You’ve probably heard the story of the accidental entrepreneur. Someone builds a website to sell their own CD, their friends ask if they can sell theirs too, and suddenly they're running a multimillion-dollar distributor. That’s the origin of CD Baby. But what most people miss when they read Anything You Want by Derek Sivers isn't the business mechanics. It’s the philosophy of saying no to everything that feels like a "should."
Sivers didn't want to be a CEO. He wanted to be a musician.
Most business books are written by people who want more. More growth. More market share. More leverage. Sivers wrote a book about wanting less. He founded CD Baby in 1998 because the existing distribution system for independent musicians was, frankly, a total disaster. Major labels controlled everything. If you were a guy playing acoustic folk in a coffee shop, getting your CD into a store was basically impossible.
The Most Famous Email in Internet History
If you’ve spent any time in marketing circles, you’ve seen the "private jet" email. It’s the perfect example of what Sivers preaches in Anything You Want.
When a customer bought a CD from CD Baby, the initial automated confirmation was a boring, standard receipt. Sivers hated it. It felt cold. So he spent twenty minutes writing a ridiculous, over-the-top story about how the CD was taken off the shelf by white-gloved employees, placed in a silk-lined gold box, and cheered by a crowd as it left the building.
It went viral before "going viral" was a phrase people used at brunch.
That one email created more brand loyalty than a $10 million ad campaign ever could. Why? Because it showed a human was behind the screen. People don't want to buy from a corporation; they want to buy from a person who cares about the same weird stuff they do. This is a core pillar of Sivers' philosophy: business is about being generous, not just being efficient.
Why Growth is Often a Trap
Most founders are obsessed with scaling. They want to go from one employee to a hundred. They want the big glass office. Sivers argues in Anything You Want that growth for the sake of growth is a "distraction from the real work."
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He kept CD Baby small as long as he could. He didn't take VC money. He didn't hire a fancy board of directors. He just focused on the musicians.
There’s this one specific story in the book that stays with me. A guy calls him up and asks for a feature on the site. Sivers realizes that adding the feature would help this one guy but make the site worse for everyone else. So he says no. He says no a lot. In a world where "the customer is always right," Sivers argues that you have to protect your vision even if it means losing a few bucks.
If you make your business a "utopia" for yourself, you'll actually enjoy your life. If you build it based on what an MBA textbook tells you, you’ll end up with a job you hate, except you’re the boss who can’t quit.
The "Hell Yeah or No" Rule
You’ve likely seen this quoted on every productivity blog since 2010. It’s the centerpiece of Sivers' decision-making process. If you’re not saying "Hell Yeah!" about something, say no.
It sounds simple. It’s incredibly hard to do.
We say "yes" to coffee meetings we don't want to go to. We say "yes" to projects that pay well but drain our souls. Sivers argues that by saying "no" to the mediocre "maybe" opportunities, you leave room for the things that truly light you up.
When he sold CD Baby for $22 million in 2008, he didn't buy a yacht. He gave almost all of it to a charitable trust for music education. He kept just enough to live on. That’s not what you’re supposed to do, right? You’re supposed to "exit" and then become an angel investor and talk about your "portfolio" on X.
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Sivers just moved to New Zealand and started learning. He started writing. He started being a person again.
Managing People Without Losing Your Mind
One of the most honest parts of Anything You Want is where Sivers admits he was a bad manager for a while. He tried to be everyone's friend. He let things slide. Eventually, his employees rebelled because he wasn't providing enough structure.
He shares a story about how his staff once demanded a profit-sharing program that essentially bypassed his authority. Instead of fighting them, he realized he had built a culture that didn't align with his values anymore. He had become the bottleneck.
His solution? He delegated everything.
He taught his employees how to make decisions by asking them, "What would you do if I wasn't here?" Over time, they stopped asking him questions. He became unnecessary to the daily operations. This is the ultimate goal for any business owner, but it requires an ego-death that most people can't handle. If the business doesn't need you, are you still important? Sivers says yes, you're finally free to create something new.
The Limitation of the Sivers Method
Is Sivers right about everything? Probably not for every business.
If you’re building a semiconductor factory, you can’t really run it like a quirky indie record shop. You need massive capital, rigid hierarchies, and intense scaling. Anything You Want is a manifesto for the "lifestyle business," even if Sivers hates that term. It’s for the creators, the solo-founders, and the people who want their work to be an extension of their personality.
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It’s also important to remember that Sivers started CD Baby at a very specific time in internet history. The "Wild West" days of the early 2000s allowed for a level of organic growth that is much harder to achieve today in a world dominated by Google Ads and TikTok algorithms.
However, the psychological truth remains: if you aren't enjoying the process, the result won't matter.
How to Apply Sivers' Logic Today
So, you’ve read the book, or you’re thinking about it. How do you actually use this in 2026?
First, look at your current project. Are you doing things because they are "best practices" or because you actually believe in them? If you hate your own marketing, your customers will smell the insincerity from a mile away.
Second, simplify. Sivers is a minimalist. His current website is basically just plain text. No trackers. No pop-ups. No "wait before you go" modals. It’s incredibly refreshing.
Third, realize that you can change your mind. Sivers has started and stopped dozens of projects. He doesn't see "quitting" as failure. He sees it as finishing. When CD Baby stopped being fun, he left.
Actionable Steps for the Sivers-Inspired Founder
- Audit your "Yes" list. Go through your calendar for the last two weeks. Mark everything that wasn't a "Hell Yeah." Figure out how to stop doing those things next month.
- Rewrite your automated emails. Take your boring "order confirmed" or "welcome" email and make it weird. Make it sound like you. If someone unsubscribes because you’re "unprofessional," good. They weren't your people anyway.
- Define "Enough." Most people never set a finish line. They just want more. Decide what your "enough" number is for income, customers, and hours worked. Once you hit it, stop expanding and start refining.
- Delegate the "How." When an employee or freelancer asks you a question, don't give them the answer. Ask them to suggest a solution and tell them you’ll back whatever they choose.
- Remove a feature. Look at your product or service. What’s the one thing you added just because a competitor had it? Kill it. Simplify the experience for your best customers.
Anything You Want is a short book. You can read it in an hour. But living it takes a lifetime of discipline. It’s about the courage to be small, the bravery to be "unprofessional," and the wisdom to know when to walk away from a pile of money to save your soul.
Derek Sivers reminds us that business is whatever you want it to be. There are no rules, only people.