Derek Sivers podcast

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Education
**Derek Sivers podcast**

Derek Sivers very short articles and audiobook chapters, read by Derek Sivers. Transcripts at https://sive.rs/blog

Latest Episodes:

Imitate. We are imperfect mirrors. Feb 02, 2014

Show notes

You know that song you love that you wish you’d written? Copy it.

You know that existing business that you wish you had thought of? Copy it.

Why? Because we’re imperfect mirrors.

Like a funhouse mirror that distorts what it reflects, your imitation will turn out much different from the original. Maybe even better.

When a musician covers someone else’s song, they reveal their own warped perspective, since we know what the original sounds like. Because of this, performing a cover song is actually a great way to define who you are as an artist.

When a musician writes a new song that imitates someone else’s song, almost nobody notices the similarity. People don’t make the connection unless you tell them the source of its inspiration.

So an entrepreneur can imitate someone else’s business, and still be adding a great service to the world.

I used to believe that everything I did had to be 100 percent original. My old company had a competitor that offered credit card machines to musicians. Customers would tell me how much they loved that service, and even told me they wished we had it, too. But copying the competitor seemed out of the question. It took me a long time to swallow my pride and realize that I’d be doing my clients a favor if I imitated that idea. So I copied it, and it was one of the most successful things I ever did. Those little credit card machines made over $8 million for thousands of musicians.

So look around at those existing ideas in the world. You can imitate them and still be offering something valuable and unique.

OK Milt, I’ll start writing again Dec 09, 2013

Show notes

Yesterday I procrastinated, tinkered, and wasted time, doing nothing of any value.

Then this morning, I found out that one of my best friends died yesterday. He was out on a bike ride on a quiet street when a car swerved into the bike lane, killing him instantly.

We shared my online music account. I see he had just downloaded the entire Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young catalog yesterday before he left on his ride.

I’ve been crying off and on all morning, thinking about what we do with our time — what’s worthy and what’s a waste.

Time really is limited. We can’t pretend it’s not. Time spent doing one thing is time spent not doing something else.

It’s so easy to waste time doing stuff that’s not important, not really fun, and not useful to anyone, not even yourself.

It’s so hard to fight the resistance to do the more difficult but more important thing. Finishing that book. Writing that song. Launching that project.

I spent this morning thinking about what doesn’t matter and what does. For me, writing is about the most worthy thing I can do with my time. I love how the distributed word is eternal — that every day I get emails from strangers thanking me for things I wrote years ago that helped them today. I love how those things will continue to help people long after I’m gone.

My friend was a brilliant conversationalist, one of the brightest minds I’ve met, but he never put his thoughts into writing. It’s extra-sad that his thoughts are gone, too.

So this lesson is dedicated to you, Milt Olin. I’m going to start writing again.

Some will always say you’re wrong Jun 03, 2013

Show notes

Some people are into money. Some aren’t. Some people are inspired by helping the needy. Some aren’t. Some people are into fame, power, and prestige. Others are into anonymity and freedom from responsibility.

People have different preferences in different parts of their lives. Famous online, but anonymous in their neighborhood. Generous with time, but stingy with money. Introvert when working, but extrovert when not.

You have to know your preferences well because no matter what you do, someone will tell you you’re wrong.

If you’re not into money, many people will say you’re foolish. If you’re not into charity, many people will say you’re greedy. If you’re not into crowds, many people will say you’re missing out.

Some careers come with excuses: The classic novelist thrives in solitude, alone in a cabin in the woods, writing books that reach millions. The classic journalist thrives in a crowd, talking with everyone, building the story from a thousand accounts. The quiet librarian. The aggressive lawyer. The flaky artist. No explanation needed.

But when you go against the stereotype, people get confused.

The entrepreneur who’s not into money
The musician who avoids crowds
The ambitious conservationist
The artist who’s into discipline

If you expect criticism in advance and take pride in your unusual stance, you can bash on with a smile, being who you want to be.

Then every time they say you’re wrong, that’s a sign you’re doing it right.

Seeking inspiration? Apr 14, 2013

Show notes

The word “inspiration” usually means “something that mentally stimulates you.”

But “inspiration” also means to breathe in.

The meanings poetically combine when you think of yourself breathing in thoughts, filling your body with ideas. But don’t forget to breathe out.

People surf the web, reading pithy articles, looking for inspiration. People listen to hours of podcasts, looking for inspiration. Musicians, writers, artists, and everyone else, all scouring the world for inspiration.

Breathing in, and in, and in, and in.

