"How can we turn observations into action?"- Derek Sivers

I'm so thrilled to have the privilage of interviewing today's guest on the Art of Adventure. He has been a mentor to me for many years, and he rarely grants interviews, so I take it as a huge honor to have Derek Sivers on the show! Plus, this is the first time another Derek has been on the podcast!

I've been following the Derek's work for many years. Often, he will end a blog post by extending an offer to email him directly with questions. I first sent him an email more than five years ago and we have been in touch since then.

Originally a professional musician and circus clown, Derek created CD Baby in 1998. It became the largest seller of independent music online, with $100M in sales for 150,000 musicians.

In 2008, Derek sold CD Baby for $22M, giving the proceeds to a charitable trust for music education.

He is a frequent speaker at the TED Conference, with over 5 million views of his talks.

Since 2011 he has published 34 books, including “Anything You Want†which shot to #1 on all of its Amazon categories.

I finally got to meet Derek at his home while I was visiting Wellington, NZ in May.

Derek is one of the greatest philosophers of our day, and has clear thoughts about careers, propose, learning, and being of value to the world.

One interesting fact Derek reveals in this episode is that despite being an introvert, he went so far as to hold 500+ 1-on-1 get togethers while living in Singapore with people that wanted to learn from him.

In this episode talk about building a career that makes you happy, how to learn from your work, compressing books into directives, how to get rich, mentorship, introversion, CD Baby, and global citizenship, and some of the adventures that Derek has had that helped him change his mind about Indonesia and weight lifting. I know you will love this interview.



Quotes:


"You should never work for just money" - Derek Sivers

"Everything I do is in service of my future self" - Derek Sivers

"Money can be a measure of the value you provide" - Derek Sivers

"Is humbleness holding you back from being more useful?" - Derek Sivers

"Adventure has to stretch your self-image" - Derek Sivers

"Adventure changes personal prejudice - a thought you held, something you would never do" - Derek Sivers

"It doesn't count as adventure if you come back the same" - Derek Sivers

"Delayed gratification is an indicator of success"- Derek Sivers

What you will learn in this episode:

-The difference between future and present focused individuals

-How to consider the lifetime value of an interaction

-How Derek is compressing books in to simple directives: "Do this..."

-How to get rich:

"Pursue market value instead of personal value"
"Live where luck strikes and be in the game"
"Say yes to everything and keep in touch with everyone"

-Why you should outsource 90% of your mentorship to books

-How and why Derek maintains multiple citizenship and legal resident status in NZ, Belgium, and Singapore

-How to deal with the ideas of passion and purpose

-How to choose where to live in the world (live where luck strikes)

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Continue the Adventure: