Anything You Want

by Derek Silvers

Well, if no one has written the book I’m dreaming of reading, why not just write it myself (Location 141)

Why not just call up Bill Gates, interview him, track down some other icons, put what I discover in a book, and share it with my (Location 146)

It wasn’t luck: there was a system. (Location 166)

If we could invent our dream university, who would be our professors? (Location 353)

If I’d known then how my journey would unfold—how beaten and broken I’d soon find myself—I may never have started. But that’s the upside of being naive. (Location 361)

Many times the hardest part about achieving a dream isn’t actually achieving it—it’s stepping through your fear of the unknown when you don’t have a plan (Location 367)

“but getting you through the door shouldn’t be hard. Once you’re in there, it’s all on you. So if I were you, I would prepare. (Location 377)

The Flinch would paralyze my body at the worst possible times, hijack control of my vocal cords, and turn my words into a stuttering, stammering slur. (Location 399)

Jump off the tour bus. 2. Find an Inside Man. 3. Ask for his or her help to bring you in. (Location 425)

“Go make this happen,” he said. “Go out and get your other interviews. Then come back to me and we’ll see what we can do (Location 444)

“there’s something about you that tells me you’re actually going to make this happen. I believe in you. I believe you can do this. (Location 447)

If I can meet Tim Ferriss and tell him about the mission in person, I’m sure he’ll say yes to an interview (Location 499)

There’s a fine line between being persistent and being a hassle (Location 548)

“Well, volunteering for the right organizations is an easy way to get some credible association, (Location 550)

“A second step would be writing for or being featured in known publications (Location 554)

didn’t build credibility out of thin air, but borrowed it by associating himself with well-known organizations and publications (Location 556)

Dear So-and-So, I know you’re really busy and that you get a lot of emails, so this will only take sixty seconds to read. (Location 560)

[Here is where you say who you are: add one or two lines that establish your credibility.] [Here is where you ask your very specific question.] I totally understand if you’re too busy to respond, but even a oneor two-line reply would really make my day. All the best, Tim (Location 561)

Do the opposite and say, ‘I know you’re super busy, so if you can’t respond, I totally understand. (Location 569)

You can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. (Location 576)

Will you use God’s gift the best you possibly can (Location 596)

Qi wakes up every morning at four o’clock, goes on a five-mile run, and is in the office by six. He eats small meals throughout the day of mostly fruits and vegetables, which he packs in containers. (Location 602)

“Luck is like a bus,” he told me. “If you miss one, there’s always the next one. But if you’re not prepared, you won’t be able to jump on. (Location 622)

It was about sacrifice—sacrificing short-term pleasure for long-term gain. (Location 632)

“You may have a desire, a wish, a dream—but it’s got to be more than that—you’ve got to want it to the point that it hurts. Most people never reach that point. They never tap into what I call the Hidden Reservoir, your hidden reserve of strength. We all have it. When they say a mother lifted up a car off a trapped child, that’s that power.” (Location 715)

Don’t let anyone tell you your dream isn’t possible. When you have a vision, you’ve got to hang in there. You’ve got to stay in the fight. It’s going to get tough. You’re going to hear no. But you’ve got to keep pushing. You’ve got to keep fighting. You’ve got to use your Hidden Reservoir. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s possible. (Location 726)

more you look like the other person, the easier it is to strike up a friendship. (Location 809)

If you act like a vault, people will treat you like a vault (Location 841)

He was buying the largest private ski mountain in North America in a city called Eden, Utah, and creating a small, residential community on the backside of the mountain for entrepreneurs, artists, and activists. (Location 850)

Some choose to make them into stories.” (Location 876)

“When it’s in front of you,” Elliott said, “make your move (Location 898)

First you write a book proposal, which you use to attract a literary agent, who then secures a publisher. (Location 907)

He said to buy twenty books similar to the one I wanted to write, study the acknowledgments, and make notes of whom the authors thanked as their agents. (Location 917)

if you present three pricing options and make the first option too expensive and the third unappealing, people often choose the middle one. (Location 994)

The best cure for nervousness is immediate action (Location 1006)

Bite off more than you can chew. You can figure out how to chew later (Location 1019)

Each repetition wore down The Flinch. At a certain point, I could barely feel it (Location 1032)

