Leanne Christie made me do it! Leanne encouraged me to write this book, and kept at it until I agreed to do it. She is a big-hearted powerhouse who is full of great advice. Thanks! Thank you to everyone else at Ode Management, especially those who helped me with many of the ideas that appear in this book, including Heidi Gregory, Lauren Kelly, Julie Winterbottom and Fiona Pascoe.

Thanks to Phil Ryan and my father Graham for reading an early draft and providing helpful and excellent feedback that didn't make me cry. Many of their suggestions have been incorporated into the book.

Thanks to the wonderful Lucy Raymond at Wiley for being receptive to the idea and full of terrific suggestions that have helped to shape this book. Jem Bates did a wonderful job editing the manuscript, and his suggestions were clever, helpful and improved the book no end.

Good on you, Matthew Martin. It's not that hard to come up with a cover illustration that shows the products of innovation, but we wanted something that showed the process of innovation, and that's really hard. But you nailed it!

Colin James helped me fashion my thoughts on innovation, and guided me when I wasn't sure where I was going. He always seemed to know what the right direction was. Thanks also to Lisa McInnes-Smith and Dan Gregory for excellent advice, and to Andrew Taylor for so much assistance over many years.

Thanks to the ABC and especially to all those responsible for putting The New Inventors on, giving me the opportunity to host it, and keeping it on for eight years. Thanks to all the wonderful producers, researchers, production assistants and crew who worked on the show, and a special mention to Pascal Adolphe and Stewart Burchmore, who were there for the whole eight years. Thanks also to all The New Inventors judges, whose insights added to my store of knowledge and whose friendship added to my store of . . . well, friendship.

Thanks to John O'Brien for giving me the opportunity to be involved with the Australian Cleantech Competition, later the Australian Technologies Competition. John is a great champion of Australian innovation.

Thanks to all the many organisations and companies I have spoken to and worked with over the years.

And a huge thank you to all the inventors and innovators I have met, worked with and learned from. It's wonderful to meet people whose minds have gone somewhere new, and who have then had the guts and determination to take their idea out into the world. I salute you all!

Finally, as always, thanks to my wife Lucy and children Bibi, Nina and Lily for everything. I salute you too!!