Why Ordering This Week Matters More

The publishing mechanics, explained plainly.

Matt Hunter • September 22, 2026

Hey!

One week. Tough Enough is out next Tuesday, September 29.

I want to be straightforward about why I keep asking you to pick up a copy before it comes out, because shouting "pre-order now!" without context is just noise.

The honest reason is our mission: we wrote this book to help good-hearted, compassionate leaders have their ideas flourish and actually influence the world. For that to happen, the ideas have to reach well beyond our immediate network.

And that’s where the mechanics of publishing come in.

Publishing runs on the signal it receives from the very first week of sales. Every copy ordered between now and launch day gets banked and counted in launch week alongside everything sold in those first seven days. That single number decides three things:

Whether retailers stock deeper or quietly return the copies sitting in their backrooms.
Whether recommendation algorithms surface the book to people who have never heard of us.
Whether it gets the kind of mainstream visibility that gives these leadership principles real momentum.

A copy bought in November is worth one copy. A copy ordered this week is worth considerably more because of the chain reaction it sets off.

If you believe the workplace needs more high-performing leaders who lead with genuine compassion (and toughness), getting this book into that slipstream is how we make that voice louder.

So, this week:

Pre-order.
Buy your team copies. Just reply to us and we'll handle it. Orders placed now still land in launch week.
Forward this to one person.

Whatever you do, thank you for reading this far into a two-month campaign about a book you haven't read yet. Next Tuesday I stop asking and start hoping it's useful.

Matt

P.S. Eric Yuan, who founded Zoom, on what makes the book different: it "takes both old and new leadership tactics and transforms them into strategies leaders can employ in crises and chaotic environments." That's the use case I'd most want it read for.

Read more from The Unlock by Matt Hunter

Psychological Safety is Not Enough

Psychological Safety is Not Enough The nicest team I ever watched fail Matt Hunter • September 15, 2026 Psychological safety is real, well-evidenced, and something I regularly apply in my coaching work. It has also become an alibi. Somewhere along the way, a lot of leaders heard "people perform better when they feel safe" and quietly translated that into "my job is to make people comfortable." Those statements are not the same. The research says people take risks and admit mistakes when they...

7 days ago • 1 min read

Don’t heal your dark side. Aim it.

Don’t heal your dark side. Aim it. The parts of yourself you were taught to suppress are the exact ones greatness runs on. Matt Hunter • September 8, 2026 Every once in a while, a founder lets their guard all the way down and asks a question they’d never say out loud in a boardroom: "How do I stop wanting what I want?" Sometimes it sounds like: How do I stop being so intense? For others, it’s guilt over craving massive wealth, obsessive recognition, category dominance, or sheer power. They...

14 days ago • 3 min read

A book is a bad gift (but a great tool)

A book is a bad gift (but a great tool) A book you read alone changes how you think. A book your team reads changes how you operate. Matt Hunter • September 1, 2026 A book you read alone changes how you think. A book your leadership team reads together changes how you operate. Those are very different outcomes, and most companies only ever get the first one. Here's why Tough Enough works better when read together. The central idea is a spectrum (Comfort, Compassion, Tough Enough, and Hardcore...

21 days ago • 1 min read