Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How the Top 1% of Entrepreneurs Profit from Global Chaos

AUTHOR'S NOTE

This book was the result of roughly 40 weeks of on-the-ground reporting in 11 different countries around the world, principally China, India, Israel, Brazil, Rwanda, and Indonesia. From mid-2008 to mid-2010, I met with hundreds of entrepreneurs in these countries, dozens of local investors, aid workers, policy makers, and everyday locals consuming these companies' products in their burgeoning home markets. Many of the entrepreneurs in this book did not speak English, and I relied heavily on local translators to interview them. Unless stated otherwise, every quote in this book came from a first person interview, in country.

It's impossible to know everything about a country in a few visits, so I've also relied heavily on analyst and research reports and several dozen excellent books on business, politics, economics, and history of the various countries I visited, many of which are cited in the endnotes. This book is meant to capture the entrepreneurial spirit, challenges, and opportunities at this extraordinary moment in economic history, reflected through what I saw and the hundreds of locals I met.

The Kauffman Foundation gave me a generous grant to help with the expenses of reporting this book, helping to make the project possible.