dilemma! You have to remember that there are always more than two options. When someone says they have only one option, they’re really saying, “I have no choice,” and you know that’s wrong. At the very least, add “do nothing” and “go insane”...

Two friends were at a party at a billionaire’s extravagant estate. One said, “Wow! Look at this place! This guy has everything!” The other said, “Yes, but I have something he’ll never have: enough.” When I decided to sell my company, I already had enough. I live simply. I don’t own a house, a car, or even a TV. The less I own, the happier I am. The lack of stuff gives me the priceless freedom to l...

Whether you’re a student, a teacher, or a parent, I think you’ll appreciate this story of how one teacher can completely and permanently change someone’s life in only a few lessons. I was seventeen and about to start my first year at Berklee College of Music. I called a local recording studio with a random question about music typesetting. When the studio owner heard I was going to Berklee, he sai...

In 2005, CD Baby’s main business was doing digital delivery of music to all the digital music retailers: iTunes, Amazon, Napster, Rhapsody, MSN, Yahoo!, and fifty more. This role was life-or-death important to the company because it was the main reason most of our new clients signed up. And there were lots of competitors in this field, so it was crucial that we did everything well. I built a syste...

A new college campus was built, but one thing was still debated: Where in the grass should we put the paved walkways? Some people thought the walkways should go around the grass, to leave it green. Some thought the walkways should cut across diagonally. One professor had the winning idea: Don’t make any walkways this year. At the end of the year, look where the grass has worn away. That shows wher...

I hear so many people say, “But I haven’t found my true passion!” It’s dangerous to think in terms of “passion” and “purpose” because they sound like such huge overwhelming things. If you think love needs to look like Romeo and Juliet , you’ll overlook a great relationship that grows slowly. If you think you haven’t found your passion yet, you’re probably expecting it to be overwhelming. Instead,...

Learning how to read metaphorically was a major turning point in my life. When I was nineteen, attending Berklee College of Music, I had no interest in anything but music. Then a teacher made us read the book Positioning , which is a straight-up business book. I thought, “Business? Yuck! I’m at music school, not business school! I just want to be a musician, not some corporate suit!” Then he showe...

I thought I would never sell my company. When National Public Radio did a story about me in 2004, I said I’d stick it out until the end, and I meant it. In 2007 I did a ground-up rewrite of the website software from scratch. And man, it was beautiful code. The proudest achievement of my life at that time was that software. Wonderfully organized, extensible, and efficient: the culmination of everyt...

Email blasts are the best training for being clear. At CD Baby, I had about 2 million customers. When writing an email to everyone, if I wasn’t perfectly clear, I’d get 20,000 confused replies, which would take my staff all week to reply to, costing me at least $5000 plus lost morale. Even if I was very clear but took more than a few sentences to explain something, I’d get thousands of replies fro...

We all grade ourselves by different measures: For some people, it’s as simple as how much money they make. When their net worth is going up, they know they’re doing well. For others, it’s how much money they give. For some people, it’s how many people’s lives they can influence for the better. For others, it’s how deeply they can influence just a few people’s lives. For me, it’s how many useful th...

Gary Jules is a singer/songwriter from California. When he lived in Los Angeles he wished there was a venue more friendly to musicians. A place where people would come to listen, not talk over the music. A place to play, not showcase for labels. Instead of complaining, he decided to do something about it. He noticed a little coffee shop in a perfect location on Cahuenga Boulevard, but they had no...