Anything You Want

This book in three sentences

1. Do what you love, not what others think you should do.
2. Think of your business as a mini utopia where you control all the laws.
3. What matters most in business is keeping your customers happy.

Book Notes

• 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.
• Don’t be on your deathbed someday full of regret because you pursued little distractions instead of big dreams.
• Business is not about money. It’s about making dreams come true for others and for yourself.
• Making a company is a great way to improve the world while improving yourself.
• Starting with no money is an advantage. You don’t need money to start helping people.
• Make yourself unnecessary to the running of your business.
• When you make a business, you get to make a little universe where you control all the laws. This is your utopia.
• 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.
• Before you build something people want, you can make progress only with massive effort. Creating a product people want is like writing a hit song. Instead of trying to create demand, you’re managing the huge demand. (Note: another way to define product-market fit)
• Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently doing what’s not working.
• 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!”
• None of your customers will ask you to turn your attention to expanding. They want you to keep your attention focused on them.
• Watch out when anyone (including you) says he wants to do something big, but can’t until he raises money.
• Ideas are just a multiplier of execution... that’s why I don’t want to hear people’s ideas. I’m not interested until I see their execution.

• As your business grows, don’t let the leeches sucker you into all that stuff they pretend you need.
• You have to custom-tailor your product to please a very few specific people.
• The problem with selling to a few big clients: 1) Those people might change their minds or leave the company. 2) The client is now your boss 3) You lose touch with what the rest of the world wants.
• Do you have a big visionary master plan for how the world will work in twenty years? Don’t feel bad if you don’t. I never did.
• We all grade ourselves by different measures: ... For me, it’s how many useful things I create.
• It’s important to know in advance, to make sure you’re staying focused on what’s honestly important to you, not what others think you should.
• If you set up your business like you don’t need the money, people are happier to pay you.
• E-mail blasts are the best training for being clear.
• But please know that it’s often the tiny details that really thrill people enough to make them tell all their friends about you. Little things make all the difference.
• Even if you want to be big someday, remember that you never need to act like a big boring company.
• In the end, it’s about what you want to be, not what you want to have. To have something is the means, not the end. To be something (a good singer, a skilled entrepreneur, or just plain happy) is the real point.
• 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 it so that you could leave for a year, and when you came back, your business would be doing better than when you left.
• Trust, but verify. Remember it when delegating. You have to do both.
• Delegate, but don’t abdicate. There’s such a thing as over-delegation. I had empowered my employees so much that I gave them all the power.
• Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller were at a party at a billionaire’s extravagant estate. Kurt said, “Wow! Look at this place! This guy has everything!” Joseph said, “Yes, but I have something he’ll never have. . . . Enough.”
• Business is as creative as the fine arts. You can be as unconventional, unique, and quirky as you want. A business is a reflection of the creator.
• Pay close attention to what excites you and what drains you. To when you’re being the real you and when you’re trying to impress an invisible jury.