4 ms·

Herb - I totally agree. First draft of the post I kept saying "all because I went to school in Boston and bought a guy a pizza." Very thankful that I had the

by sivers 14y ago

Herb - I totally agree. First draft of the post I kept saying "all because I went to school in Boston and bought a guy a pizza." Very thankful that I had the random luck to grow up in the U.S, to afford tuition at Berklee (though it was only $2500/semester back then.) But as the article developed into saying how NOW the physical location is less important, I removed the "I was in Boston" part to de-emphasize that part of my past story & emphasize the current stuff that anyone can apply. Now I think it doesn't need to begin with physical proximity. A well-written succinct email is the best introduction to almost anyone, and then you can strengthen that friendship by phone & email, then eventually meet in person if circumstances allow. Also, thanks for therecordco.org tip. I'll check it out.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
Anechoic 14y ago
Your story reminded me of something that happened to me the summer before my freshman year in college. I was working two jobs at the time, 40 hours doing an engineering internship at a large company, and another 20+ hours working as a stockboy at a local department store (both in Massachusetts) - my family wasn't poor, but we also weren't rich, so I was trying to bank as much money as I could for the coming school year to take some of the load off my parents. One Saturday, while working at the department store, some blowhard came in to purchase a bunch of housewares to send to his son in Hawaii. The guy was bossy, and basically micromanaged us as we packed his purchases into boxes for shipping, much to our consternation. While waiting for someone to fetch some dishes, Mr. Blowhard and I just started talking to pass the time, and he basically started asking about my life. I told him about going to college and when he learned I was going to MIT, his ear's perked up. Long story short, Mr. Blowhard turned out to be the owner of one of the most successful restaurants in the area, and right then and there he offered to create a scholarship fund and award be a couple of thousand dollars to help pay for my tuition. When I tell folks about this story, they congratulate me for my hustle, but there was actually no hustle involved. I was literally in the right place at the right time, if I had traded shifts with a coworker (as we were wont to do for weekend hours) or if the right plates were on the store shelf, there would have been no money. Between this, the story of how I got my first job out of college (also a story of being at the right place at the right time), and one other story that I won't share, I've come to believe that serendipity is indeed at least as important as what you know or what you do. That said, hustle can only help, so you may as well try. :)
- aaronbrethorst 14y ago
  "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." :) I have a dozen stories of my own about being in the right place at the right time...with the happenstance of having the right preparation.
- namank 14y ago
  I find that the best hustles are marked by sincerity and underlined by humility. Your story proves just that, thanks!
larrys 14y ago
"all because I went to school in Boston and bought a guy a pizza." There is probably more to your story then even you know. As there always is because so many things come into play. I knew Morris of Diskmakers before he reinvented that company and was still located in Philly in a run down building north of Old City. DM morphed around the time that the changeover to CD's happened in the mid 80's and became quite successful and of course later bought your company CD Baby. Part of the reinvention was based on things that he learned from doing business with me - he actually had wanted to become partners with me and when I turned him down him simply figured it out on his own.
vannevar 14y ago
Everything is relative; you went to Berklee and met an executive from BMI, but someone with less economic opportunity than you could still engineer contact with someone less lofty yet still further up the ladder than themselves. Your advice is still good, even if in your case chance played a significant role in the particulars.
Selfcommit 14y ago
Are you the same Derek Sivers from CDBaby? I read "Anything you want" and loved it. (Well, listened to it on audiobook to/from work.) You really care about your customers, and about people in general. I was always in a better mood just hearing parts of your story. Thanks for a great read man (If you are in fact the same person =) )
- edanm 14y ago
  He is. I'm a big fan as well.
- sivers 14y ago
  Thanks "Selfcommit". That's nice to hear. I really appreciate it. Feel free to email me anytime : derek@sivers.org
ahoyhere 14y ago
Right. I'm as great an example as any (and so egoless, to boot!). I grew up in bumfuck nowhere, suburban Maryland. Our "town's" (if you can even call it that) main draw was… a shopping mall. We had an IKEA! OMG! I never went to any fancy or esteemed college and, heck, I dropped out of high school. And part of the reason I had the guts to do that was because I knew people then who went on to be people like Jason Snell, editor of MacUser. I knew him when he was a Mac repair guy. I knew Landon Fuller, who's pretty big in the OSS world, and he was my age and dropped out of HS and did great. I knew the executive (technical) assistant to the CEO of Cisco at the time (another HS dropout) and… lots of other people. How? IRC. A platform open to all. Then later, I wrote a Mac web site, and met all the Mac writer/publisher types. I wrote about wanting to grow up to be the female David Pogue and David Pogue commented on my blog post. And on and on, and here I am today. I did the exact same thing in each "world" I moved through -- design (YayHooray, et al), code (PHP, then Ruby, then JS) -- meeting people in the community online, taking an interest in them, being around them, and writing and sharing what I learned. That's how I made most of my friends and met my husband. That's how I got jobs and speaking gigs. Et voila. Didn't matter that I started in my mom's basement in Zerosville and literally was the most computer-savvy and entrepreneurial kid in a 5 mile radius.

