Anything You Want by Derek Sivers

Book Review of

Anything You Want by Derek Sivers

by

Andre Bryant

Anything You Want details Derek Sivers’ creation, growth and eventual sale of his company, CD Baby.  Sivers never wanted to be a business owner. He seemed to just “stumble” on an idea and take off with it. As I read this book, I noticed some unconventional philosophies that Mr. Sivers believed in. For instance, he claims that a potential owner does not need a plan or a vision. This may have worked for him, but I don’t think a majority of business can succeed without some sort of vision. He also believes that if you just focus on helping people today, you can achieve anything. Also, Sivers says that a company should act like they don’t need the money.  In return people (customers) will be more likely to give it to you. There are 3 major themes in this book that interested me the most; customers, delegation and money.

        First, Sivers believes the way to grow your business is to focus on your existing customers.  He says to just thrill them, and they’ll tell everyone.  In my experiences as a consumer, I have found that lots of businesses tend to solely focus gaining new customers thus neglecting their existing customers.  A certain TV provider that I subscribe to offers free football games to any new customer that signs a contract with them.  As a long time customer who always pays on time, I believe that the company should be working diligently to keep my business. The objective of a business should be to create passionate customers.  According to Entrepreneurial Small Business by Jerome Katz, passionate customers are people who are not just loyal but are likely to rave about your business and are likely to generate more potential customers.  CD Baby always made sure to focus on making its current customers were happy.  In fact, the company proudly excluded customers who did not fit its target market.  Sivers’ philosophy was that it’s a big world; proudly leave out 99 percent of it.  

        Next, Sivers’ thoughts on delegation intrigued me. One of his philosophies was to make yourself unnecessary to the running of your business. As a business owner Derek was, as he described it, was caught in a delegation trap. He knew he needed help but he didn’t want to take the time to train them.  Every question was coming to him, thus overwhelming him and wasting a lot of time.  He came up with a plan, every time someone asked a question he would then gather everyone together and answer the question.  According to Getbusymedia.com, when work is delegated throughout a company, you have more time to take care of important tasks. But this also creates an opportunity to develop and grow the company, as well.  After Sivers’ successfully delegated, he started working at home, not ever going into the office.  As important as delegation is, Derek had to learn a tough lesson.  In the chapter titled Trust but Verify, Sims explained how delegating without confirming that the work is being doing up to standards, can be a huge mistake.  He entrusted an employee to send music to certain companies.  Months later he found out that this was not being done at all.  I believe that delegation is essential for a business to run successfully.  When I was a manager at a local retail store, I wanted to make sure everything was done correctly, so I figured I needed to do everything myself.  I always left that job feeling overly exhausted.  Over time, I learned to delegate responsibilities and to check to make sure they were getting done correctly.