ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I’m forever indebted to my fifty-two employers for extending me their one-week job offers. Thank you so much for your willingness to get involved, and to share your professions, homes, families, and wisdom with me. This project could never have happened without you, and I wouldn’t trade any of our experiences together.

The kindness that I encountered and the limitless enthusiasm of complete strangers to help me on my journey was truly inspiring. Thanks to everyone who picked me up when I stood alongside the highway, provided a couch to sleep on, treated me to a meal, offered a one-week job, emailed or called with messages of support, or left comments on the website. Your ideas, thoughts, and optimism have contributed to what I believe is a paradigm shift in work consciousness, a revolution in how we as a culture view work and our relationship with it. May the One-Week Job project be a means to continue this dialogue and help move us closer to a time when having a fulfilling career becomes the norm rather than a rarity.

Thank you to my literary agent, Amy Moore-Benson, for her navigation of the publishing world; to my initial editor at Random House, Abby Plesser, for believing that I could capture this experience on paper, and for providing immense encouragement and direction to help guide me through the writing process; to Lindsey Schwoeri at Random House, for seamlessly picking up where Abby left off; to associate copy chief Beth Pearson and all the people behind the scenes at Random House who worked hard to bring this book together; to Helen Reeves, senior editor at Penguin Group (Canada), for signing this book even though she had no idea how it would turn out; and to Alex Schultz at Penguin, for his valuable editorial input during Helen’s maternity leave.

Thanks to Alan Kearns, Robert Manolson, and Carla Shore, for their advice, support, and encouragement throughout the year; and to Dan Parker and Kirby Dow, for reading the manuscript and providing terrific feedback.

My deepest appreciation to Manuel Francisci, at NiceJob, for believing in the project early on, and whose sponsorship afforded me this experience; and also to those individuals who made personal donations to help with expenses: Jenny Lepage, Alison Ireland, Garry Rathbone, Karolina Bejm, Leslie Evans, Kyle MacDonald, Irene and Darren Bagley-Heath, Neil Jain, George Reid, Kirsty Henderson, Jonathan Kobz, and Erin Malloy.

A very special thank-you to Dad, for encouraging my pursuit of passion, and to Mom, my number one fan and an extraordinary human being. I love you both very much.

Danna, I can’t thank you enough for your endless patience when I was on the road, and yet again when I returned home but was completely engrossed in the writing process. You are my yin. Or yang. Your choice.

And finally, to my best friend and role model, Ian MacKenzie. Thank you. Neither this project nor this book would have been possible without you. I’m forever grateful for your friendship.