The short book Anything You Want by Derek Sivers is a great read for anybody who owns or wants to own a small business.

Sivers is the founder of CD Baby, an online store featuring independent musicians. His story of success is unique and deserves to be told in a book. But telling that story with humility and honesty is especially unusual, and Sivers seems to relish doing just that.

It’s not all that rare to meet people who accidentally stumble into business success. What’s rare is to have them write about it and be transparent in the process. Most folks want us to believe that they had a master plan, they are brilliant operators, they are a visionary who saw the future, they worked 1500 hours a week, and they succeeded through sheer determination. Yada yada yada. It’s true sometimes, I guess.

But most of the time they just pursue their passions and find themselves stumbling into good ideas.

That’s what happened to Sivers, and he shares that story in his little book (88 pages). He also shares the insights he gained along the way, and ways he broke all the MBA rules but managed to still make a small fortune. Some of the lines in his book are wonderful. One of my favorites is, “Don’t try to impress an invisible jury of MBA professors.” Or how about this gem, “There is a big difference between being self-employed and being a business owner.”

There are a lot of good business books out there. But most of them completely miss the motivations for why people want to be a business owner. Anything You Want nails it. Well worth reading.