Derek Sivers Quotes

Don’t accept anything as-is.
Everything you encounter must change.
Preservation is your enemy.
Only dead fish go with the flow.

There’s a big difference between being self-employed and being a business owner. Being self-employed feels like freedom until you realize that if you take time off, your business crumbles. To be a true business owner, make it so that you could leave for a year, and when you came back, your business would be doing better than when you left.

Four years before I started CD Baby, as I was recording my first album, I needed to borrow $20,000 to buy studio equipment. My dad said, “Instead of my lending you money, start a corporation. Then the family business can buy shares in your corporation.

any business that’s in business to sell you a cure is motivated not to focus on prevention

To enjoy your past is to live twice.
Nostalgia links your past and present.

If you set up your business like you don’t need the money, people are happier to pay you. When someone’s doing something for the money, people can sense it, like they sense a desperate lover. It’s a turnoff. When someone’s doing something for love, being generous instead of stingy, trusting instead of fearful, it triggers this law: We want to give to those who give.

Never forget why you’re really doing what you’re doing. Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable? Isn’t that enough?

You get healthy by learning healthy habits.
You get wealthy by learning valuable skills.
You build a great interpersonal life by learning people skills.
Most misery comes from not learning these things.

Avoiding failure leads to success.
The winner is usually the one who makes the least mistakes.
This is true in investing, extreme skiing, business, flying, and many other fields.
Win by not losing. Most people die of cancer and heart disease.
So yes, avoid that.
But those who die from accidents die younger, losing more years of potential life.
So try even harder to avoid accidents.

Only these proven things are worth your time and attention.

Busy is what happens when you’re at the mercy of someone else’s schedule.

do what you’d do if you were the only person on Earth.

Pain’s power relies on surprise.
If you expect it, it’s weaker.
If you choose it, it’s gone.

The biggest obstacle to learning is assuming you already know.
Confidence is usually ignorance.

Your whole experience of life is in your mind.
Focus on your internal world, not external world.