Acknowledgments

Don’t wait for things to be perfect before you share them with others. Show early and show often. It’ll be pretty when we get there, but it won’t be pretty along the way.

Ed Catmull, Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration

Few worthwhile endeavors are undertaken alone. In many cases, a single person or handful of people is entirely credited with success, but this singular attribution belies the larger network of contributors who work toward an end. Those who would claim to have “done it alone” often fail to realize the ways in which others have helped them, whether by example or by instruction. What’s more, failure to realize the strength of working in a community pushes success and excellence even further out of reach. Working alone means being limited to what you, and only you, can do. Collaboration provides a path to excellence by opening us to humility, new ideas, different perspectives, and invaluable feedback.

I won’t be so foolish as to think, even for a second, that I’ve written this book by myself. My fingers pushed keys, and my name will be on the cover, but that doesn’t mean this was a one-person show. No, this book—like all the things in my life that I’m grateful for—is the result of a rich community of smart, humble, loving people willing to be patient, kind, and sometimes firm with me.