If anybody ever called our number, it would be picked up in less than 2 rings with a friendly voice answering, CD Baby. From 7 am to 10 pm, there was always somebody to pick up a call in 2 rings. No voice mail system; no routing to different departments. We treated our customers like our best friends. You don't route your best friend's call to an automated system!

You can't please everyone, so proudly exclude people.

Pay close attention to when you're being the real you & when you're trying to impress an invisible jury.

Success comes from persistently improving and inventing, not from persistently promoting what’s not working.

You're free to do anything you want with your company. It's more like art. You don't have to follow any norms. It's an expression of how you feel the world should be. When you make a company, that's your little place to make your own little utopia.

Repeated psychology tests have proven that telling someone your goal makes it less likely to happen.

Don't be on your deathbed someday, having squandered your one chance at life, full of regret because you pursued little distractions instead of big dreams.