Anything You Want
by Derek Sivers · 2011
In a nutshell
A concise, story-driven book by Derek Sivers sharing 40 lessons from building and selling his company CD Baby, focused on unconventional, founder-centric approaches to entrepreneurship, customer obsession, and building startups that align with your values rather than chasing traditional Silicon Valley metrics.
Anything You Want
Brand: Amazon
Category: Others
Source:
Overview
“Anything You Want” is a concise, story-driven book by Derek Sivers, distilling 40 lessons he learned from building and selling CD Baby. The book focuses on unconventional, founder-centric entrepreneurship and building a business that reflects your personal values rather than standard startup playbooks.
Features
- Entrepreneurship lessons from CD Baby
Draws on Sivers’ real-world experience starting, growing, and selling his independent music company CD Baby. - 40 short, focused chapters
Each lesson is presented as a compact story or idea, making the book easy to dip into and reference. - Founder-centric approach
Encourages building a company around the founder’s personality, preferences, and values instead of copying Silicon Valley norms. - Emphasis on customer obsession
Highlights designing products, services, and processes around what truly serves and delights customers. - Values-driven business building
Advocates creating startups that align with your personal goals, ethics, and desired lifestyle. - Alternative to traditional startup metrics
Questions the primacy of growth-at-all-costs, fundraising, and vanity metrics, favoring meaning, impact, and sustainability. - Story-based teaching style
Lessons are conveyed primarily through personal anecdotes and narratives rather than abstract theory. - Suitable for aspiring and early-stage founders
Aimed at people interested in launching or reshaping a startup around what matters most to them.
Specific pricing is not provided in the source content. Refer to Amazon for current purchase options and formats.
Images
- Primary:
- Full size:
Brand
Brand: Amazon
Slug
anything-you-want
Reference
Anything You Want — publisher / official page. Summary adapted from the Awesome Startup Books collection.
If you like this, read
[UNKNOWN TITLE] (Amazon listing, ISBN 1684053277)
This is an Amazon product listing for a book (ISBN 1684053277). However, the provided content only includes a long tracking URL and pricing snippet without the book’s title, author, or subject. Because the core bibliographic data is missing, it is not possible to verify that it is a startup, entrepreneurship, or founder-focused book, so it cannot be confidently included as an ‘Awesome Startup Book’.
High Output Management
High Output Management teaches founders leadership lessons on maximizing output through OKRs, one-on-ones, and high-leverage activities for effective team building and organizational scaling. Key principles include managing like a production process, conducting performance reviews with absolute honesty, and optimizing meetings. Compared to The Making of a Manager, it provides a more rigorous, systems-oriented approach suited for ambitious startups.
Remote: Office Not Required
A groundbreaking guide from the founders of Basecamp arguing that the advantages of working remotely far outweigh the drawbacks, providing practical advice for building and managing successful remote teams.
The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million
HubSpot's Chief Revenue Officer Mark Roberge shares the data-driven playbook that took HubSpot from zero to $100 million. Essential for B2B SaaS founders building scalable sales organizations.
Influence
"Influence" by Robert B. Cialdini is recommended by David Heinemeier Hansson (creator of Ruby on Rails and founder of Basecamp) for anyone in business. The book teaches how to sell and deal with customers by treating them as humans, focusing on the psychology of persuasion.
Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur
A concise, story-driven book by Derek Sivers that distills 40 lessons from building and selling his company CD Baby. It focuses on unconventional yet highly practical guidance for founders, emphasizing simplicity, customer obsession, and designing a business to serve your life—not the other way around. Widely recommended as a must-read for startup founders who want real-world, no‑nonsense insights rather than abstract theory.