Anything You Want

When you make it a dream come true for yourself, it’ll be a dream come true for someone else, too.

When you’re onto something great, it won’t feel like revolution. It’ll feel like uncommon sense.

is. Instead, get back to improving and inventing. 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. Don’t waste years fighting

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. Don’t waste years fighting uphill battles against locked doors. Improve or invent until you get that huge response.

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. Don’t waste years fighting uphill battles against locked doors. Improve or invent until you get that huge response.

No “yes.” Either “Hell yeah!” or “no.” You can use this same rule on yourself if you’re often overcommitted or too scattered. If you’re not saying, “Hell yeah!” about something, say no. When deciding whether to do something, if you feel anything less than “Wow! That would be amazing! Absolutely! Hell yeah!” then say no. When you say no to most things, you leave room in your life to throw yourself completely into that rare thing that makes you say, “Hell yeah!” For every event you get invited to, every request to start a new project, if you’re not saying, “Hell yeah!” about it, say no. We’re all busy. We’ve all taken on too much. Saying yes to less is the way out.

They’d say, “Don’t you want to expand?” I’d say, “No. I want my business to be smaller, not bigger.” That always ended the conversation. By not having any money to waste, you never waste money. Since I couldn’t afford a programmer, I went to the bookstore and got a $25 book on PHP and MySQL programming. Then I sat down and learned it, with no programming experience. Necessity is a great teacher.

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. If you’re ever unsure what to prioritize, just ask your customers the open-ended question, “How can I best help you now?” Then focus on satisfying those requests.

it needed to do to become profitable. I spent only $500 to start CD Baby. The first month, I earned

Since I had already built a website for my own CD, the first version of CD Baby took me only a few days to make, and it did almost nothing. It was a list of a few CDs, each with a BUY NOW button. Clicking that would put the CD in your cart and ask for your info. When you entered your info, the site would e-mail it to me. That’s it. For the first year, that’s all the site did, and that’s all it needed to do to become profitable. I spent only $500 to start CD Baby. The first month, I earned back $300. But the second month I made $700, and it’s been profitable every month since. So no, your idea doesn’t need funding to start. (You also don’t need an MBA, a particular big client, a certain person’s endorsement, a lucky break, or any other common excuse not to start.)

Ideas are just a multiplier of execution It’s so funny when I hear people being so protective of ideas (especially people who want me to sign a non-disclosure agreement before they tell me about the simplest ideas). To me, ideas are worth nothing unless they are executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions. Explanation: Awful idea = -1 Weak idea = 1 So-so idea = 5 Good idea = 10 Great idea = 15 Brilliant idea = 20 No execution = $1 Weak execution = $1,000 So-so execution = $10,000 Good execution = $100,000 Great execution = $1,000,000 Brilliant execution = $10,000,000 To make a business, you need to multiply the two components. The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $200,000,000. That’s why I don’t want to hear people’s ideas. I’m not interested until I see their execution. Formalities play on fear.

Ideas are just a multiplier of execution It’s so funny when I hear people being so protective of ideas (especially people who want me to sign a non-disclosure agreement before they tell me about the simplest ideas). To me, ideas are worth nothing unless they are executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions. Explanation: Awful idea = -1 Weak idea = 1 So-so idea = 5 Good idea = 10 Great idea = 15 Brilliant idea = 20 No execution = $1 Weak execution = $1,000 So-so execution = $10,000 Good execution = $100,000 Great execution = $1,000,000 Brilliant execution = $10,000,000 To make a business, you need to multiply the two components. The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $200,000,000. That’s why I don’t want to hear people’s ideas. I’m not interested until I see their execution.

The strength of many little customers Many small entrepreneurs think, “If we can just land Apple, Google, or the government as a client, we’ll be all set!” Software companies often do this. They hope to make some technology that a huge company will want to build into every product or install at every employee’s desk. But this approach has many problems: You have to custom-tailor your product to please a very few specific people. Those people might change their minds or leave the company. Whom are you really working for? Are you self-employed or is this client your boss? If you do land the big client, that organization will practically own you. By trying so hard to please the big client, you will lose touch with what the rest of the world wants. Instead, imagine that you have designed your business to have no big clients, just lots of little clients. You don’t need to change what you do to please one client; you need to please only the majority (or yourself). If one client needs to leave, it’s OK; you can sincerely wish her well. Because no one client can demand that you do what he says, you are your own boss (as long as you keep your clients happy in general). You hear hundreds of people’s opinions and stay in touch with what the majority of your clients want.

Have the confidence to know that when your target 1 percent hears you excluding the other 99 percent, the people in that 1 percent will come to you because you’ve shown how much you value them.

It’s a big world. You can loudly leave out 99 percent of it. Have the confidence to know that when your target 1 percent hears you excluding the other 99 percent, the people in that 1 percent will come to you because you’ve shown how much you value them.

