Our greatest gratitude goes to the inspired ones—the subjects of the many stories and quotes that validate and animate the content of this book. We launched this project with exploratory interviews about inspiration; over time, as we conducted more and more of them, we had rich, illustrative data from which to develop our framework and thinking. The people we interviewed gave us insight into who they are, who they were as children, what lights them up, what drags them down, and how they respark and rise. They shared generously, and our work is better for it. Each of them brings inspiration into the world through their work in unique and powerful ways. We offer great thanks for all we learned from those who sat with us for interviews, with special gratitude to Carmen Erian, Janet Patti, and Robin Stern, our first three interviewees.
Along with insights from interviews, this book conveys stories and descriptions of research from people we did not interview personally but who contributed to this work nonetheless. To the business and cultural leaders we profile in this book, we offer thanks for your leadership and commitment to doing good. You show the world what business can be and do to make all of our lives better. We have learned from you, and we know others will continue to do the same. We are also grateful to the many social and psychological scientists whose research we stand on and feature throughout the book. We love science! (You can tell by the number of citations and endnotes.) We love it because those scientists’ work gives us deep knowledge, which is firm ground to stand on as we build our models of inspiration from our own data. For this we are grateful. We share your ongoing quest for new and insightful understanding.
This book simply could not have happened without the faith, love, and support of our InspireCorps team. They are our practice and training ground for our ideas, frameworks, and tools and for actually understanding how inspiration works. Not to mention, it’s really difficult to build a business and write a book at the same time. The amazing Gabi Joyce, Laura Campbell, Judy Dobai, Serina Capuano, and Katie Giasullo helped us make writing happen and keep writing a priority. They took on extra when needed, provided amazing moral support and encouragement, and tested and challenged ideas with us. They celebrated our progress along the way. It takes a village to write a book; they are our village. We love you, team. We are more grateful than we can say for all you bring to who we are and what we do.
We are especially grateful to our book team. While we have a lot to say about things, none of us was very familiar with the book writing or publishing process. We got a lot of critical support. That started with Angie Morgan and Courtney Lynch of Lead Star who led us to the key members of our team. Our team captain from the start was our agent Esmond Harmsworth. He has consistently and ardently advanced our work from the very start. He provided brilliant early stage input when our ideas were still forming, he offered insightful and sharp edits to our book proposal, and he has been our guide and great supporter through the whole process. Thank you, Esmond. We are also grateful to our editor Dan Ambrosio at Da Capo. From our first conversation with him, Dan understood what Dare to Inspire is about and the impact and contribution we want it to make. He believes in us. He gets us. We’re grateful for his stewardship in getting our message out to the world. Thank you to Marcia Layton Turner for helping us accelerate the process. We offer our thanks as well to the rest of the Da Capo/Hachette team. The legal reviewers, copy editor, book designers, and marketing experts have been great guides.
Allison shares her gratitude for her incredible support team: to Paul, Adrian, and Isaac—you are my spark, my flame, my source of joy and strength. I feel so lucky to be on this journey of life with you. Thank you to my parents for your love: you have always encouraged me to try new things and experiment, from building forts to starting a soap-carving business as a child. My sisters, Amy and Angela, I can’t think of anyone else I’ve laughed or cried harder with—I love you, always. Thank you to my extended family for your encouragement: Mike, Ximena, Big Steve, Little Steve, David, Reshma, Bucky, Eleni, Briley, Aidan, Leah, and cousins from New York and Kentucky to Ecuador. To my dearest friends—you know who you are—thanks for making life so much fun. And with deep gratitude to the teachers, mentors, and institutions who ignited my fierce love of learning and passion for inspiring others: Walt Gander, Dick Aylor, Bill Bornschein, Christian Jernstedt, Shelby Gratham, Joy Kenseth, Janet Patti, Kentucky Country Day School, Dartmouth College, the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, and the Coaches Training Institute.
Sandy offers special thanks to her students and her family: my students are the sparks of inspiration in my teaching and in my research. Working with them gives me new ideas about my own work and brings me unbridled joy. I also get to test-drive lots of material on them in class (and they provide great feedback!). My family is also critical to any success I enjoy. Mom and Dad are my cheerleaders extraordinaire. My sister Suzanne was a keen reviewer of early drafts of the work and is always a great support. Her husband, Mark, is an adviser to our firm and a personal coach to me; everyone should be as lucky as I am to have a big brother like him. Kevin, Michelle, Katie, and Jonathan round out the home team. Thanks, everybody, for being on board. I love you all.
Jen shares deep gratitude for her family and support systems: first, I wish to thank my family for supporting my continued growth, always. Thank you for having my back when I most need it and for loving and believing in me always. Thank you, Theo B., my love, for being the hottest, sparkiest, and most sustaining source of inspiration and learning in my life. Thank you to Jim for his friendship and love. Finally, thank you to the powerful women leaders and mentors who have crossed and lit my path: Zoë Chance, Molly Nagler, Jessica Brahaney Cain, Randie Flaig, Frances Garfield, Joan Bronston, Nina Baron, Eileen Cummings, Rebecca Guerra, Julie Brewer, Kelly Conklin, Amy Wrzesniewski, Janet Kraus, Carrie Christiansen, Laura Campbell, Christa Doran, and Julia Balfour. Non nobis solum (not for ourselves alone are we born): you shaped me and made me more.
Finally, this book was created over many long hours with the three of us connected on Zoom, writing in Google Docs. We live in three different cities, so most of the work was done remotely. There were many times when we literally had six hands in a single Google document, typing over each others’ sentences, while we were talking it through on Zoom. We recognize for some that sounds like a miserable fate, but for us, it was pure joy being able to collaborate so smoothly. These two pieces of technology were instrumental in bringing our three voices together to generate this work. We are grateful.