Derek Sivers is one of my favorite bloggers. Not only did he read a lot of books, but took time to take notes and share them on his site. It’s an inspiring act.

I asked him how he found time to do all that, and he said “I make time for things I like”. Fair enough!

When Derek announced that he wrote a book, I didn’t hesitate to order it right away. It’s a short book(let) consisting of 75 pages. He writes about his experience with starting and running his company CDBaby, and shares his view on life and what he learned along the way.

Unfortunately the book doesn’t have much to offer for avid readers of his blog, since it consists of condensed versions of his blog posts along with some narrative about CDBaby. However, if you haven’t read his blog yet, you’ll find this book very inspiring.

Here are some quotes from the book:

• Business is not about money. It’s about making dreams come true for others and for yourself.
• Success comes from persistently improving and inventing
• If you’re not saying “HELL YEAH!” about something, say “no”
• The way to grow your business is to focus entirely on your existing customers. Just thrill them, and they’ll tell everyone
• I don’t want to hear people’s ideas. I’m not interested until I see their execution.
• Banks love to lend money to those who don’t need it. Record labels love to sign musicians who don’t need their help. People fall in love with people who won’t give them the time of day.
• Anything you hate to do, someone else loves.
• The less I own, the happier I am.

Sivers knows how to please people. As a bonus, he has compiled a list of his favorite songs, and shares it with people who bought the book. Well done!