Alexandre Lim

Short but powerful lessons from Derek Silver. It's a down-to-earth entrepreneurship journey that leads him to success. Starting a business is about you and the people you wish to serve to the best of your abilities.

Notes

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. You need to know your personal philosophy of what makes you happy and what’s worth doing.

When you make a business, you get to make a little universe where you control all the laws. This is your utopia.

We’ve all heard about the importance of persistence. But I had misunderstood. Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently doing what’s not working.

We’re all busy. We’ve all taken on too much. Saying yes to less is the way out.

Anytime you think you know what your new business will be doing, remember this quote from serial entrepreneur Steve Blank: “No business plan survives first contact with customers.”

Never forget that absolutely everything you do is for your customers. Make every decision—even decisions about whether to expand the business, raise money, or promote someone—according to what’s best for your customers. If you’re ever unsure what to prioritize, just ask your customers the open-ended question, “How can I best help you now?” Then focus on satisfying those requests.

Starting small puts 100 percent of your energy into actually solving real problems for real people.

To me, ideas are worth nothing unless they are executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.

You need to confidently exclude people, and proudly say what you’re not. By doing so, you will win the hearts of the people you want.

You can’t pretend there’s only one way to do it. Your first idea is just one of many options. No business goes as planned, so make ten radically different plans. Same thing with your current path in life.

Never forget why you’re really doing what you’re doing. Are you helping people? Are they happy? Are you happy? Are you profitable? Isn’t that enough?

How do you grade yourself? It’s important to know in advance, to make sure you’re staying focused on what’s honestly important to you instead of doing what others think you should.

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

Set up your business like you don’t need the money, and it’ll likely come your way.

When one customer wrongs you, remember the hundred thousand who did not. You’re lucky to own your own business. Life is good. You can’t prevent bad things from happening. Learn to shrug. Resist the urge to punish everyone for one person’s mistake.

It’s too overwhelming to remember that at the end of every computer is a real person, a lot like you, whose birthday was last week, who has three best friends but nobody to spoon at night, and who is personally affected by what you say. Even if you remember it right now, will you remember it the next time you’re overwhelmed, or perhaps never forget it again?

When you’re thinking of how to make your business bigger, it’s tempting to try to think all the big thoughts and come up with world-changing massive-action plans. But please know that it’s often the tiny details that really thrill people enough to make them tell all their friends about you.

If you find even the smallest way to make people smile, they’ll remember you more for that smile than for all your other fancy business model stuff.

Even if you want to be big someday, remember that you never need to act like a big boring company. Over ten years, it seemed like every time someone raved about how much he loved CD Baby, it was because of one of these little fun human touches.

There’s a benefit to being naive about the norms of the world—deciding from scratch what seems like the right thing to do instead of just doing what others do.

No matter what business you’re in, it’s good to prepare for what would happen if business doubled.

When you want to learn how to do something yourself, most people won’t understand. They’ll assume the only reason we do anything is to get it done, and doing it yourself is not the most efficient way.

In the end, it’s about what you want to be, not what you want to have. To have something (a finished recording, a business, or millions of dollars) is the means, not the end. To be something (a good singer, a skilled entrepreneur, or just plain happy) is the real point.

I never again promised a customer that I could do something that was beyond my full control.

There’s a big difference between being self-employed and being a business owner. Being self-employed feels like freedom until you realize that if you take time off, your business crumbles. To be a true business owner, make it so that you could leave for a year, and when you came back, your business would be doing better than when you left.

Never forget that you can make your role anything you want it to be. Anything you hate to do, someone else loves. So find that person and let her do it.

Happiness is the real reason you’re doing anything, right? Even if you say it’s for the money, the money is just a means to happiness, isn’t it? But what if it’s proven that after a certain point, money doesn’t create any happiness at all, but only headaches? You may be much happier as a $1 million business than a $1 billion business.

Trust, but verify. Remember it when delegating. You have to do both.

Lesson learned too late: Delegate, but don’t abdicate.

The lack of stuff gives me the priceless freedom to live anywhere, anytime.

No matter which goal you choose, there will be lots of people telling you you’re wrong. Just pay close attention to what excites you and what drains you. Pay close attention to when you’re being the real you and when you’re trying to impress an invisible jury.