Yet most of them aren’t feeling inspired enough. They’re looking for more, thinking that something else out there will truly inspire them.

Want to know why? Because nothing is truly inspiring unless you apply it to your work. (“work” meaning your life’s output, whether creative, business, or personal).

In other words, your work, itself, is the inspiration.

You may hear something or see something that gives you a new idea. But it’s only when you stop and think of your work through this new perspective, that you actually jump up and go turn the idea into reality. That’s the real inspiration that everyone is looking for.

Inspiration is not receiving information. Inspiration is applying what you’ve received.

People think that if they keep reading articles, browsing books, listening to talks, or meeting people, they’re going to suddenly get inspired. But constantly seeking inspiration is anti-inspiring. You have to pause the input and focus on your output.

For every bit of inspiration you take in, use it and amplify it by applying it to your work. Then you’ll finally feel the inspiration you’ve been looking for.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.

Everything is my fault Dec 09, 2012

Show notes

I used to get mad at people. They lied. They betrayed me. They disappeared.

Do you hear the pattern? “They this. They that.”

When someone upsets you, it’s human nature to feel it’s their fault. But one day I tried thinking of everything as my fault.

I created the environment that made them feel they had to lie. I mistook their neutral behavior as betrayal. I made it more appealing for them to disappear than to communicate.

It felt so good to think it was all my fault!

This is way better than forgiving. When you forgive, you’re still assuming that they’re wrong and you’re the victim.

But to decide it’s your fault feels amazing! Now you weren’t wronged. People were just playing their part in the situation you helped create.

What power! Now you’re the person who made things happen, made a mistake, and can learn from it. Now you’re in control and there’s nothing to complain about.

This philosophy feels so good that I’ve playfully decided to apply this rule to the rest of my life. As soon as I catch myself blaming anyone for anything, I decide it’s my fault.

The guy who ran away with my investment? My fault. I should have verified his claims.
The love of my life who suddenly dumped me? My fault. I let our relationship plateau.
Don’t like my government? My fault. I could get involved and change it.

Doesn’t that feel more powerful? Try it. Maybe instead of “fault” you prefer the word “responsibility,” but the idea is the same. Think of every bad thing that happened to you, and imagine that you happened to it.

You don’t have to be local Dec 02, 2012

Show notes

You can focus your time locally or globally.

If you’re local, you focus on your community, doing things in-person. But this means you have less time to focus on the rest of the world.

If you’re global, you make things for the whole world. But this means you have less time to be part of your local community.

Neither approach is right or wrong, but you need to be aware of the trade-off.

I lived in Woodstock, New York for three years. There I started my company, entirely online. I never met anyone in Woodstock. I just lived there, but didn’t socialize there. My attention was focused globally, which helped my business grow quickly.

Then I lived in Portland, Oregon for three years. I worked every waking hour — super productive. I made great friends worldwide, but I never hung out in Portland. It was just my place to work and sleep. My attention was still focused globally.

Then I lived in Singapore for three years and decided to do the opposite — to get fully involved in my local community. I had an open door, said yes to every request, met with hundreds of people, and went to every event possible. I spent most of my time talking with people, and really got to know the Singapore community.

But something felt wrong. After a day of talking, I was often exhausted and unfulfilled. Two hours spent with one person who wants to “pick my brain” is two hours I could have spent making something that could be useful to the whole world, including that one person.

Then people in America started emailing to ask why I’d been so silent. No new articles? No new projects? Nothing?

So there’s the trade-off. When I’m local-focused, I may be useful to my community, but I’m not being as useful to the rest of the world.

So I’m finally admitting: I’m not local.

I feel equally connected to many places. Just because I live in one place now, that doesn’t mean I should ignore the others. To me, the emphasis on local stuff never felt right. When I lived in Woodstock and Portland, people asked what I was doing to promote the local music scene. I argued that I shouldn’t favor Woodstock or Portland any more than Wellington or Prague. But that’s just me.

Some people feel a strong separation between insiders and outsiders. If you’re a part of their family, neighborhood, organization, or circle of friends, then you’re an insider. Everyone else is an outsider.

Other people feel no separation. You’re treated equally, no matter where you’re from or who you know. There are no outsiders. You make connections based on who you are now, not where you’ve been.

Like your tendency to be introverted or extroverted, or conservative or liberal, these fundamental world views shape your approach to life and work.

A business can focus on growing their local market or on internationalizing. A musician can focus on doing local gigs or on reaching fans online. Very different approaches. Both are necessary. Neither is right or wrong. Just be aware that you can choose the local or global balance that works best for you.