You have to make a calculated judgment that the amount of money you’re going to put in is going to either pay off way bigger in the long term or enough in the short term to offset your costs. Aside (Location 1081)

from the money you live on, the rest is your money to play the game.” (Location 1082)

I’ve learned that you have to go for it, even if there’s a chance you’ll fail. The planets are never going to perfectly align. When you see an opportunity, it’s up to you to jump.” (Location 1112)

They opt into an exponential life. Rather than going step by step, they skip steps. (Location 1118)

Society feeds us this lie that you need to do x, y, and z before you can achieve your dream. It’s bullshit. The only person whose permission you need to live an exponential life is your own. (Location 1120)

But most of the time, for people like you and me, we have to seize it for ourselves. If you actually want to make a difference in the world, if you want to live a life of inspiration, adventure, and wild success—you need to grab on to that exponential life—and hold on to it with all you’ve got.” (Location 1122)

“It hit me that you never know when your life will be over,” she said. “And I felt I would be an idiot to waste my days living out someone else’s life rather than living my own. (Location 1187)

The key to accomplishing your top five priorities is to avoid the other twenty.” (Location 1227)

“You can be good at those twentyfive things or you can be world-class at the five. Most people have so many things they want to do that they never do a single thing well. If I’ve learned one thing from Mr. Buffett, it’s that the Avoidance List is the secret to being world-class. “Success,” he added, “is a result of prioritizing your desires.” (Location 1229)

When I was younger, a group of thirty-year-old entrepreneurs took me under their wing and did the same for me. This is how the world works. It’s the circle of life.” (Location 1273)

I’d been obsessed with studying the paths of successful people, and while that’s a good approach to learning, I couldn’t solve every problem that way. (Location 1316)

I couldn’t copy and paste other people’s playbooks and expect it to work exactly the same for me. Their playbook worked for them because it was their playbook. It played to their strengths and their circumstances. (Location 1317)

While there’s a time for studying what’s worked for other people, there are moments when you have to go all in on what makes you unique (Location 1319)

“And, I know this might sound weird,” I said, “but why don’t you let your employees shadow you?” Tony looked at me blankly and said, “I’d be happy to—but no one ever asks.” (Location 1412)

the truth is never black and white. It’s gray. It’s all gray (Location 1438)

You can’t rely on headlines or tweets. Gray doesn’t fit in 140 characters. (Location 1439)

Maybe the hardest part about taking a risk isn’t whether to take it, it’s when to take it (Location 1443)

Big decisions are rarely clear when you’re making them —they’re only clear looking back. The best you can do is take one careful step at a time. (Location 1444)

Success is a result of prioritizing your desires. (Location 1463)

“No matter how great the talent or effort, some things just take time (Location 1556)

“I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think (Location 1557)

You try to be greedy when others are fearful. And you try to be fearful when others are greedy.” (Location 1560)

Although people won’t meet with you for the reason you want, that doesn’t mean they won’t meet at all. Just find another angle. Figure out what they need and use that as your way in.” (Location 1576)

Note: Give before you ask

Instead of trying to get paid as much as possible in dollars, Buffett chose to get paid in mentorship, expertise, and connections. (Location 1590)

One path leads to a linear life, the other an exponential (Location 1591)

You don’t have to be born a genius to read the footnotes—it’s a choice. It’s a choice to put in the hours, go the extra mile, and do the things others aren’t willing to do (Location 1598)

“Persistence—it’s a cliché, but it happens to work. The person who makes it is the person who keeps on going after everyone else has quit. This is more important than intelligence, pedigree, even connections. Be dogged! Keep hitting that door until you bust it down! (Location 1621)

You need to start working on building a pipeline and getting other balls in the air. Business is not target practice.” (Location 1686)

Why had I been killing myself the past six months, getting punched at every turn, just to ask a human being a few questions? (Location 1694)

I left all that—for this (Location 1716)

So even when you’ve kissed dozens of frogs—and all you have as a result is a nasty taste in your mouth—Kamen says to keep kissing them, and eventually, you’ll find the prince. (Location 1731)

“you roll around in bed thinking, ‘You got into this because it’s a really big problem. You knew it would be hard. After all this time and effort, if you give up, it’s because you’re weak. You’ve lost your vision. You’ve lost your courage. Sooner or later there’s going to be an answer. The only reason you’re going to give up now is because you’re a coward.’ (Location 1746)

