Business Brilliant - Surprising Lessons from the Greatest Self-Made Business Icons

   Author’s Note and Acknowledgments

I began work on this book in early 2009, just as the world was coming to understand the full extent of the financial meltdown that took place only a few months earlier. As it turns out, 2009 may well come to be regarded as a historic milestone, marking the end of the longest period of economic expansion this nation has ever enjoyed. For more than half a century, stretching back to World War II, Americans could confidently follow a clear roadmap to prosperity: get a degree from a good school, find a job at a good company, and work hard long enough to fund a secure and happy retirement. That familiar scenario is no longer viable. Today, there are far too many forces—longer life spans, rising health-care costs, ...