Derek Sivers Quotes

“A business plan should never take more than a few hours of work. Hopefully no more than a few minutes. The best plans start simple. A quick glance and common sense should tell you if the numbers will work. The rest are details.”

“A rule of capitalism: whoever takes the most financial risk gets the rewards.”

“A songwriter can write a hundred songs; then suddenly one of them really resonates with people and becomes a hit. Who knows why? It's not that it's necessarily better. But through some random circumstance or magic combination of ingredients, people love it.”

“Any business that’s in business to sell you a cure is motivated not to focus on prevention.”

“Anything you hate to do, someone else loves. So find that person and let him do it.”

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

“Be different. Show who you are.”

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

“By not having any money to waste, you never waste money.”

“Confidence attracts. Vulnerability endears.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Don't pursue business just for your own gain. Only answer the calls for help.”

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

“Don’t confuse the word marketing with advertising, announcing, spamming, or giving away branded crap. Really marketing just means being considerate, looking at things from the other person’s point of view, and doing what’s best for them.”

“Don’t wait for permission.”

“Doubt each old thing you know. Require current evidence. Make it prove itself to be true today. Otherwise, let it go.”

“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.”

“Following no plans is the ideal way to make the best of each moment.”

“I appreciate a moment more when I know I’ll never see it again.”

“I usually get where I’m going by leaving where I've been.”

“I want my business to be smaller, not bigger.”

“I'll just set up my own online store. How hard could it be?”

“I'm a student, not a guru.”

“I'm so glad I didn't have investors. I didn't have to please anybody but my customers and myself. No effort spent on anything but my customers.”

“Ideas are worth nothing unless executed.”

“If it's not a hit, switch.”

“If more information was the answer, then we'd all be billionaires with perfect abs.”

“If they wish I would have said a little more, I said just the right amount.”

“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.”

“If you think true love looks like Romeo and Juliet, you'll overlook a great relationship that grows slowly.”

“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. If you think revolution needs to feel like war, you'll overlook the importance of simply serving people better. When you're on to something great, it won't feel like revolution. It'll feel like uncommon sense.”

“If you want to be useful, you can always start now, with only 1 percent of what you have in your grand vision. It'll be a humble prototype version of your grand vision, but you'll be in the game. You'll be ahead of the rest, because you actually started, while others are waiting for the finish line to magically appear at the starting line.”

“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.”

“If you’re not saying 'Hell yeah!' about something, say 'no'.”

“In a perfect world, would your website be covered with advertising?”

“Learning without doing is wasted.”

“Like most people, I had no idea what to charge for my service.”

“Make plans, but feel free to ignore them.”

“Make sure you know what makes you happy, and don’t forget it.”

“Make yourself unnecessary to the running of your business.”

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

“Money is nothing more than a neutral exchange of value. If people give you money, it’s proof that you’re giving them something valuable in return.”

“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. They spend decades in pursuit of something that someone convinced them they should want, without realizing that it won't make them happy.”

“Most people over-estimate what they can do in one year, and under-estimate what they can do in ten years.”

“My bank account was always low, but never empty.”

“Never do anything just for the money.”

“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.”

“No business plan survives first contact with customers.”

“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.”

“None of your customers will ask you to turn your attention to expanding. They want you to keep your attention focused on them.
It's counterintuitive, but the way to grow your business is to focus entirely on your existing customers. Just thrill them, and they'll tell everyone.”

“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.”

“Question the norms.”

“Rrevolution is a term that people use only when you're successful. Before that, you're just a quirky person who does things differently.”

“Starting with no money is an advantage. You don't need money to start helping people.”

“Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently pushing what's not working.”

“Success is your top priority. Never let anything stop you.”

“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 real point of doing anything is to be happy, so do only what makes you happy.”

“The standard pace is for chumps. The system is designed so anyone can keep up. If you’re more driven than ‘just anyone’ ,  you can do so much more than anyone expects. And this applies to all of life,  not just school.”

“The world changes. Some people don’t.”

“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 sure you could leave for a year, and when you came back, your business would be doing better than when you left.”

“To me, 'busy' implies that the person is out of control of their life.”

“To stay in just one country is like living in a huge house but never leaving the bedroom.”

“Trust, but verify. Remember it when delegating. You have to do both.”

“We all have lots of ideas, creations, and projects. When you present one to the world, and it's not a hit, don't keep pushing it as-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.”

“We're all busy. Saying yes to less is the way out.”

“What’s obvious to you is amazing to others.”

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

“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!”
Every event you get invited to. Every request to start a new project. If you're not saying “HELL YEAH!” about it, say “no.”

“When you make a business, you get to make a little universe where you control all the laws. This is your utopia. When you make it a dream come true for yourself, it'll be a dream come true for someone else, too.”

“When you make a company, you make a utopia. It’s where you design your perfect world.”

“When you sign up to run a marathon, you don’t want a taxi to take you to the finish line.”

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

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

“You need to know your personal philosophy of what makes you happy and what's worth doing.”

“You only have a boss if you choose to! Nobody is making you serve these masters.”

“Your business plan is moot. You don't know what people really want until you start doing it.”