How do you decide when to keep fighting or when to cut your losses? (Location 1752)

“If you don’t think you can deal with this amount of uncertainty and failure,” he continued, “then wait for Lewis and Clark to deliver the map and you can be one of those people who does a good job following their lead. But if you want to be one of those people who do what these innovators did, be prepared, like they did, to fail and get frostbite and have people not make it. If you’re not prepared for that stuff, that’s okay: don’t do it. There is plenty of room in the world for other people. But if you do want to do it—if you want to go off and do really big things—be prepared for them to take way longer than you thought, cost way more than you expected, and be full of failures that are painful, embarrassing, and frustrating. If it’s not going to kill you, keep trudging through the mud.” (Location 1760)

it’s better to prove it can’t be done than to exhaust the infinite number of ways to fail.” (Location 1767)

Although I always say ‘tenacity is great’ and ‘don’t be a coward’—brute force is just plain dumb. (Location 1773)

“Restating the boundaries,” he said, “is sometimes what gives you the insight to create an innovative solution.” (Location 1776)

As soon as he reframed the problem, new frogs appeared. (Location 1780)

“Instead of getting frustrated by repeating the same old problem,” Kamen said, “reframe the question in a new way that is amenable to a different kind of solution.” (Location 1782)

You should explain to people why that record is a product of sound thinking rather than simply being in tune with a trend or simply just being lucky. (Location 1926)

Just sit at the table and let your curiosity ask the questions. (Location 2023)

Only after looking you in the eye can someone get a sense if you’re genuine. (Location 2044)

live my life by two mantras. One: if you don’t ask, you don’t get. And two: most things don’t work out. (Location 2091)

I just believe that if all these leaders come together for one purpose—not to promote anything, not for press, but really, just to come together to share their wisdom with the next generation, I believe young people could do so much more (Location 2113)

With the chess prodigy metaphor in my mind, I realized that Gates has played the coding game, the sales game, the negotiating game, the CEO game, the public figure game, the philanthropy game—all at the highest levels—and has won each one. (Location 2135)

Although his talent for coding was remarkable, none of this would have happened if Gates hadn’t pushed through his fears in his dorm room, picked up the phone, and called MITS. It was his ability to do the hard, uncomfortable thing that made this opportunity possible. The potential to unlock your future is in your hands—but first you have to pick up the damn phone. (Location 2186)

overwhelming people with your expertise. (Location 2248)

He bet it would be better to take less money from IBM than to squeeze it for all it was worth. (Location 2255)

Gates wanted to be paid in something more valuable than cash: strategic positioning (Location 2258)

choose long-term positioning over short-term profits. (Location 2260)

figure out your opponent’s fears, then use them to your advantage. (Location 2273)

He was saying it’s critical to become an expert on the background of the person you’re dealing with. (Location 2279)

Gates told me to ask for their advice, spend as much informal time with them as possible, and get them to take me under their wing (Location 2285)

The best negotiating tactic is to build a genuine, trusting relationship. (Location 2287)

No inspirational quote warned me about the dangers of overpersistence. (Location 2321)

Life will keep hitting you over the head with the same lesson until you listen. (Location 2327)

Being an entrepreneur is about pushing, not tipping.” (Location 2340)

You just have to build a pipeline so when you get a bullshit no from one person, there’s still thirty others to work on (Location 2344)

You have no way of knowing what’s going on in the lives of the people in your pipeline. (Location 2349)

All you can do is control your effort. (Location 2350)

“Then you have to do two things: One, think bigger. And two, think differently. (Location 2351)

You just have to give people an offer they can’t refuse. (Location 2358)

The first was to create something with engineering that changes the world. The second was to live life on my own terms. (Location 2436)

if you actually think for yourself—you’ll realize there’s a better way to do things.” (Location 2438)

“I’m happy because I do what I want every day (Location 2439)

“A true hustler is always looking for the next one, (Location 2469)

understanding the opportunity you have. (Location 2488)

No one’s going to envision your vision the way you envision your vision. (Location 2493)

I just want to be around you to see what you’re talking about, how you’re doing things. I don’t have a problem being down here for a month, getting doughnuts, making coffee, I don’t care.’ (Location 2516)

It’s about humbling yourself enough to learn, even when you’re at the top of your game (Location 2522)

It’s about realizing that, if you want to continue being Mufasa, at the same time you have to keep being Simba. (Location 2523)

Note: Tweet

And just because I didn’t know I had a bias didn’t mean I was free of guilt. (Location 2575)

It’s because you see a sexual advance as an act of disrespect. (Location 2589)

Note: Is an act of sexual advance an act of disrespect?

