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jhabelita's review against another edition
inspiring
This is a business book but you can take some learnings the narrator shared.
homs_dream's review against another edition
3.0
كتاب لطيف، وفيه نصائح تنفع للشخص العادي بغض النظر عن رغبته بافتتاح مشروعه الشخصي أو لا.
اكتشفت شيء آخر، وهو أني أحبّ مشاهدة [ Derek Sivers ] أكثر من القراءة له، لأني في كل مرة أقرأ ما كتبه أتخيله يلفظ الكلمات بحماس أكبر.
اكتشفت شيء آخر، وهو أني أحبّ مشاهدة [ Derek Sivers ] أكثر من القراءة له، لأني في كل مرة أقرأ ما كتبه أتخيله يلفظ الكلمات بحماس أكبر.
rick2's review
4.0
It's good. Couple quick nuggets of what seems like heartfelt and authentic advice.
Short, felt like a collection of notes rather than a book.
Short, felt like a collection of notes rather than a book.
badoit90's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 Stars // Yet another modern classic of non-fiction literature - Anything you want is often amongst the most-recommended books of big productivity YouTubers like Ali Abdaal, or self-made entrepreneurs such as Tim Ferris. The author, Derek Sivers rose to fame in the early 2000s with a website called CD Baby, at which he offered a platform for independent musicians and bands to sell their CDs online.
Mind you, that was in the years before music streaming was a thing, or juggernauts such as iTunes took over the market - selling music online was still in its infancy and so CD Baby quickly rose to fame. In the span of 10 years, the website grew from 0 employees and almost no revenue to 85 employees and 4 million US Dollars in revenue PER MONTH up until Sivers sold the project in 2008. In Anything you want he lays out 40 of the learnings that he made along the way and explains his reasoning behind them.
Without knowing the guy personally, this book gets across Sivers character really well, I think - he seems approachable and fair, straight to the point and equipped with a ‘just do it’ mentality. He’s the guy who just goes for it and figures out the correct proceedings later on, someone who would rather ask for forgiveness than for permission - a trait that seemingly many entrepreneurs have in common.
His 40 life lessons are a clear reflection of that and his ‘nice guy mentality’ definitely helped him to build a succesful business. One which puts its customers first and tries not to sell its soul to big corporations. Being so ‘customer first’ and not greedy leads to some genuinely good take-aways in this book, especially for Freelancers who are just starting out.
At times though, his casual approach to business is a clear product of survivorship bias in my mind, as he delivers what feels like two types of lessons: The advice that is rationally proven to work and the advice that just happened to work for him, or which he got away with. Like at one point he describes having a solid legal groundwork such as ‘terms & conditions’ as ‘sales tactics’ that are just ‘designed to scare you’ and that you will totally get away without them. I agree that not every new Freelancer needs a whole legal team behind them, but it was this amongst a few other points where Sivers lost some of his credit for me.
Overall, this book is a 3.5 stars in my mind, as between all the really good advice and the little bad he still delivers an approachable, quick read that I could finish within 2 hours and therefore it doesn’t hurt if you pick it up. I think there are take-ways in here that are worth remembering, but the biggest one I got from it was this line:
If you’re not saying, “Hell yeah!” about something, say no. And I can fully say ‘Hell Yeah’ to that.
Mind you, that was in the years before music streaming was a thing, or juggernauts such as iTunes took over the market - selling music online was still in its infancy and so CD Baby quickly rose to fame. In the span of 10 years, the website grew from 0 employees and almost no revenue to 85 employees and 4 million US Dollars in revenue PER MONTH up until Sivers sold the project in 2008. In Anything you want he lays out 40 of the learnings that he made along the way and explains his reasoning behind them.
Without knowing the guy personally, this book gets across Sivers character really well, I think - he seems approachable and fair, straight to the point and equipped with a ‘just do it’ mentality. He’s the guy who just goes for it and figures out the correct proceedings later on, someone who would rather ask for forgiveness than for permission - a trait that seemingly many entrepreneurs have in common.
His 40 life lessons are a clear reflection of that and his ‘nice guy mentality’ definitely helped him to build a succesful business. One which puts its customers first and tries not to sell its soul to big corporations. Being so ‘customer first’ and not greedy leads to some genuinely good take-aways in this book, especially for Freelancers who are just starting out.
At times though, his casual approach to business is a clear product of survivorship bias in my mind, as he delivers what feels like two types of lessons: The advice that is rationally proven to work and the advice that just happened to work for him, or which he got away with. Like at one point he describes having a solid legal groundwork such as ‘terms & conditions’ as ‘sales tactics’ that are just ‘designed to scare you’ and that you will totally get away without them. I agree that not every new Freelancer needs a whole legal team behind them, but it was this amongst a few other points where Sivers lost some of his credit for me.
Overall, this book is a 3.5 stars in my mind, as between all the really good advice and the little bad he still delivers an approachable, quick read that I could finish within 2 hours and therefore it doesn’t hurt if you pick it up. I think there are take-ways in here that are worth remembering, but the biggest one I got from it was this line:
If you’re not saying, “Hell yeah!” about something, say no. And I can fully say ‘Hell Yeah’ to that.
nadia's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
A super quick, solid read, filled with great anecdotes and tidbits of business wisdom. A super easy-to-read informal, conversational tone!
soroushtorkian's review against another edition
5.0
Great book. Author is easy to listen to. Some tips from the book:
1. Make sure your business model has two numbers.
2. Don't pursue business just for your own gain.
3. Make yourself unnecessary to the running of your business.
4. Offer direct sales of products to customers.
5. Care about your customers more than about yourself.
6. Set up a system that won't let mistakes go unnoticed.
7. Empower your employees and let them make decisions on their own.
8. Trust but verify those you delegate to.
9. Don't promise customers something you can't fully control.
10. Make sure your business is a dream come true for yourself, too.
1. Make sure your business model has two numbers.
2. Don't pursue business just for your own gain.
3. Make yourself unnecessary to the running of your business.
4. Offer direct sales of products to customers.
5. Care about your customers more than about yourself.
6. Set up a system that won't let mistakes go unnoticed.
7. Empower your employees and let them make decisions on their own.
8. Trust but verify those you delegate to.
9. Don't promise customers something you can't fully control.
10. Make sure your business is a dream come true for yourself, too.
emmanuelbg's review against another edition
4.0
Nice short book which helps gain insight into what I think is a healthier perspective of business, that of helping others and having fun along the way instead of doing things for profit and capitalistic growth; that of doing things because you genuinely care about being there and solving problems for people. In that sense, this book certainly dispelled lots of ideas about what it means to have a business.
30daythrill's review
5.0
Pithy but punchy; good read to recalibrate views of essential small business philosophy.