Business Lessons from a musician

There are lots of interesting bloggers on the web. You could spend all your time reading blogs if you aren’t careful, so you have to be selective. One of the bloggers that I read is Derek Silvers. He’s a musician (which I’m not) who became an entrepreneur. Building a business CDBaby, which he sold for 22 million in 2008, he has just released a book, Anything for You (available on Amazon) that has some interesting thoughts about business.

A few of the business lessons that he learned and are valuable to me include…

  • “We’ve all heard about the importance of persistence. But I had misunderstood. Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently doing what’s not working.

    If you’re not saying “HELL YEAH!” about something, say “no.”

    If you set up your business like you don’t need the money, people are happier to pay you…When someone’s doing something for the money, people can sense it, like a desperate lover. It’s a turnoff….When someone’s doing something for love, being generous in stead of stingy, trusting instead of fearful, it triggers this law: We want to give to those who give.

    To have something (a finished recording, a business, or millions of dollars) is the means, not the end. To be something (a good singer, a skilled entrepreneur, or just plain happy) is the real point.”

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