If even you didn’t understand the issues women face, and you grew up surrounded by women, imagine what it’s like for guys who didn’t.” (Location 2595)

There are problems women face that most men will never understand…because they never try to understand.” (Location 2599)

“Nothing so frightens me as writing, but nothing so satisfies me.” (Location 2634)

Easy reading is damn hard writing. (Location 2649)

Become as familiar with your craft as it is possible to become. (Location 2650)

I encourage young writers to do, is to go into a room alone, close the door, and read something you’ve written already. Read it aloud, so you can hear the melody of the language. Listen to the rhythm of the language. Listen to it. Before you know it, you’ll think, ‘Mmmh, it’s not too bad! That’s pretty good.’ Do it so you can admire yourself for trying. Compliment yourself for taking on such a difficult, but delicious, chore. (Location 2651)

Try to see that Taoism, the Chinese religion, works very well for the Chinese, so it may also work for you. Find all the wisdom that you can find. Find Confucius; find Aristotle; look at Martin Luther King; read Cesar Chávez; read. Read and say, ‘Oh, these are human beings (Location 2665)

“Don’t narrow your life down. I’m eighty-five and I’m just getting started! Life is going to be short, no matter how long it is. You don’t have much time. Go to work (Location 2668)

You just never think life’s going to stop,” she said, “until it stops.” (Location 2692)

“When you bring life into the world,” she said, leaning forward, “it forces you to see how life and death are so close to each other. You realize: this person wasn’t here, and now they are. And now they can just as easily die. (Location 2698)

“Facing death,” Alba said, “makes you sensitive to how delicate life is. Everything is so” (Location 2742)

“in a moment. It forces you to think about all of your decisions in a different way. What really matters? What are you spending your life doing? What are you going to do when you stare your biggest fear in the eyes? (Location 2743)

“I think you can remove some of those hurdles in the road, if you surround yourself with the right people, (Location 2750)

“If you try to go it as a lone wolf, if you’re just angry and fighting the system the whole time, no one is going to want to be around you because you’re always going to be mad, fighting the good fight. But if you can run the race with grace, dignity, and integrity, it makes it a lot easier to get to the finish line (Location 2751)

You’re born into the family you’re born into and you’re born into the circumstances you’re born into. So you just have to take what you can from where you’re at and not compare yourself to other people. You have to look at your path and know that whatever got you there, and where you’re going, is unique to you. You weren’t supposed to be any other way. (Location 2753)

Note: Linkedin and twitter

My cofounders and I always say here that it’s tough to find job candidates who are intelligent and focused, but who are also dreamers. The dreamer part is that entrepreneurial spirit—where if this door is closed and that door is closed and that door is closed—how the hell are you going to get in? (Location 2764)

You just need to figure it out. You need to use common sense, build relationships; I don’t care how you get in, but you’ve got to get in somehow.” (Location 2766)

I care about how you solve problems. I care about how you take on challenges. How do you create new ways of doing things? (Location 2768)

don’t ask, you don’t get. And two: most things don’t work out. (Location 2771)

Frank Gehry always says to me—he’s a Pisces too—he says, ‘If architecture is frozen music, then music must be liquid architecture.’ All great art is emotional architecture.” (Location 2890)

He creates a strong structure, and on top of that, he improvises. You have to give people room to put their personalities on it.”) (Location 2893)

You have to get back up no matter how many times you get knocked down. There are some people who face defeat and retreat; who become cautious and afraid, who deal with fear instead of passion, and that’s not right. (Location 2926)

It’s amazing, the psychology of growing in your field, no matter what you do. Growth comes from mistakes. You have to cherish them, so you can learn from them. Your mistakes are your greatest gift. (Location 2928)

