If It’s Not a Hell Yeah, It’s a No

One of my favorite writers is Derek Sivers.

He gave the best speech I've ever seen in person and he is someone I admire personally and professionally.

His story is super fun. In the '90s he was a musician and wanted to sell his album on this new thing called the internet. At the time there wasn't an easy way to do that. It was so difficult, in fact, only someone truly insane would attempt to do it on their own.

That person was Derek.

He taught himself how to code, jumped through crazy hoops (including having bank inspectors come to his house), and over a few months built his own little website with a shopping cart that could take payments. His album was finally up with a little "buy now" button.

Right away friends asked Derek, "Hey can you sell my album too?"

"Sure," he said. It took him a few hours each time and he put their albums up too.

He didn't plan to build a business but that's exactly what he had done.

As the site grew he would hire his friends, and then friends of friends. He continued handcoding the site for years.

When he sold the company for millions, he took the proceeds and gave it to his team and created a charitable trust for musical education. He also designated the minimum amount allowed from the trust for himself to live on for the rest of his life.

Today he lives in the woods of New Zealand with his son, in a small house they are building by themselves.

I like to joke that he is basically a real-life hobbit with a computer.

One of my favorite lines from Derek is this: "There is no yes. It's either HELL YEAH! or no."

If you feel over-committed or scattered, use this rule.

If you aren't saying "HELL YEAH!" about something, say no.

If you feel anything less than "Wow! That would be amazing! Absolutely! Hell yeah!" - then say no.

When you say no to most things, you leave room in your life to really throw yourself completely into that rare thing that makes you say, "Hell yeah!"

Every event you get invited to. Every request to start a new project. If you're not saying "Hell yeah!" about it, say no.

We're all busy. We've all taken on too much. Saying yes to less is the way out.

Derek inspired me to build this site and I hope it can inspire you too.

Thank you for all your kind words as I've gotten started writing here.

Many of you have supported me for years, even decades, and I’m honored by that.

At the bottom of these essays, I'm going to invite you to write me back and share your thoughts. It's one of my favorite things about building something like this: I can make it just what I want it to be.

Like the '80s mode on my site, there is no point, it's just fun.

These essays and this new site are a "hell yeah!" for me.

And I'm thrilled to be here with you.