You can follow the beaten path and call yourself an entrepreneur or you can blaze your own trail and really be one.

When Derek Sivers started CD Baby, he wasn’t planning on building a major business. He was a successful independent musician who just wanted to sell his CDs online. When no one would help him do it, he set out on his own and built an online store from scratch.

He started in 1998 by helping his friends sell their CDs. In 2000, he hired his first employee. Eight years later, he sold CD Baby for $22 million.

Sivers didn’t need a business plan, and neither do you. You don’t need to think big; in fact, it’s better if you don’t. Start with what you have, care about your customers more than yourself, and run your business like you don’t need the money.Tim Ferriss Reviews Anything You Want

Tim Ferriss is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The 4-Hour Body and The 4-Hour Workweek. He has a diverse background of experience, including working as an actor, speaking seven foreign languages, holding a world record in tango, and being a national Chinese kickboxing champion. He has written for Maxim and the Philadelphia Inquirer, has appeared on MTV and CBS radio, and has been interviewed or featured in such major publications as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and more. Read his review of Derek Sivers’s Anything You Want:

I love this book!

Derek is the entrepreneur’s entrepreneur. Just as important, perhaps more so–he is a phenomenal teacher. Whether detailing the fascinating rise of CDBaby, explaining catastrophic (but common) founder mistakes, or teaching me about relational databases in two minutes using analogies, he makes the complex simple. Moreover, he makes it all actionable.

If you want a true manifesto, a guidebook with clear signposts, and a fun ride you’ll return to again and again, you have it here in this book. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. –Tim Ferriss

Derek Sivers’s Recommended Reading
 
We asked author and founder of CD Baby Derek Sivers to tell us about the books that have influenced him the most as an entrepreneur. His list includes everything from What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful to The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World. Check out Derek’s complete list of recommended reading for those aspiring to follow their passion to build a successful business–and a rewarding life.

See the complete list of Derek’s recommended reading