Derek Sivers has lived many lives. He has been a musician, producer, circus performer, entrepreneur, speaker, and book publisher. His TED Talk, “Weird, or just different?”, has been viewed more than 3.5 million times. His book Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur shares everything he learned from starting, growing, and selling the company CD Baby.

You can say hello to Derek at https://sivers.org/contact.

In this episode Derek and I discuss:

• How Derek cultivated a practice of questioning assumptions
• Why Derek has a Making Room, not a Living Room
• What a controversial blog post taught Derek about handling criticism
• Why you should distance your private persona from your public persona
• What a failed marriage taught Derek about the meaning of failure.
• Why you should separate your decisions from the outcome of those decisions
• How Derek cultivates calm in his life

References

• How to ask your mentors for help
• “7 reasons I switched back to PHP after 2 years on Rails”
• Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland
• The Man with One Red Shoe starring Tom Hanks

My book, Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life, is now out (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop).

The book is already a #1 bestseller on Amazon. 

We have a special offer for the listeners of this episode with Derek Sivers.

If you order the book, forward your receipt to [email protected], and mention Derek, you’ll get two special bonuses.

The first is a video training with a behind-the-scenes look at my productivity system. You’ll find tips on how to defeat procrastination and get more done in less time.

The second is a pack of 12 three-minute, quick-hit videos based on Think Like a Rocket Scientist with actionable strategies you can implement right away.