by sivers 14y ago

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

Anechoic 14y ago

Your story reminded me of something that happened to me the summer before my freshman year in college. I was working two jobs at the time, 40 hours doing an engineering internship at a large company, and another 20+ hours working as a stockboy at a local department store (both in Massachusetts) - my family wasn't poor, but we also weren't rich, so I was trying to bank as much money as I could for the coming school year to take some of the load off my parents. One Saturday, while working at the department store, some blowhard came in to purchase a bunch of housewares to send to his son in Hawaii. The guy was bossy, and basically micromanaged us as we packed his purchases into boxes for shipping, much to our consternation. While waiting for someone to fetch some dishes, Mr. Blowhard and I just started talking to pass the time, and he basically started asking about my life. I told him about going to college and when he learned I was going to MIT, his ear's perked up. Long story short, Mr. Blowhard turned out to be the owner of one of the most successful restaurants in the area, and right then and there he offered to create a scholarship fund and award be a couple of thousand dollars to help pay for my tuition. When I tell folks about this story, they congratulate me for my hustle, but there was actually no hustle involved. I was literally in the right place at the right time, if I had traded shifts with a coworker (as we were wont to do for weekend hours) or if the right plates were on the store shelf, there would have been no money. Between this, the story of how I got my first job out of college (also a story of being at the right place at the right time), and one other story that I won't share, I've come to believe that serendipity is indeed at least as important as what you know or what you do. That said, hustle can only help, so you may as well try. :)

aaronbrethorst 14y ago
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." :) I have a dozen stories of my own about being in the right place at the right time...with the happenstance of having the right preparation.
namank 14y ago
I find that the best hustles are marked by sincerity and underlined by humility. Your story proves just that, thanks!

larrys 14y ago

"all because I went to school in Boston and bought a guy a pizza." There is probably more to your story then even you know. As there always is because so many things come into play. I knew Morris of Diskmakers before he reinvented that company and was still located in Philly in a run down building north of Old City. DM morphed around the time that the changeover to CD's happened in the mid 80's and became quite successful and of course later bought your company CD Baby. Part of the reinvention was based on things that he learned from doing business with me - he actually had wanted to become partners with me and when I turned him down him simply figured it out on his own.

vannevar 14y ago

Everything is relative; you went to Berklee and met an executive from BMI, but someone with less economic opportunity than you could still engineer contact with someone less lofty yet still further up the ladder than themselves. Your advice is still good, even if in your case chance played a significant role in the particulars.

Selfcommit 14y ago

Are you the same Derek Sivers from CDBaby? I read "Anything you want" and loved it. (Well, listened to it on audiobook to/from work.) You really care about your customers, and about people in general. I was always in a better mood just hearing parts of your story. Thanks for a great read man (If you are in fact the same person =) )

edanm 14y ago
He is. I'm a big fan as well.
sivers 14y ago
Thanks "Selfcommit". That's nice to hear. I really appreciate it. Feel free to email me anytime : derek@sivers.org

ahoyhere 14y ago

Right. I'm as great an example as any (and so egoless, to boot!). I grew up in bumfuck nowhere, suburban Maryland. Our "town's" (if you can even call it that) main draw was… a shopping mall. We had an IKEA! OMG! I never went to any fancy or esteemed college and, heck, I dropped out of high school. And part of the reason I had the guts to do that was because I knew people then who went on to be people like Jason Snell, editor of MacUser. I knew him when he was a Mac repair guy. I knew Landon Fuller, who's pretty big in the OSS world, and he was my age and dropped out of HS and did great. I knew the executive (technical) assistant to the CEO of Cisco at the time (another HS dropout) and… lots of other people. How? IRC. A platform open to all. Then later, I wrote a Mac web site, and met all the Mac writer/publisher types. I wrote about wanting to grow up to be the female David Pogue and David Pogue commented on my blog post. And on and on, and here I am today. I did the exact same thing in each "world" I moved through -- design (YayHooray, et al), code (PHP, then Ruby, then JS) -- meeting people in the community online, taking an interest in them, being around them, and writing and sharing what I learned. That's how I made most of my friends and met my husband. That's how I got jobs and speaking gigs. Et voila. Didn't matter that I started in my mom's basement in Zerosville and literally was the most computer-savvy and entrepreneurial kid in a 5 mile radius.