Derek Sivers

“You grow (and thrive!) by doing what excitesyou and what scares you everyday, not bytrying to find your passion.”

“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.”

“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”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”