By Mike Litman, Bestselling Author of Conversations with Millionaires

Throughout my success coaching career, I’ve often been asked, “How can I expand my business and win new clients?” People want to know what it takes to build profitable companies and lucrative careers, and they yearn for a secret formula to propel themselves to the next level of success. While there is no standard recipe, one thing that I always stress in my response  is that they should do whatever it takes to become an expert in their field. I also let them know that people are  not born into  expertise. For many, the road to becoming skillful takes decades of experience. The innumerable experts   I’ve met have distinguished themselves by an isolated  series of events – usually the result of tireless work, dedication  and innovation.

By Dennis Sebayan, Editor-in-Chief of Top 101 Industry Experts

“An expert is someone who has succeeded in making decisions and judgments simpler through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore.” – Edward de Bono

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle

One weekend recently, I began thinking about the term ‘expert’ and its implications to both this book and the world at large. I turned on the television and there it was, staring me in the face: a commercial for a well-known brand of toothpaste, claiming that experts unanimously agree – their whitening system produces the most dramatic results. I decided to look up “experts agree” on the internet and there they were – endorsements for every product or service imaginable, from the most recognizable brands to the obscure companies.

Experts agree – testimonials work. But they’re everywhere! The age of the Internet continues to bring more and more professionals into the public realm. They have begun to tout the expert designation, pinning it on their ability to attract and maintain an audience through blogs, podcasts and other methods of mass communication. But a person’s star power does not qualify them for the title “expert.” That qualification has to do with a person’s proficiency, knowledge and experience, and more importantly how they have helped to shape their industry as a whole.

We have created visual icons to distinguish our featured members by their respective industries. Please use the following visual key as a reference when browsing the chapters. There are 20 industries in total. Although Cambridge Who’s Who experts share similar industries, they each hold expertise in a specific field, which is identified and displayed in their listings at the beginning of each chapter.