As I've often said to my students, entrepreneurship played to win is a team sport, not a solo sport, notwithstanding the mythology to the contrary. The same can be said of the creation of a book like the one you now hold in your hands. There are people too numerous to mention—most of them entrepreneurs—from whom I've learned the many lessons that comprise the heart of this book. I thank all of them profusely. Over my three decades as an academic, I've learned above all that wisdom resides mostly outside, not inside, our hallowed halls or our faculty offices or classrooms. Wisdom about what makes entrepreneurs “entrepreneurial” has been out there to be discovered, and the discovery process that's led to this book has been a richly rewarding one.

My thanks must begin with my incredibly able research partner Christina Brant, whose dogged pursuit of every lead and every published article about many of the entrepreneurs and their companies profiled in this book literally made the book possible. Thank you, Christina! Equally important are my past London Business School students and others who collaborated with me in developing the original case studies from which my discovery of these six break‐the‐rules mindsets arose: Alessandro Ananias and Brian Forde (SubWay Link); Tiffany Putimahtama (MOVE Guides); Darice Gubbins and John Walker (Simon Cohen); David Prinster (Apex Ski Boots); Elizabeth Philp (Pandora); Hicham Sharara (Visual Optical); Shira Conradi (Budgetplaces.com); Ambika Patni and Shreedhar Munshi (The Loot); and Payne Miller and Qusai Kanchwalla (TeamLease).

Without the development of those case studies, the idea for writing this book would have never materialized. And without the incredibly rich learning platform that London Business School has provided to my students and so many others like them from around the world—and to me—we'd all be worse off, for sure. Thank you, LBS, and thanks for the research funding and for our robust intellectual climate, too!

Of course, my thanks go out to the protagonists in these and my many other case studies, the founders, investors, and others who so generously opened their doors, and often their books, so that I might have compelling, real‐world teaching materials in my portfolio to enable the next generation of entrepreneurs to learn from the challenges they encountered and their successes and failures of one kind or another: Arnold Correia (SubWay Link); Brynne Kennedy and Steve Black (MOVE Guides); Simon Cohen (Simon Cohen); John Murphy (Apex Ski Boots); Martin Høyer‐Hansen, Nikolaj Vejlsgaard, and Per Enevoldsen (Pandora); Aziz Mebarek and Karim Trad (Visual Optical); John Erceg (Budgetplaces.com); Jay Gupta (The Loot); Tristram and Rebecca Mayhew (GoApe!); and Manish Sabharwal and Ashok Reddy (TeamLease). Thank you all.

Thank you to the Young Presidents' Organization and the Entrepreneurs' Organization for trusting me and my London Business School colleagues to develop and deliver impactful annual learning experiences for YPO and EO members since 2003. The learning from which I have benefited has, for me, been exceptional. Most of whatever useful insights and ideas appear in this book are the direct result of conversations with my many YPO and EO friends—whether in their offices or in classroom settings—about their journeys. Any errors in interpreting or understanding the insights, ideas, and the lessons they hold are, of course, mine alone.

The research and the learning, though, is only the start of what makes a book like this possible. The encouragement of the wonderful Eloise Cook and former Business Horizons editor Jeffery McMullen (who published my earlier and much more succinct journal‐article‐length treatment of these ideas) convinced me that the effort to turn my earlier observations into a book were going to be worth the time and effort. Thank you, Eloise and Jeff.

Wiley's Richard Narramore was instrumental in helping me envision who the audience for this book might be. His belief that the six mindsets hold promise for pretty much any businessperson—not just entrepreneurs—has shaped the book in many ways. Thanks, Richard, for your insights and your focus on the importance of identifying and articulating the benefits that this book might deliver.

As was the case in publishing my first Wiley book, The Customer‐Funded Business, the entire Wiley team has been a joy to work with. Kim Wimpsett, my developmental editor, brought keen insights to much of the prose and, in particular, to the titles and subtitles we've given each chapter. Details like these matter. Thank you, Kim! The work of the Straive design team and Paul McCarthy's work on the book's cover were superb. I love the broken pencil, Paul! Last but not least, managing editor Debbie Schindlar and the incredibly well‐organized Jessica Filippo helped us all keep the trains running on time! Thanks to all of you and your colleagues at Wiley!

Finally, my heartfelt thanks go to my family. My parents, the late Jack and Alice Mullins, who instilled in me from an early age a love of learning and of writing, too. My wife Donna, whose love and patience have sustained our relationship for nearly 50 years. Every time I embark on writing a book, Donna worries that she will see “a lot of the back of my head” as I focus for months on end with bringing a book like this one into being. And she was right—again! Though Donna might like me to slow down just a little, at least sometime soon, the words “slow” and “stop” just don't seem to be part of my lexicon. The fact that I love writing and I love my work—as much as I love Colorado's great outdoors and London's incredible vitality and cultural diversity—makes me a fortunate person, indeed, sometimes to Donna's chagrin. Thank you, Donna, for sharing with me all the adventures we've had together over so many years, book‐writing among them.

I'll close by thanking all the entrepreneurs whose creative and tireless efforts, often against long odds, have made our world a better place to live, to work, and to play. It is they who create the vast majority of the net new jobs around the world. It is they who provide opportunities for their employees to work, learn, and grow—and perhaps adopt their own entrepreneurial mindsets, too. It's they, more than anyone else, in my view, who hold the key to our collective future. I hope you, my readers, will bring your entrepreneurial talent and energy—and your new entrepreneurial mindset—to the party and join them!