In my first book, Anything You Want, I told the story of how I started, grew, and sold my company.

As part of selling the company, I signed a non-compete agreement that said I couldn’t do the one thing I’d been doing since I was twenty-seven years old.So I had to make a real change in my life.

I thought a lot about what’s worth doing, fixing faulty thinking, and making things happen.For the next ten years, I wrote for hours a day in my private journal, asking myself questions and answering them.When these thoughts seemed useful to others, I’d turn them into articles, which are now the chapters of this book.

I write succinctly because I’m only introducing ideas.You can apply them to your life better than I can.But if you want to hear more thoughts or talk about them, go to the URL at the end of each chapter:(sive.rs/_____)There you’ll find many interesting comments about that idea, and you can post your own.

Or just say hello at sive.rs/contactI love hearing from people who have found my work.I reply to every email.

— Derek Sivers, Oxford, England, 2019