Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 We cannot predict the future, but we can create it. We can be astonished, confounded, shocked, stunned, delighted, or terrified, but rarely prescient. None of us can predict with certainty the twists and turns our lives will take. #2 The 10X study looked at high-performing cases that did not just get by or become successful, but truly thrived. Every 10X case beat its industry index by at least 10 times. If you invested $10,000 in a portfolio of the 10X companies at the end of 1972, your investment would have grown to be worth more than $6 million by the end of our study era in 2002. #3 We selected on performance plus environment for two reasons. First, we wanted to understand the factors that distinguish great organizations, those that prevail against extreme odds. Second, by looking at the best companies and their leaders in extreme environments, we gained insights that would otherwise remain hidden when studying leaders in more tranquil settings. #4 We spent years studying the 10x companies, and in this introductory chapter, we preview some of the surprises we encountered along the way. We learned about the individual people who led these companies, and how they led and built their companies differently from their less successful comparisons.