Success Advice
The Independent Music Millionaire – How Derek Sivers Made Multi Millions Selling Music Online

Derek Sivers created CDBaby.com because he needed a way to sell his music online. Soon other musicians asked him to help them sell their music. A few years later, he found himself helping over 100,000 artists sell their music. He recently sold his company for $22 million and is comfortable in life.
Watch these videos and interviews with Derek Sivers on how you to can create a successful company from your passion and hobbies.
How A Musician Built CD Baby Into A $22 Million Dollar Business From His Home – Derek Sivers – by Andrew Warner
Derek Sivers – Founder Of CD Baby – Finding Your Inner Passion & Turning It Into Success
Why Derek Sivers Was Successful
Derek Sivers wasn’t afraid to start crappy
Derek laughs when wannabe entrepreneurs tell him about all the features they plan to include when they launch their companies. When he launched CD Baby the site’s design was pretty dorky. And instead of building a fully automated site, he did much of the order processing by hand. Quit aiming for perfection, just launch.
Derek Sivers knew what feedback to accept
Start crappy and build the business by listening and integrating user feedback. But be careful not to let user feedback take you too far off course. Derek says people kept telling him that he should launch a radio station. But he kept refusing because he didn’t think it was a good fit for his business.
Derek Sivers was patient
9 months after launching, his site was only bringing in $15 a week. Others might have have assumed that the site was a failure, but Derek was patient. He gave it room to grow.
Derek Sivers knew how to get financial security
I asked Derek if earning that first million gave him a sense of financial security. He said it didn’t. He said he got a greater sense of security by managing his own desires. Knowing that he wasn’t a wasteful spender gave him his sense of security.
Derek Sivers worked 2 hours a week
When Tim Ferriss published his book, The Four Hour Work Week, most people doubted it was possible to work that little. Not Derek. He worked 2 hours a week. He said it was because of the way he taught his staff. When anyone in the company asked him a question, he told the answer to everyone in the company. Within 6 months, everyone knew what Derek knew. “He made himself unnecessary”.
Derek Sivers Summary by Andrew Warner from Mixergy
13 Quotes By Derek Sivers
1. “Business is not about money. It’s about making dreams come true for others and for yourself.” – Derek Sivers
2. “Making a company is a great way to improve the world while improving yourself.” – Derek Sivers
3. Utopia. “When you make a company, you make a utopia. It’s where you design your perfect world.” – Derek Sivers
4. What matters. “Don’t pursue business just for your own gain. Only answer the calls for help.” – Derek Sivers
5. Success. “Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently promoting what’s not working.” – Derek Sivers
6. Your plans. “Your business plan is moot. You don’t know what people really want until you start doing it.” – Derek Sivers
7. The power of exclusion. “You can’t please everyone, so proudly exclude people.” – Derek Sivers
8. Revolution. “Five years after I started CD Baby, when it was a big success, the media said I had revolutionized the music business. But ‘revolution’ is a term that people use only when you’re successful. Before that, you’re just a quirky person who does things differently.” – Derek Sivers
9. “If it’s not a hit, switch.” Don’t spend years pushing ideas that people don’t seem into. “Whenever you’re not getting a massive frothing-at-the-mouth “I want to pay you now” response, just don’t do it. Let it go and try something else.” – Derek Sivers
10. Hell Yeah! “If you’re not saying “HELL YEAH!” about something, say “no”. – Derek Sivers
11. You don’t know ’till you’ve opened in New Haven. “Anytime you think you know what your new business will be doing, remember this quote from Steve Blank: ‘No plan survives first contact with customers’.” – Derek Sivers
12. The wisest decision criteria. “Make every decision—even decisions about whether to expand the business, raise money, or promote someone—according to what’s best for your customers.” – Derek Sivers
13. The silence of the web. When he mass emailed CD Baby customers (in the millions), he learned to be so careful in what he wrote. Even a tiny mistake or lack of clarity could generate thousands of emails from readers that took days to respond to. He learned to write succinctly, lucidly, carefully, with the reader always in mind.
Success Advice
The 70-Year-Old Management Strategy That’s More Relevant Than Ever
It emphasizes setting clear, measurable goals that align employee efforts with broader company objectives

Every organization has its own vision and mission. But a vision is only as powerful as the people behind it. When employees are actively involved in decision-making and goal-setting, that vision becomes a shared reality. (more…)
Explode Your Social Media
Want More Views? Master These 6 YouTube Growth Tactics
Getting a strong start or feeling stagnant are two completely different problems, but they both need momentum, viewer engagement, and growth to fix them.

Strategic planning combined with unwavering dedication allows you to rise above the chaos of YouTube—luck won’t get you anywhere. (more…)
Change Your Mindset
The Leadership Skill Nobody Talks About (But Changes Everything)
Curiosity often takes a back seat to certainty and gets labeled as a soft skill, which makes it sound obvious and easy

Most of us, when faced with challenges, instinctively seek certainty and answers. In turn, our ego steps in and prompts us to defend our views, double down, or perhaps disengage. (more…)
Success Advice
Breaking the Bias: How Females Can Thrive In The Workplace in 2025
The good news is that some steps can also be taken by female business leaders who are looking to voice and fight these issues, take charge of their careers, and grow their business or influence in the industry.

Over the past 100-odd years, women have played a critical role in the ever-changing labor force. (more…)
-
Success Advice4 weeks ago
The One Mindset Shift That Made Me Irreplaceable At Work
-
Scale Your Business4 weeks ago
Why Smart Entrepreneurs Never Skip This One Business Expense
-
Did You Know3 weeks ago
7 Surprising Life Lessons Video Games Taught Me That School Never Did
-
Success Advice3 weeks ago
How Playing by the Rules Became the Smartest Business Strategy
-
Success Advice2 weeks ago
How to Build Trust, Kill Micromanagement, and Lead a Team That Thrives
-
Scale Your Business2 weeks ago
How to Build a Workplace People Actually Want to Show Up To
-
Success Advice2 weeks ago
Success Isn’t Sexy: 5 Daily Habits That Actually Work
-
Scale Your Business2 weeks ago
How Smart Entrepreneurs Cut Financial Chaos in Half with One Simple Switch