ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book grew directly out of my reporting for Insider, and so I owe tremendous gratitude to my managers and colleagues there. Thank you to Libby Kane, my unofficial mentor and official editor for several years, for inspiring me to find and tell stories about what it really means to have a job and a career today. Libby was also the very first person with whom I shared the idea for this book, and I’ll never forget her words of encouragement. Thank you to Drake Baer, Insider’s unimaginably talented editor-at-large, for sponsoring this book—and me—even when I wasn’t sure he should. To many other Insider compatriots who read proto-proposals and early drafts of this book—including Joel Marino, Caroline Hroncich, and Rebecca Knight—thank you for sharing your wisdom and for believing that a mashup of ideas in a Google Doc had the potential to be something more. Thanks, too, to my former Insider colleague and brilliant storyteller Dan Bobkoff, for hearing a kernel of something compelling in my ramblings about a book that could help people feel less stuck. Thank you to my agent, Carol Mann, for being excited about this book idea from the get-go and for patiently guiding me through the editorial process. And to my fabulous editor at McGraw Hill, Cheryl Segura, I’m delighted to be your partner in this adventure. To my book coach, Debbie Weil, I don’t think I would have finished this book without your guidance, so thank you for helping me shape each chapter into something bigger and better. I’m equally thankful for my friends with experience in book publishing, especially Monica Palenzuela and Julie Perry, who fielded near-constant questions about how this whole thing works. Thanks to all who kindly spent a Saturday afternoon in a job-crafting workshop so I could write about it, and to my friends who let me interrogate them about the emotional piece of their careers so I could write about that, too. To Jason Gray, thank you for 16 years (and counting) of friendship of the heart. This book is so much stronger for your careful feedback, criticism, and ability to see the big picture. To Evan Green-Lowe, who I sometimes think knows me and what I’m trying to say better than I do: Thank you for supporting and challenging me, while I was writing this book and always. Thank you to my Brandeis women for your energy and enthusiasm, not to mention your emotional support—especially Jenna Brofsky and Lital Nada, who have carried me through the low points and helped me celebrate and appreciate the high ones. To every single person who shared their career story: Thank you for trusting me. Even the narratives that didn’t make it into the final draft informed the advice and observations in this book. Thank you to my in-laws, Andrea, David, and Noah, for believing in me and my ambitions, and for welcoming me into the family from day one. Thanks to my little brother, Jay Lebowitz, for listening to his big sister’s ideas even when they aren’t that interesting, and for sharing his own, which always are. Thanks to my dad, Jeff Lebowitz, for opening his heart to me 33 years ago and never closing it. To my beautiful mom, Joan Lebowitz, thank you for being my role model, my best friend, and my heroine—the next book from this family will have your name on it. To my husband, Aaron Gaynor, thank you for holding my hand. I love you more every day. And to my son, Eli, who grew and danced inside me as I wrote this book: You’re it.