Awaken the Giant Within

✅ If there’s one thing I could take away from this book, it would be the ability to truly believe in myself. Belief is your most important asset, and it shows up in other biographies like Arnold’s. ✅ It’s not important at first to know how you’ll create the result. What matters is deciding you will find a way, no matter what. The Ultimate Success Formula: 1. Decide what you want, 2. Take action, 3. Notice what’s working and what’s not, 4. Change your approach until you achieve what you want. ✅ The way to make better decisions is to make more of them, and then learn from each one, including the ones that don't work out in the short-term. ✅ CEOs of top organizations link pleasure to making powerful decisions that have huge potential impact, building something unique, and contributing to people’s lives in a lasting way. ✅ Bill Gates was not just a genius who got lucky. He put himself on the line with no references to back up his belief. He called an Albuquerque company and promised to deliver basic software for a personal computer even though he didn’t have it yet. Once he committed, he had to find a way. His ability to create certainty was his real genius. Many people were as intelligent, but he used certainty to tap resources and write what was needed in weeks. ✅ Great leaders are rarely realistic. They are intelligent and accurate, but not realistic by other people’s standards. ✅ The key to success is developing certainty, the kind of belief that lets you expand as a person and take the necessary action to make your life and the lives of those around you even greater. ✅ If you improve even a tiny bit each day, the results compound and it does wonders. ✅ Step one: raise your standards. Any time you sincerely want to change, the first thing is raising what you demand of yourself. Write down what you will no longer accept, what you will no longer tolerate, and what you aspire to become. Changing yourself can change everything around you. ✅ Step two: change your limiting beliefs. If you raise standards but don’t believe you can meet them, you sabotage yourself and won’t even try. Beliefs are like unquestioned commands about what’s possible and impossible. They shape actions and feelings. You must develop certainty that you can and will meet the new standards before you do. ✅ Step three: change your strategy. If you set a higher standard and get yourself to believe, you can figure out strategies. The best strategy is often to find a role model who's already getting the results you want and learn what they do, what they believe, and how they think. It saves time because you don't reinvent the wheel. You fine-tune it, reshape it, and maybe make it better. ✅ Emotion is created by motion. What you feel comes from how you use your body. Walk around tired and you’ll feel tired. Emotions are biochemical storms in your brain, and you can influence them in the moment. Decisions The three decisions that control your destiny: Your decisions about what to focus on Your decisions about what things mean to you Your decisions about what to do to create the results you want To harness the power of decisions: Remember the true power of making decisions Realize the hardest step is making a true commitment, a true decision Make decisions often Learn from your decisions Stay committed to your decisions but stay flexible in your approach Enjoy making decisions It’s your decisions, not your conditions, that determine your destiny. Decisions, determination, destiny. How to Achieve What You Want If you want to add a habit, make doing it as pleasurable as possible, and not doing it painful. On Quality At the end of each day, ask: What have I learned today? What did I contribute or improve? What did I enjoy? Improve a little every day because that’s what you can control. Some of My Current Beliefs If-then: If I consistently give it my all, then I will succeed. If I build a company, then I will feel successful. If I have a family, then I will feel fulfilled. If I have fun occasionally, then I will enjoy life. If I give my all at my internship, then I will get a better internship next year. If I plan out my time at Michigan, then I will not be worried and achieve what I want. If I keep using AI all the time, then I will lose my thinking skills. Global: I believe that I can successfully start a company (gives my life meaning). I believe that I will have a fulfilling and adventurous life. I believe that I am smart and persistent (gives me confidence). I believe that I can graduate from the University of Michigan with a 3.5 or above GPA. I believe that I can make over 100 connections at Michigan. I believe that I am worthy enough to join a startup. I believe that I can get a girlfriend at Michigan (gives me fulfillment and maybe a family). I believe that I can live in San Francisco. I believe that I can talk and get advice from entrepreneurs. I believe that I can read 100 more books. Carlos doesn’t think I’m doing a good job. I’m not doing enough at Automize compared to Lincoln. I decide if I’m doing a good job at the internship, and I will start improving now for myself. I decide if I’m doing enough, and I will work on doing more right now. There Are Three Beliefs We Must Have to Change We must believe something must change, not that it should change We must believe “I must change it” and see ourselves as the source We must believe "I can change it" and believe in ourselves.