There is so much to be grateful for, and so many people to be grateful to. I am overwhelmed with happiness when I consider all of the people who contributed pieces of themselves to create this book. I feel a rising, inflating warmth of gratitude for all of you.
Here is my written Oscars speech of thanks and appreciation:
I’m extremely grateful to Naval for trusting a stranger from the internet to create a book out of his words. This all started with a half-assed tweet, and became something great because of your trust and support. I appreciate your responsiveness, generosity, and trust.
I am grateful to Babak Nivi for the most succinct and precise writing advice I’ve ever received. You have been generous with your time to make this book better, and I really appreciate it.
I am grateful to Tim Ferriss for bending your iron rule and writing the foreword for this book. Your presence in this project means a lot to me and will certainly help many more people find their way to Naval’s wisdom.
The building blocks of this book are excerpts from excellent interviews of creators like Shane Parrish, Joe Rogan, Sarah Lacy, and Tim Ferriss. I massively appreciate all of the effort that goes into your interviews. Creating this book gave me and others the opportunity to learn deeply from your work.
I am grateful to Jack Butcher for reaching out and offering to lend his enormous talents to creating the illustrations for this book. His work at Visualize Value has always struck me as simple genius, and we’re all lucky to have his efforts in these pages.
I am grateful to my parents for every gift, effort, and sacrifice that has put me in a position to create this book. You built the foundation of everything I ever do, and I’ll never forget that. The family practice of “spitting your doubts” is alive and well in this project.
I am grateful to Jeannine Seidl for being a one-woman support system of love and encouragement. You are an endless spring of positivity, patience, and good advice. Thank you for always keeping morale high.
I am grateful to Kathleen Martin for being a truly wonderful line editor and doing her very best work on this project. (And thanks to David Perell for introducing us.)
I am grateful to Kusal Kularatne for his many contributions. You were an early believer, an early reader, and a huge help when this project was young and fragile. I appreciate you and thank you for your service.
I am grateful to Max Olson, Emily Holdman, and Taylor Pearson. You are all wonderful friends who became extremely helpful advisors to me throughout this book-building and publishing process. Without you, I’d still be googling things and mumbling curses.
I am grateful to my posse of early readers for their time, edits, and wise advice. Every one of you made valuable contributions to this book, and it wouldn’t be what it is without you. My deepest appreciation for each of you: Andrew Farah, Tristan Homsi, Daniel Doyon, Jessie Jacob, Sean O’Connor, Adam Waxman, Kaylan Perry, Chris Quintero, George Mack, Brent Beshore, Shane Parrish, Taylor Pearson, Ben Crane, Candace Wu, Shane Mac, Jesse Powers, Trevor McKendrick, David Perell, Natala Constantine, Ben Jackson, Noah Madden, Chris Gillett, Megan Darnell, and Zach Anderson Pettet.
I am grateful to the authors and creators who inspired this book. My drive to create and share this book came directly out of a deep appreciation for the life-changing impact of similar books, a few I’d like to name specifically:
→ Poor Charlie’s Almanack edited by Peter Kaufman (of Charlie Munger’s work)
→ Zero to One by Blake Masters (of Peter Thiel’s work)
→ Seeking Wisdom (and others) by Peter Bevelin (of Buffett and Munger’s work)
→ Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders edited by Max Olson (of Buffett’s work)
→ Principles by Ray Dalio (and team)
I am grateful to the team at Scribe, for being early and earnest supporters of this book. Zach Obront provides fantastic advice, and Hal Clifford is a patient and persistent editor.
I am grateful to Tucker Max for creating Scribe, hiring a great team, and for the very personal attention and effort in this project. I appreciate your willingness to hurt my feelings in pursuit of a great product. And I deeply appreciate your trust in me to do good work.
I am grateful to Bo and the whole team at Zaarly for their patience and grace around my obsession with this book and the effort that went into it.
I am grateful for the support of many friends and strangers online who supported and encouraged me throughout this project. My DMs overflow with kind words and eager inquiries. I appreciate every gesture. Your energy helped pull me through the thousand hours it took to create this for you.