The notion for this book stemmed from conversations between literary agent Jeff Herman, me, and David Pugh, the John Wiley & Sons editor of my 2006 New York Times best seller, The Only Three Questions That Count. Before that book, Jeff wanted me to write a broad wealth book—an all encompassing ultra-wide spectrum book covering the waterfront. I hadn't written a book in a long, long time and didn't feel like taking on that project, but ultimately evolved to do Three Questions which was a much more narrow capital markets book—and where I felt confident I could offer unique insights. Still, after that, Jeff wanted me to do a wealth book. And David wanted another book (and broader spectrum to him meant it might sell even better). It was really only when we started talking about focusing on only the mega-wealthy as a road map for everyone else that I saw something I wanted to do—and knew I could do. For that, I thank them both for their patience with me.

So then I went back to Lara Hoffmans who worked with me in crafting my prior Wiley book. Prior to that book she had been an investment counselor in my firm's client services group but since then had become a manager in our content group. It produces all our written client communications including client reviews, marketing materials, and our daily webzine, www.marketminder.com. The content group is also responsible for, and Lara as been instrumental in, the origins of our new, first-ever for a money management firm, partnership with John Wiley & Sons—doing a whole series of specialty investment books under the Fisher Investments Press imprint.

That operation in fact debuts soon with three guides on energy stocks, material stocks, and global investing, all coming out in February and March of 2009, and then dozens more over the next few years, all written by Fisher Investments research staff—and having nothing really to do with me except it's my firm. So, I crowbarred Lara away from most of that and made her principally involved in working with me to craft this book. She was still involved with the content group to where she returns now—but temporarily this book became her principal focus. We would meet weekly and discuss structure, topics, content, and what was to be done. Then Lara would set out to do the research and render rough drafts of each chapter tailored to what I'd envisioned as a goal. Her work gave me the freedom to do what I otherwise must do on a daily basis, which is focus on my day job at my firm.

Along the way Lara pulled in Carolyn Feng who works in the firm's content group to do further research and fact checking. Evelyn Chea and Dina Ezzat, also from the content group, did fact checking, copy editing, and tactical manuscript details like footnotes, which overflow the book as you will see.

Then, I'd edit/rewrite on nights and weekends and Lara would clean it up and fix my mistakes with her crew and then I'd edit/rewrite again, and we went on and on like this through five to seven rounds on every chapter. She and they put in tremendous work on this, but in the end the book is mine from conception to final words including any omissions or errors. If you find fault in the book it is my fault, not theirs. But without them I'd never have had the patience or time to get this book started or completed. Particularly Lara, which is why her name is on the cover with mine.

Others from my firm also contributed in varying ways including Molly Lienesch, our branding manager; Marc Haberman, our Chief Innovation Officer; Tommy Romero, our group vice president of marketing; and Fab Ornani, who is our web maestro and much more. The book is what it is in material ways because of suggestions they made.

Despite this being a book on people, it would have been impossible to do it without the generous help of a variety of data sources. It would be remiss of me not to thank them including Bryan Taylor of Global Financial Data and Rob Carr of Thomson Datastream for their permissions. The ability to use data has exploded in recent years and you will see documentation supported by footnotes from these sources scattered throughout the book. Some of my more bizarre claims can only be made by putting the statement in scaled context which can only be done with the fine data these firms allow me to use.

I've also, and for obvious reasons, made extensive use of both the most current Forbes 400 List of Richest Americans and its predecessors going back to the origin of the "Rich List" in 1982, as well as more recently the Forbes annual, "Global Billionaires" list. And why not? After all, these lists are the gold standard measuring America's and the world's mega-wealthy and without them this exercise wouldn't have had the metric-based foundation used to show how these folks got where they are. The Forbes 400, which started as a lark by Malcolm Forbes, has evolved into an institution with universal acceptance establishing the basis for how we determine quantified wealth. That is just one more major contribution Forbes as a publication has made to the world.

I must thank Jeff Silk, vice chairman at my firm and someone who has been my ride-along for 25 years and who I write about extensively in Chapter 3 as a ride-along role model. Jeff read through parts of the book, made comments, and in that way improved it as he improves everything he ever touches.

Grover Wickersham, a long-time friend and associate, securities lawyer, money manager, Chairman of the Purisima Funds and former executive with the Securities and Exchange Commission read most of the book, making highly detailed editing suggestions all along the way, page by page, line by line, probably 75 percent of which I ultimately incorporated into the book. His contribution to this book, as with my last book, was simply over the top. He edited on planes, on two continents, in three countries, faxing me material in the middle of the night and arguing with me when I didn't accept his suggestions. With friends like Grover I need fear no enemy. I only wish his handwriting were easier to read because I sure read a lot of it. Actually, I mention Grover briefly in Chapter 1 and Chapter 9. The book would be better if I mentioned him more.

Speaking of lawyers, Fred Harring read the whole book for libel to make sure I wouldn't get my rear-end sued off. I still may well be sued for some things I've said, but at least I have confidence I'll prevail in court. San Diego hot-shot plaintiff's lawyer Scott Metzger did another libel read on Chapter 6 just to make sure, and I appreciate the parallel views between Scott and Fred, providing me double reassurance.

Oh, and friends. I've written about a lot of them in the book. Whenever you do, you run the risk you depict them in ways they don't care for and maybe you lose the friend. There are dozens herein, too many too list, and I thank them all as a group, hopefully, for remaining friends after they read these words.

And, of course, I thank those who offered pre-publication praise for this book on its back cover. They read fast in a premature draft, thought hard, and offered lavishly.

Finally, one more time, as so often in the past, this book has been an excuse to engage in the spousal abuse of neglect. My wife of now 38 years has evolved over the decades to be exceptional at letting me go as I become temporarily insular, focusing almost solely on the cranking out part of doing a book. The nights and weekends I owe her for this book can never be repaid in full. A book like this is a labor of love and much of it from the author's spouse. It is good to be loved.

My career is getting old now. Much more of it is behind me than the few years I have left ahead. It has been and still will be tremendous fun. Doing a book like this, which is really a tangent from my day-to-day work is also a lot of fun, more so than pretty much any hobby anyone can do—or any that I can imagine. And, so, I also thank you, my reader, without whom my publisher, nor any other, would indulge me in such fun. Thanks to you all.

Ken Fisher Woodside, CA