Top 57 Derek Sivers Quotes
#1. When you make a business, you get to make a little universe where you control all the laws.
Derek Sivers
#2. 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.
Derek Sivers
#3. 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.
Derek Sivers
#4. Don't pursue business just for your own gain. Only answer the calls for help.
Derek Sivers
#5. 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.
Derek Sivers
#6. 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.
Derek Sivers
#7. When you make a business you're making a little world.
Derek Sivers
#8. I'm not interested until I see their execution.
Derek Sivers
#9. In the end, it's about what you want to be, not what you want to have.
Derek Sivers
#11. Most people don't know why they're doing what they're doing. They imitate others, go with the flow, and follow paths without making their own.
Derek Sivers
#12. Making a company is a great way to improve the world while improving yourself.
Derek Sivers
#14. 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.
Derek Sivers
#15. 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.
Derek Sivers
#16. 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.
Derek Sivers
#17. 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.
Derek Sivers
#18. 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
Derek Sivers
#19. If you think your life's purpose needs to hit you like a lightning bolt, you'll overlook the little day-to-day things that fascinate you.
Derek Sivers
#20. 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.
Derek Sivers
#21. Never forget why you're really doing what you're doing.
Derek Sivers
#22. 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.
Derek Sivers
#23. Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently promoting what's not working.
Derek Sivers
#24. It was the first follower that transformed the lone nut into a leader.
Derek Sivers
#25. The first follower is actually an underestimated form of leadership in itself. ... The first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader.
Derek Sivers
#26. When you make a company, you make a utopia. It's where you design your perfect world.
Derek Sivers
#27. 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.
Derek Sivers
#28. Trust, but verify. Remember it when delegating. You have to do both.
Derek Sivers
#29. 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.
Derek Sivers
#30. The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000.
Derek Sivers
#31. 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.
Derek Sivers
#33. Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it.
Derek Sivers
#34. To me, 'busy' implies that the person is out of control of their life.
Derek Sivers
#35. Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable? Isn't that enough?
Derek Sivers
#36. 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.
Derek Sivers
#37. 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.
Derek Sivers
#38. Repeated psychology tests have proven that telling someone your goal makes it less likely to happen.
Derek Sivers
#39. 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.
Derek Sivers
#40. 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.
Derek Sivers
#41. 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.
Derek Sivers
#42. 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.
Derek Sivers
#43. Care about your customers more than about yourself, and you'll do well.
Derek Sivers
#45. 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.
Derek Sivers
#46. 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.
Derek Sivers
#47. Programming languages are like girlfriends: The new one is better because *you* are better.
Derek Sivers
#48. You can't please everyone, so proudly exclude people.
Derek Sivers
#49. The most important lesson is probably to spend less than you earn.
Derek Sivers
#50. 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.
Derek Sivers
#51. Business is not about money. It's about making dreams come true for others and for yourself.
Derek Sivers
#53. Let's never forget that whatever brilliant ideas you have or hear, that the opposite may also be true.
Derek Sivers
#54. No business plan survives first contact with customers.
Derek Sivers
#55. Learning. It's really the primary reason behind everything I do. Programming, entrepreneuring, writing.
Derek Sivers
#56. If you're not saying 'Hell Yeah' about something, say 'No'.
Derek Sivers
#57. 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.
Derek Sivers
Famous Authors
Popular Topics
Scroll to Top
