Derek Sivers Quotes - Page 2

Don't be on your deathbed someday, having squandered your one chance at life, full of regret because you pursued little distractions instead of big dreams.

Go find very early versions of things: the first TV pilot of a later-successful TV show; early audition tapes by famous actors; early demos by famous musicians. Focus on these early examples, not what they became over the next 20 years. Remember that what you're doing will constantly improve.

The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000.

Let’s never forget that whatever brilliant ideas you have or hear, that the opposite may also be true.

Making a company is a great way to improve the world while improving yourself.

It was the first follower that transformed the lone nut into a leader.

Instead of staying strong and working through when times are really tough, I usually quit this recipe for failure and start a whole new recipe. So if something is too challenging, I tend to chalk it up as not a good fit, and move on to something else.

If you keep thinking about putting on a conference or being a Hollywood screenwriter, and you find the idea terrifies but intrigues you, it's probably a worthy endeavor for you. You grow (and thrive!) by doing what excites you and what scares you everyday, not by trying to find your passion.

The first follower is actually an underestimated form of leadership in itself. … The first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader.

When you make a company, you make a utopia. It's where you design your perfect world.

The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: One is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the task at hand covers both bases, but not often.

For years, I'd say yes to almost everything, trying to be nice and generous. Feeling obliged to be of service to the world. Maybe also a fear of being forgotten if I don't. But I paid the ultimate price in doing that, because for all those years, I got almost no work done! Some famous authors have written about this: that if they said yes to every request, then they'd never have time to write another book again.

Every time you're making a choice, one choice is the safe/comfortable choice - and one choice is the risky/uncomfortable choice. the risky/uncomfortable choice is the one that will teach you the most and make you grow the most, so that's the one you should choose.

Ideas are just a multiplier of execution.

I'm not interested until I see their execution.

If it's not a hit, switch.

Make every decision—even decisions about whether to expand the business, raise money, or promote someone—according to what's best for your customers.

The purpose of money is to trade for things that make you happy. So if you can bypass money and get directly to the happy, you've saved a lot of trouble. And it makes others happier, too, when you organize your business around non-monetary things.

Care about your customers more than about yourself, and you'll do well.

If you really care about starting a movement, have the courage to follow and show others how to follow. And when you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first one to stand up and join in.

Programming languages are like girlfriends: The new one is better because *you* are better.

If you're not saying 'Hell Yeah' about something, say 'No'.

When you make a business you're making a little world.

It's only a little difficult to say no. You've got to believe that the work you're doing is ultimately more useful to the world.

I love that sometimes we need to go to the opposite side of the world to realize assumptions that we didn't even know we had and realize that the opposite may also be true.