Top 59 Quotes & Sayings by Derek Sivers

For some reason, ever since I was a little kid, I wake with the most energy of the day, and it slowly declines from there.

I'm so into music that I just stop and listen, whenever there's music on. That's the problem with being a musician for so long. I can get lost in the bassline, fascinated with the arrangement, curious about the production. I can't shut it out.

Everything I ever wanted to know I just ask a search engine and there's the answer. So the least I can do for my clients is share what I've learned.

Distributing the music is so easy it's moot. So now the delicate art of calling attention to your music means everything. Marketing is distribution.

The purpose of money is to trade for things that make you happy. So if you can bypass money and get directly to the happy, you've saved a lot of trouble. And it makes others happier, too, when you organize your business around non-monetary things.

There are plenty of millionaires who would pay millions to hang a Van Gogh painting on the wall, but hardly one that would have ever had the crazy nut over for dinner. I feel like the big companies are like that with musicians. They'll say, 'We love music! It's all about the music!' - but if a musician shows up at the door, they call security.

A work-only zone does wonders for your productivity. So, I prefer working at the office now. I spend 8 focused hours there, then I go home to be present with my family.

Programming languages are like girlfriends: The new one is better because *you* are better.

Pay close attention to when you're being the real you & when you're trying to impress an invisible jury.

The single most important thing is to make people happy. If you are making people happy, as a side effect, they will be happy to open up their wallets and pay you.

Most people don't know what they're talking about. They move their mouth and say things because they don't want to admit they don't know. Or they think they know, but it's just confabulation and biases. So ignore them unless what they say resonates with some real wisdom inside of you. Assume they're a fool and find out the truth for yourself.

Instead of staying strong and working through when times are really tough, I usually quit this recipe for failure and start a whole new recipe. So if something is too challenging, I tend to chalk it up as not a good fit, and move on to something else.

There is no movement without the first follower. See, we are told that we all need to be leaders but that would be ineffective. The best way to make a movement, if you really care, is to courageously follow and show others how to follow.

You're free to do anything you want with your company. It's more like art. You don't have to follow any norms. It's an expression of how you feel the world should be. When you make a company, that's your little place to make your own little utopia.

If I’m not saying ‘Hell Yeah!’ to something, then I say no.

The first follower is actually an underestimated form of leadership in itself. … The first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader.

The most important lesson is probably to spend less than you earn.

Customer service is the new marketing.

For years, I'd say yes to almost everything, trying to be nice and generous. Feeling obliged to be of service to the world. Maybe also a fear of being forgotten if I don't. But I paid the ultimate price in doing that, because for all those years, I got almost no work done! Some famous authors have written about this: that if they said yes to every request, then they'd never have time to write another book again.

Business is not about money. It's about making dreams come true for others and for yourself.

Care about your customers more than about yourself, and you'll do well.

Everyone who became great at something has a similar story: For years, they worked on their craft every day, even if they weren’t in the mood. Always pushing, practicing, working, and improvingYes it takes thousands of hours of practice, but that’s good news! It’s a clear path and it’s under your control.

Obvious to you is amazing to others.

Let’s never forget that whatever brilliant ideas you have or hear, that the opposite may also be true.

Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable? Isn't that enough?

If anybody ever called our number, it would be picked up in less than 2 rings with a friendly voice answering, CD Baby. From 7 am to 10 pm, there was always somebody to pick up a call in 2 rings. No voice mail system; no routing to different departments. We treated our customers like our best friends. You don't route your best friend's call to an automated system!

If you want to be useful, you can always start now. It will be a humble prototype of your grand vision, but you’ll be in the game. Start by teaching someone this week. Starting small puts 100% of your energy into solving real problems for real people.

It was the first follower that transformed the lone nut into a leader.

I love that sometimes we need to go to the opposite side of the world to realize assumptions that we didn't even know we had and realize that the opposite may also be true.

Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it.

Repeated psychology tests have proven that telling someone your goal makes it less likely to happen.

If it's not a hit, switch.

You can't please everyone, so proudly exclude people.

When you make a business, you get to make a little universe where you control all the laws.

You grow (and thrive!) by doing what excites you and what scares you everyday, not by trying to find your passion.

The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: One is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the task at hand covers both bases, but not often.

Go find very early versions of things: the first TV pilot of a later-successful TV show; early audition tapes by famous actors; early demos by famous musicians. Focus on these early examples, not what they became over the next 20 years. Remember that what you're doing will constantly improve.

The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000.

How you do anything is how you do everything. Your "character" or "nature" just refers to how you handle all the day-to-day things in life, no matter how small.

If you're not saying 'Hell Yeah' about something, say 'No'.

When you make a business you're making a little world.

When you make a company, you make a utopia. It's where you design your perfect world.

Never forget why you're really doing what you're doing.

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 only a little difficult to say no. You've got to believe that the work you're doing is ultimately more useful to the world.

In the end, it's about what you want to be, not what you want to have.

Making a company is a great way to improve the world while improving yourself.

Steve Jobs gave a small private presentation about the iTunes Music Store to some independent record label people. My favorite line of the day was when people kept raising their hand saying, "Does it do [x]?", "Do you plan to add [y]?". Finally Jobs said, "Wait wait - put your hands down. Listen: I know you have a thousand ideas for all the cool features iTunes could have. So do we. But we don't want a thousand features. That would be ugly. Innovation is not about saying yes to everything. It's about saying NO to all but the most crucial features.

Every time you're making a choice, one choice is the safe/comfortable choice - and one choice is the risky/uncomfortable choice. the risky/uncomfortable choice is the one that will teach you the most and make you grow the most, so that's the one you should choose.

Don't be on your deathbed someday, having squandered your one chance at life, full of regret because you pursued little distractions instead of big dreams.

I'm not interested until I see their execution.

I realized why I need to start a new company. Not for the money. Not because I'm 'bored'. But because a company is a laboratory to try your ideas.

If you really care about starting a movement, have the courage to follow and show others how to follow. And when you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first one to stand up and join in.

If you keep thinking about putting on a conference or being a Hollywood screenwriter, and you find the idea terrifies but intrigues you, it's probably a worthy endeavor for you. You grow (and thrive!) by doing what excites you and what scares you everyday, not by trying to find your passion.

Ideas are just a multiplier of execution.

Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently promoting what’s not working.

Learning. It's really the primary reason behind everything I do. Programming, entrepreneuring, writing.

Don’t pursue business just for your own gain. Only answer the calls for help.

Five years after I started CD Baby, when it was a big success, the media said I had revolutionized the music business. But 'revolution' is a term that people use only when you're successful. Before that, you're just a quirky person who does things differently.