Smart people don’t think others are stupid May 16, 2012

Show notes

The woman seemed to be making some pretty good points until she stopped with, “Ugh! Those people are just so stupid!!”

She could have said Southerners, Northerners, Liberals, Conservatives, Chinese, or Americans. It doesn’t matter. She just proved that she wasn’t being smart.

There are no smart people or stupid people, just people being smart or being stupid.

Being smart means thinking things through. It means trying to find the real answer, not the easiest answer.

Being stupid means avoiding thinking by jumping to conclusions. Jumping to a conclusion is like quitting a game. You lose by default.

That’s why saying “I don’t know” is usually smart — because it’s refusing to jump to a conclusion.

So when someone says, “They’re so stupid!” it means they’ve stopped thinking. They say it because it’s satisfying to jump to that conclusion.

So if you decide someone is stupid, it means you’re not thinking, which is not being smart.

Therefore, smart people don’t think others are stupid.

The co-op business model: share whatever you’ve got Nov 20, 2011

Show notes

The only business I’ve ever done is the co-op / sharing model. It goes like this:

You have something that people want. It might be something you own, something you’ve learned how to do, or access to resources, space, or people.
Find a way to share it with everyone who needs it. Not necessarily for profit, but just because it’s what you’d do for friends, and it’s the right thing to do.
If it takes some effort for you to share it, charge a little something for your effort, to ensure that this giving can continue.

My examples:

Copyright forms: In 1994, the U.S. Copyright office still didn’t have their copyright forms online. To copyright your song, you had to mail a letter to Washington DC, to ask them to mail you the blank forms. So I scanned the forms and put them on my website for free. For the next two years, my site was the only place to get those forms online.

Trademark instructions: In 1995, I learned how to trademark my band name. It took many hours of work to figure out the legalese, but I did it. I wrote out the step-by-step instructions and put them on my band’s website for free. For years it was the go-to resource for musicians who wanted to trademark their name.

UPC barcodes: In 1996, I had a little record label, so I got a UPC barcode account, which let me put unique UPC barcodes on my CDs. I had to pay $750 to the Universal Code Council to get a company account, but that meant I was allowed to create 100,000 products under my account. Musician friends asked how, so I showed them how, but also said they could use one of mine. At first, I did this for free, as a favor, until friends started sending strangers my way. Because it took some work to generate the number, create their barcode, and keep records, I charged $20. Over the next 12 years, that made me about $2 million.

CD Baby: In 1997, sharing my credit card merchant account led to CD Baby. Over the next 12 years, that made me about $20 million.

Web hosting: By 1999, I had learned a lot about hosting websites. Linux, Apache, PHP, SQL, FTP, DNS, SMTP, etc. I had done it for my own sites, and bought my own servers. So when friends would complain about their existing web-hosting company, I’d host them on my servers instead. At first, I did this for free, as a favor, until it was filling up my server. Because each server cost me $300/month, I charged $20 per month. Over the next 9 years, that made me about $5 million.

None of these things looked like a business venture, at first. All of them were just sharing something I already had.

People often ask me if I have any suggestions for what kind of business they should get into. I tell them the only thing I know how to recommend:

Start by sharing whatever you’ve got.

232 sand dollars Nov 15, 2011

Show notes

When I was twenty-two, I lived alone on the Oregon coast for a year, just practicing, recording, dreaming, and going for long runs on the beach.

I had been coming to this beach since I was a baby, and had spent hundreds of hours walking every bit of it. As a kid, the golden jackpot was to find an unbroken sand dollar shell. It had happened maybe five times in my life.

But that year I lived there, on a weekday afternoon when I had the whole beach to myself, I found one: an unbroken sand dollar. A few minutes later, I found another! Thirty seconds later, another, and another, and another! I carried them in my pocket at first, but found so many that I had to take off my shirt to use as a bag.

By the time I got home I had collected 232 unbroken sand dollar shells. I put them all out in the sun to dry, amazed at my good luck. I bragged to my family. I tried to think of all the things I could do with 232 sand dollars.

After two days the excitement wore off. I realized I was never going to do anything with them. Now it was just stupid for me to keep all of these sand dollars sitting there doing nothing. The excitement was in finding them, not keeping them.

The next day was a big holiday so the beach was going to be filled with tourists. So at 6 a.m., I took all 232 sand dollars and went for a long walk on the beach — tossing them in the sand, one at a time, very spaced out, so all the tourist kids could find a few.

As I was heading home, I got the quiet satisfaction of watching two kids scream with excitement at finding one.

I hope I live my life like this.

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