3When I first arrived in Silicon Valley, I thought I knew what I was doing. I was wrong, but luckily I made connections along the way that eventually led me to leave behind everything I had learned about building successful companies, products and projects to rethink the way it is built here in Silicon Valley. This led me to delve into discerning the reasons why the Silicon Valley ecosystem is such a special and unique place. To understand why it was in Silicon Valley where all the technology that's had a significant impact on our lives in the last five decades was made, from the personal computer and first internet connection to the smartphone, and even the latest technologies like Google, Facebook, Airbnb, Uber, WhatsApp and others. These creations have changed the way we do business, make relationships, study, transport, host, have fun and communicate. After learning what makes Silicon Valley such a magnet for the brightest minds in the world, I decided to put these key lessons learned in an organized way into this book to help individuals, startups and companies around the world understand how to learn from Silicon Valley.