Acknowledgements

I have to thank my long-time friend Arun Nithyanandam for making me start to think about the concept of pursuing an opportunity. He pushed me to write a series of articles on the topic of pursuing an opportunity. This was a few years ago, and the concepts and my thinking on the subject have evolved significantly since then. Today, they are all packaged in the form of a book in your hands. Thanks Arun for igniting that spark.

A subset of this book was first released to my newsletter subscribers, and I thank them all for reading and commenting to take my thinking to a new level.

Special thanks to Tim Draper of DFJ for the foreword.

The final part of the book has real stories from people I respect – stories of people who pursued opportunities sometimes for years before they saw any results. I thank all the contributors – Seth Godin, Ramit Sethi, Dr. Mani Sivasubramaniam, Satish Dhramaraj, Deborah Collins
Stephens, Ram and Smita, David Cohen and Ryan Martens, who took the time from their busy schedule to share their stories.

Some of the material has been first published on my blog, and I have received a lot of feedback that has helped me to make this better. So thanks to all those readers, especially those who walked the extra mile to provide constructive feedback.

The credit for the title goes to my friend Sterling Valentine, Founder of Strategic-Creative. Thanks, Sterling.

I would like to thank the Verbinden team of Satish Chapparike, Girish Kerodi, Vinay Kumar, Jerlin Biju, Saranya Bhaskaran and Arijeet Choudhury, who demonstrated so much patience and love for the work and made this book possible.

As always, thanks to both my wife Kavitha and my son Sumukh for giving me the space to do the work that I love to do.

And special thanks to you, the reader. I may or may not know you personally, but the fact that you are picking up this book to read already gives me a hint about who you are and what you care about. It gives me a sneak preview of your desire to make a positive impact in some way.

My goal with this book is to provide you with some tools and insights that will help you along the way. You are placing your trust in me to walk along with you in your journey. It is a special privilege, and I thank you for that.

Warmly
Rajesh