Watch time: 10 min | Tony from the beginning   

35 years ago, I wrote a book.

Not because I had it all figured out. It was because I had spent years watching people live far below what they were capable of. Brilliant, talented, hungry people. Held back not by circumstances, but by the stories they were telling themselves.

I called it Awaken the Giant Within.

The title wasn't metaphor. It was a diagnosis.

The giant isn't something you have to build. It's not something you earn. It's already there, buried under years of conditioning, inherited beliefs, and the resignation that says this is just how I am.

The book was built on one conviction: that the single most powerful force in human life is the ability to decide.

Not a wish. Not an intention.

A decision.

A real decision, the kind that cuts off every other possibility and changes everything. It changes what you focus on. It changes what things mean. And when meaning changes, behavior changes. When behavior changes, your life changes.

That's not philosophy. That's how human beings are wired.

Thirty-five years later, the world looks completely different. The economy has shifted. Technology has transformed how we work, connect, and communicate. The pace of change is unlike anything I could have imagined in 1991.

And yet the people I work with today are wrestling with the exact same internal battles.

The same patterns. The same limiting beliefs. The same voice that says you're not ready, not worthy, and not enough.

That's what the giant is up against. Not the world. The voice.

Here's what I know after 35 years: the tools in this book don't age. Because human psychology doesn't age. The need for certainty, the hunger for growth, the desire to love and be loved, the drive to contribute something that matters. Those needs haven't changed in thousands of years.

What has changed is the urgency.

We are living in a season that demands we rise. The world doesn't need more people waiting to feel ready. It needs people who decide—even before they feel ready—that they are going to show up fully.

The giant isn't waiting for perfect conditions.

The giant is waiting for a decision.

Thirty-five years ago, I asked you to wake up.

Today, I'm asking again.

What decision have you been postponing—and what would your life look like if you made it today?

What giant inside of you is ready to stop waiting?

P.S In honor of the official 35th anniversary of Awaken the Giant Within, I'm releasing a special updated edition this May.

Can’t wait until then? Buy the original today.