I’d always seen success and failure as opposites, but now I could see they were just different results of the same thing—trying. (Location 2940)

I swore to myself that from now on I would be unattached to succeeding, and unattached to failing. Instead, I would be attached to trying, to growing. (Location 2941)

Genius is the opposite of expectation, (Location 2993)

“It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” (Location 3052)

Everyone has the power to make little choices that can alter their lives forever. You can either choose to give in to inertia and continue waiting in line for the First Door, or you can choose to jump out of line, run down the alley, and take the Third Door. We all have that choice. (Location 3058)

If there was one lesson I learned from my journey, it’s that making these choices was possible. It’s that mindset of possibility that transformed my life. Because when you change what you believe is possible, you change what becomes possible. (Location 3060)

Note: Linkedin

life—when you don’t have access to money or possessions, when you can’t even open your eyes—all you’ll have left is your heartbeat, your breath, and your soul’s connection to those you love. (Location 3085)

in life, there are friends, there are best friends— and then there are the best friends who carry your dad’s casket. (Location 3128)

“When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people (Location 3143)

Traveling has given me space to look back at the past few years with fresh eyes. (Location 3195)

I’ve learned that while you can give someone all the best knowledge and tools in the world, sometimes their life can still feel stuck. But if you can change what someone believes is possible, their life will never be the same. (Location 3198)

Updated: Aug 05, 2020

What if I go on this mission on behalf of all of us? (Location 145)

If I’d known then how my journey would unfold—how beaten and broken I’d soon find myself—I may never have started. But (Location 361)

“but getting you through the door shouldn’t be hard. Once (Location 377)

That legitimacy made a big difference. (Location 554)

“A second step would be writing for or being featured in known publications,” he continued. “And that (Location 554)

Will you use God’s gift the best you possibly can?” He read about (Location 596)

“You may have a desire, a wish, a dream—but it’s got to be more than that—you’ve got to want it to the point that it hurts. (Location 715)

“Everybody has experiences in their lives, (Location 876)

You have to make a calculated judgment that the amount of money you’re going to put in is going to either pay off way bigger in the long term or enough in the short (Location 1081)

When I was younger, a group of thirty-year-old entrepreneurs took me under their wing and did the same for me. This is how the world works (Location 1273)

If you want the whole story, you have to dig deeper. (Location 1439)

“To attract money, you should deserve money. And you should develop a record over time that does it. (Location 1926)

first step in a sales meeting is having to blast through skepticism, (Location 2247)

It’s better to make a fair deal today that sets you up for more deals down the road than a great deal that doesn’t set you up for anything. (Location 2259)

“A tipping point only appears in hindsight (Location 2339)

I just want to be around you to see what you’re talking about, how you’re doing things. I (Location 2516)

it’s about always staying an intern. It’s about humbling (Location 2522)

it’s about always staying an intern (Location 2522)

It’s the fact that most men won’t even acknowledge our reality. (Location 2599)

No matter how dull and seemingly unpromising life is right now, it’s going to change. It’s going to be better. But you have to keep working. (Location 2633)

Approach writing, approach whatever your job is, with admiration for yourself, and for those who did it before you (Location 2650)

I encourage young writers to do, is to go into a room alone, close the door, and read something you’ve written already. Read it aloud, so you can hear the melody of the language. (Location 2651)

“You know, if you have a certain eye you can see depth and precision and color and all of that; if you have a certain ear, you can hear certain notes and harmonies; but almost everything is learned. So if you have a normal brain, and maybe a little abnormal, you can learn things. Trust yourself.” I had one minute left. I asked if she had just a single piece of advice for young people as they launch their careers. “Try to get out of the box,” she said. “Try to see that Taoism, the Chinese religion, works very well (Location 2662)

My cofounders and I always say here that it’s tough to find job candidates who are intelligent and focused, but who are also dreamers. (Location 2764)

‘If architecture is frozen music, then music must be liquid architecture.’ All great art is emotional architecture.” (Location 2891)

“You can’t get an A if you’re afraid of getting an F, (Location 2928)

It’s amazing, the psychology of growing in your field, no matter what you do. Growth comes from mistakes. You have to cherish them, so you can learn from them. (Location 2928)

I swore to myself that from now on I would be unattached to succeeding, and unattached to failing. (Location 2941)