Anti-MBA in 2 hours

“Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur” (2011) by Derek Sivers

A simply story of how one man’s passion led to a success he had never dreamt of or even wanted. Using a no-nonsense language, Sivers explains how commitment and sticking to his values made his dreams come true, earned him a decent fortune and caused a misery. If you ever thought about taking a MBA course, this book will teach you everything that you wouldn't have learnt there.

There are no secrets here. If you have a passion, go for it. If you have some common sense, follow it rather than be strangled with corporate rubbish and greed. Be persistent with your efforts. The book emphasises the principle of always putting customers/clients first. Sounds all familiar and you wonder why to bother? Does it all seem obvious? To some extent, that’s perhaps true. But when I recently tried to sign a new contract for my mobile phone, buy train tickets or go to a football (soccer, for Mr Sivers) match, I have been struggling to guess who is here for whom.

In a telling way, Sivers argues that there is an alternative way to that MBA understanding of business. I doubt he would initially have had it in mind when writing the book but incidentally his arguments are well-timed given the Occupy {insert name} events and universal crisis of capitalism.

Sivers’ experience could be also interpreted into the football (soccer) industry. Despite the fact that fans’ emotional attachment to the game is much greater than ordinary customers’ to any given product, majority of modern clubs’ owners and directors commercially exploit their own supporters by adopting strict and profit-oriented models with equations FAN = CUSTOMER and CUSTOMER = FAN. Yet, as the book presents, putting people’s interest first could go along with making a small fortune if there is enough will, commitment and mutual understanding.

I may be a slow reader but it took me barely two hours of a Saturday morning laid in to read cover to cover. Have I ever heard about CDBaby.com before? No. In fact, shortly after I typed it in here, I actually checked the website for the first time. But its content is irrelevant as well as the money Sivers made. For these six or seven quid and an hour or two of your time, it’s just a “HELL YEAH” read.

In the meantime when you wait for your Amazon delivery, I recommend watching animations of some of the thoughts from “Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur” on the book's website.

Here is one of them:

PS. A "Did you know" moment: Most of you have probably seen a Youtube video about a shirtless guy dancing and his first followers that went viral a year ago or so. Guess who came up with that? Answer.