Why no advertising? I got a call from an advertising salesman saying he’d like to run banner ads at the top and bottom of cdbaby.com. I said, “No way. Out of the question. That would be like putting a Coke machine in a monastery. I’m not doing this to make money.” He said, “But you’re a business. What do you mean you’re not trying to make money?” I said, “I’m just trying to help musicians. CD Baby has to charge money to sustain itself, but the money’s not the point. I don’t do anything for the money.” This goes back to the utopian perfect-world ideal of why we’re doing what we’re doing in the first place. In a perfect world, would your website be covered with advertising? When you’ve asked your customers what would improve your service, has anyone said, “Please fill your website with more advertising”? Nope. So don’t do it.

Act like you don’t need the money Banks love to lend money to those who don’t need it. Record labels love to sign musicians who don’t need their help. People fall in love with people who won’t give them the time of day. It’s a strange law of human behavior. It’s pretty universal. 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. It’s another Tao of business: Set up your business like you don’t need the money, and it’ll likely come your way.

(a good singer, a skilled entrepreneur, or just plain happy) is the real point. When you sign up to run a

You might get bigger faster and make millions if you outsource everything to the experts. But what’s the point of getting bigger and making millions? To be happy, right? In the end, it’s about what you want to be, not what you want to have. To have something (a finished recording, a business, or millions of dollars) is the means, not the end. To be something (a good singer, a skilled entrepreneur, or just plain happy) is the real point. When you sign up to run a marathon, you don’t want a taxi to take you to the finish line.

ruined. After a long night of thinking and writing, I got myself into the delegation mind-set. I had to make myself unnecessary to the running of my company. The next day, as soon as I walked in the door, someone said, “Derek, someone whose CDs we received yesterday has now changed his mind and wants his CDs shipped back. We’ve already done the work, but he’s asking if we can refund his setup fee since he was never live on the site.” This time, instead of just answering the question, I called everyone together for a minute. I repeated the situation and the question. I answered the question, but more important, I explained the thought process and philosophy behind my answer. “Yes, refund his money in full. We’ll take a little loss. It’s important to always do whatever would make the customer happiest, as long as it’s not outrageous. A little gesture like this goes a long way toward him telling his friends we’re a great company. Everyone always remember that helping musicians is our first goal, and profit is second. You have my full permission to use that guideline to make these decisions yourself in the future. Do what makes the musicians happiest. Make sure everyone who deals with us leaves with a smile.” I asked around to make sure everyone understood the answer. I asked one person to start a manual, and write down the answer to this one situation, along with the philosophy behind it. Then everyone went back to work.

Ten minutes later, a new question. Same process: Gather everybody around. Answer the question and explain the philosophy. Make sure everyone understands the thought process. Ask one person to write it in the manual. Let everybody know they can decide this without me next time.

If you do this, you’ll encounter a lot of pushback and misunderstanding, but who cares? You can’t live someone else’s expectation of a traditional business. You have to just do whatever you love the most, or you’ll lose interest in the whole thing.

I loved sitting alone and programming, writing, planning, and inventing—thinking of ideas and making them happen. This makes me happy, not business deals or management. So I found someone who liked doing business deals and put him in charge of all that.

Never forget that you can make your role anything you want it to be. Anything you hate to do, someone else loves. So find that person and let her do it. I loved sitting alone and programming, writing, planning, and inventing—thinking of ideas and making them happen. This makes me happy, not business deals or management. So I found someone who liked doing business deals and put him in charge of all that. If you do this, you’ll encounter a lot of pushback and misunderstanding, but who cares? You can’t live someone else’s expectation of a traditional business. You have to just do whatever you love the most, or you’ll lose interest in the whole thing.

No matter which goal you choose, there will be lots of people telling you you’re wrong. Just pay close attention to what excites you and what drains you. Pay close attention to when you’re being the real you and when you’re trying to impress an invisible jury. Even if what you’re doing is slowing the growth of your business—if it makes you happy, that’s OK. It’s your choice to remain small.

No matter which goal you choose, there will be lots of people telling you you’re wrong. Just pay close attention to what excites you and what drains you. Pay close attention to when you’re being the real you and when you’re trying to impress an invisible jury. Even if what you’re doing is slowing the growth of your business—if it makes you happy, that’s OK. It’s your choice to remain small. You’ll notice that as my company got bigger, my stories about it were less happy. That was my lesson learned. I’m happier with five employees than with eighty-five, and happiest working alone.

No matter which goal you choose, there will be lots of people telling you you’re wrong. Just pay close attention to what excites you and what drains you. Pay close attention to when you’re being the real you and when you’re trying to impress an invisible jury. Even if what you’re doing is slowing the growth of your business—if it makes you happy, that’s OK. It’s your choice to remain small. You’ll notice that as my company got bigger, my stories about it were less happy. That was my lesson learned. I’m happier with five employees than with eighty-five, and happiest working alone.