Bringing this book to fruition has been a long journey and owes a lot to the people I have learned from and been supported by.
Firstly, I’d like to thank Katy Denny at Penguin Random House for your enthusiasm for, and belief in, this book. Thanks also to my agent and friend Jacqueline Burns for sticking with me through five years of iteration (and a couple of pivots) and going far beyond the remit of an agent to help guide my writing and come up with the suggestion of a 30-day format.
Thank you to Jane Birch for your great editing work; it’s wonderful to know I can trust someone sharper than me to spot the things I miss. Thanks also to Lindsay Brodin for helping to wrestle my original book notes into some sort of usable shape.
To Roger Hamilton for his mentoring over the past two years. And to Daniel Wagner and James Watson for their insights into the world of online marketing and thank you Daniel, in particular, for finally nailing the title for this book.
Thanks to John Parkin and the Barefoot Doctor for branding advice (and to John for many chats about the world of non-fiction books and the recommendation to ‘go where the energy is’).
Thank you to everyone I interviewed for this book: Wolfgang Wild, Sam Hurt of Suck UK, Sean Rowley, Betty Herbert, Rik Spruyt, Saskia Nelson and Jody Day.
To Selina Barker for her role as coach in the first five 30-day Challenges and Allison, Frank and Julia who also helped make the experience a great one for the challengers.
To my friends who never lost faith in me finishing this damn thing: James Lawn, Liz Rivers, Candy Newman, Natasha Curnock. To Alasdair Inglis for our business chats over coffee at Monmouth. To Stony Grunow for many intelligent (and some infuriating) conversations on entrepreneurship, marketing and life, and for reading the first draft.
Thanks to Jerry Hyde for his creative wisdom. And to the guys in my men’s group for their support and, in particular, Ed Smerdon and Chris Boydell who bet on me finishing.
Love to my mum and also to my brother David who always embodies the ‘cut the crap’ attitude of an entrepreneur.
To all the people I have been inspired and informed by: Paul Graham, Seth Godin, Eric Ries, Steve Pavlina, Barbara Sher, Barbara Winter, Austin Kleon, Kirby Ferguson and QuoteInvestigator.com.
To my mastermind and mentorship clients and over a thousand enthusiastic participants of the Screw Work 30-day Challenge who inspired some of the ideas in this book.
Thanks to Sarah Lou Davies at sarahloudavies.com for the lovely Playcheque Formula and Play Cycle graphics.
And finally to Grace, for your love and encouragement and for inspiring the title of Day 14.