After the publication of my bestselling International Handbook on Innovation, publishers from around the world began to invite me to work on new books with them. When Springer invited me to prepare the International Handbook on Giftedness, I was on a maternity leave with my 3-months-old and my 5-year-old was just starting school. I, however, had wanted to prepare such a Handbook for a long time and was waiting for just the right moment to dive right into such an endeavor. The time had come and I agreed to prepare a Handbook that would expose readers to new views, great discoveries, and significant advancements of scientific knowledge, exactly as Richard Feynman advised (see his opening quote at the beginning of the introductory chapter).

I have always been convinced of the paramount significance of the topic of giftedness and gifted education to the world as a whole. There is no doubt that gifted individuals were, are, and will be extremely important to society. One way to understand the history of human civilization is via inventions and discoveries of the gifted. All human cultural development builds on the amazing technological, scientific, educational, and moral achievements of the human mind. Today, people increasingly realize that gifted and talented individuals are even more important than in the past. Thus, industrial competition is increasingly harsh and organizations of all types must continuously bring new products and services to the global market. To survive, companies need creative and talented employees whose novel ideas are to a certain extent a necessity for the companies’ continued existence and future success. Consequently, modern society desperately requires highly able citizens who can produce innovative solutions to current challenges and contribute new ideas that promote the development and growth of markets for novel products or services. The gifted thus remain an extremely important source of innovation and renewal worldwide.