So many people deserve credit for this book.
First off, to my friend Allen Gannett who introduced me to one of the best book agents in the business, Jim Levine, who helped me turn my ideas into a winning proposal and then continued to play a crucial role in editorial development and launch strategy.
Thanks to the entire team at Portfolio/Penguin Random House, starting with my very patient editor, Leah Trouwborst; followed by president and CEO Adrian Zackheim; Will Weisser; Stefanie Brody; Helen Healey; Olivia Peluso; Taylor Edwards; Tara Gilbride; and Jamie Lescht for embracing my wild ideas and having the courage to publish a book that flies in the face of many conventional business ideas.
Maria Gagliano had an incredible ability to organize my ideas and drafts into a coherent flow. It’s clear why Simon Sinek and so many other bestselling authors think of her as a total star.
Finally, I have so many friends to thank who helped me test chapter titles, book titles, cover images, and so much more. These friends include Pat Matthews of Active Capital; Tucker Max of Scribe; James Jacoby at Harvard; Bill Shaw, president at Entrepreneur.com; Dave Hamilton and Erika Hardin at Cineflix who saw the books potential to be on TV; and my TV agent Ben Levine at CAA.
Special thanks to my mom and dad for deciding they were going to “get wild” one night some twenty-nine years ago. My mom taught me the value of money, the power of a decision, and the upside of hard work; and my dad helped me build my competitive muscle and a truly remarkable hunger for winning big.