TO MY MENTORS: I LEARNED THESE LESSONS ON your dime and patience. You taught me a craft and a profession and imbued me with the humility and responsibility not to let it corrupt me or go to my head. Thank you for shaping me into the person I am today—and for showing me what to do . . . and later, what not to do.
Thank you to my literary agent, Stephen Hanselman, whom I called on October 9 with the unsolicited manuscript of this book and by November 15 had more offers on it than I knew what to do with. Thank you to Julia for your tireless work behind the scenes. More important, thank you to Tim Ferriss (so glad we met all these years ago) for introducing us and paving the way.
Thank you to the wonderful staff at Portfolio—my excellent editor Niki Papadopoulos—and to Adrian Zackheim.
Thank you to Erin Tyler for an amazing cover and graphic design. (And to Erich Chen for taking that photo on our journalism trip to St. Louis in college.)
Thank you to my employees, who were often tasked with participating in the escapades detailed in this book. I was training you in the dark arts whether you knew it or not. Use that power responsibly.
Thank you to everyone who has e-mailed me from my site and asked me thought-provoking questions. It was in trying to answer them that I developed many of the ideas described here. Thanks to everyone who read a draft of this book and gave great notes: Nils Parker, Derek Kreindler, Neil Strauss, Andrew McMillen, Amy Holiday, Sep Kamvar, Jeff Waldman, Ian Claudius, Ben Bartley, Drew Curtis, Milt Deherrera, Hristo Vassilev, and Michael Ellsberg. Thanks to those (everyone else I know) who didn’t read a draft but endured my many rants about the subject.
Sammy. My rule has always been to keep the crazy at home. You got stuck with the crazy and supported and loved me anyway. I could not have done this—or anything—without you. Thank you. Hi, Hanno (and Bucket, Biscuit, Watermelon, Buddy, Sugar, and Bugar).
Here’s to books.