I have been fortunate to have a long list of supportive family members, wonderful friends, and inspiring role models in my life. Many of them I have known personally, others only through their work.

These people have influenced my thoughts and actions. My ideas and work have built upon the lessons I have learned from them. In the words of Alfred Lord Tennyson, “I am a part of all that I have met.”

For those reasons, I would like to say…

My deepest thanks go to my writing coach, Chris Liu. Chris and I have been working together on hundreds of newsletters and later this book. He put in late nights, weekends, and holidays to accommodate the schedule of my intuition. Chris’s talent with structure gently held up my ideas. He coached me to rewrite each chapter with effective outlines, interview his amazing friends, and rewrite each story with my authentic voice. His intelligence and diligence made the book a lot more rigorous and insightful. Not only has he made this book possible, but he also became my partner in life. Thank you for showering me with unconditional love and inspiring me to become better versions of myself. I love you more than words can express. 

To my wonderful team at LivingOS: Thank you for trusting me when I spoke and listening to my stories. Each of you fills my heart with love and my mind with wisdom every day. I can’t mention LivingOS without my amazing team: Ju-Han Tarn, Eva Huang, and Sherry Hsiao, and the hundreds of people who shared their stories as fellows and special guests: Stefanie Yu Molina, Julia Xu, Christina Qi, Grace Chiang, Angie Zhu, Kimmie Chin, Susie Li, Anya Cheng, Cat Chen, Mary Yuan, Joyce Bao, Janice Lai, Ben Hart, Anthony McGuire, Lisa Truong, Alexander Sam, Connie Truong, Kunzhao Li, Zhaoyi Zhang, Olivia Chun, Jen-Feng Chang, Cara Jefferson, Alice Chen, Renee Huang, Meghana Subramaniam, Max Zhang, Charles Chen, Viola Chiu, Tzu-Ying Wu, Ashley Lin, Nicole Chui, Yung-Chen Chen, and many more lovely fellows to come. When I needed inspiration, I would watch your talk and read your letters many times. 

To my compassionate leadership coaches: Charlie, Isabelle, and Marjoire. thank you for seeing the potential in me and supporting me to become a better leader. I will continue to bring my inquisitive minds and lean into your wisdom. I love each of you. 

I’m grateful to my friend Haley Hoffman Smith, who introduced me to my publishing team. I want to thank Chelsea Olivia and Whitney Jones in particular—your insightful editing and incredible resources have made this book a pleasure to write. I really appreciate the work you do. 

This book would not exist without the Model Breakers who generously shared their stories. Special thanks to my brother Warren Wang, my cousin Amelia and Isabelle Zai, Janet Chang, Grace Chiang, Lisa Truong, Cissy Hu, Murong Xu, Candice Lee, Emily Lin, Yuji Lai, Changyu Li, Amy Deng, Kelly Wang, Anthony Chen, Maggie Yip, Kristen Fang, Tiffany Yu, Bryan Pham, Siqi Mou, Helen Bui, and Yul Kwon, and the dozens who preferred to remain anonymous. Your stories and lessons are the essence of this book. Model Breakers will touch so many lives.

Deep gratitude and sincere thanks to my amazing community at On Deck: Natalie Toren, Reza Saeedi, Tom White, Justin Norman, Federico Antoni, Matt Knight, Will Quist, Mohammed Malik, Nicholas Sclafani, Benjamin Strak, Caroline Nguyen, Kevin Lee, Racha Ghamlouch, Rahim Adatia, Sara Grover, Saya Iwasaki, Girish Gupta, Sasha Levage, Alicia Kenworthy, Robbie Crabtree, and more. You have each taught me how to become a better writer. Thank you all for your generous contributions. 

Halfway through this journey, I shared an early version of Model Breakers online with my campaign backers. Hundreds of early readers reviewed it. They debated, shared research, and edited the words themselves. Thousands of comments honed this book. I owe particular gratitude to my dear author community, particularly Ashley Chen and Chung-Hsin Hsu, whose keen minds transformed this book. Thank you all. 

Thanks to all the teachers, mentors, and authors whose work have inspired me to discover my own journey of Model Breakers. I am forever indebted: Chi Hua Yang, Julice Chen, Richard M. Locke, James Morone, Howard Anderson, Jerry Colonna, Alex Linde, Khanh Nguyen, Debbie Ferguson, Laura Huang, Deborah Liu, Kevin Zhang, Neel Mehta, Anne Kerkian, Pei-Ping Lin, Chelsea Fischbach, Allan McNichol, and so many more. 

Thanks to all of you that I still have not yet met but will break through the stereotypes and rewrite your narratives. 

I am lucky to work every day with brilliant minds at Google, especially my guardian angels Carlos Façanha and Maciej Michalski. So much of what I am able to do is because of their trust, leadership, and empowerment. 

And finally, this book is dedicated to my family: Mom, thank you for watching me take every fearless step and reassuring me that the sky is my limit. Dad, thank you for sharing my work and inspiring me to strive for excellence at all times. Warren, thank you for giving me a reason to write this book. I know you would be the first one to read the book.

Thanks again to the many people who have influenced my thinking and taught me important lessons over the years. My apologies to anyone I left off. I typically update this list each year.