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Why Not?: Breaking Limits in Sport, Business and Life
This is not just an inspiring story. It's a blueprint for performing at your best when the stakes are highest.
Matt Formston AM is a multi-sport World Champion, Guinness World Record holder and Paralympian. Parallel to his elite sporting achievements, he has built a career as a senior corporate executive, board chair and executive coach. He is also blind.
None of Matt’s successes happened by accident. They were won through a system ― the eight Hard Standards ―that Matt forged at the intersection of professional sport and corporate leadership. He tested them over decades, inside fifty-foot Nazaré waves, on championship cycling tracks, freediving blind through shipwrecks and in boardrooms where the same principles had to hold.
Why Not? weaves those standards through every chapter. In Matt’s story, you’ll discover practical, immediately applicable principles for building clarity, discipline and accountability in your own performance.
Know when to plan, when to pull the trigger and how to tell the difference. Audit yourself with brutal honesty before the world does it for you. Build capacity now so your future self can perform under pressure. Declare the goal before you’ve earned it, and do the work to deserve it. Lead with empathy and understand what motivates others beyond the KPIs.
Why Not? is for anyone who wants to perform more consistently when it counts. If you suspect you’re capable of more, but keep finding reasons not to prove it, it’s time to stop saying, ‘I can’t.’ You need to start asking, ‘Why not?’
Matt Formston AM is a multi-sport World Champion, Guinness World Record holder and Paralympian. Parallel to his elite sporting achievements, he has built a career as a senior corporate executive, board chair and executive coach. He is also blind.
None of Matt’s successes happened by accident. They were won through a system ― the eight Hard Standards ―that Matt forged at the intersection of professional sport and corporate leadership. He tested them over decades, inside fifty-foot Nazaré waves, on championship cycling tracks, freediving blind through shipwrecks and in boardrooms where the same principles had to hold.
Why Not? weaves those standards through every chapter. In Matt’s story, you’ll discover practical, immediately applicable principles for building clarity, discipline and accountability in your own performance.
Know when to plan, when to pull the trigger and how to tell the difference. Audit yourself with brutal honesty before the world does it for you. Build capacity now so your future self can perform under pressure. Declare the goal before you’ve earned it, and do the work to deserve it. Lead with empathy and understand what motivates others beyond the KPIs.
Why Not? is for anyone who wants to perform more consistently when it counts. If you suspect you’re capable of more, but keep finding reasons not to prove it, it’s time to stop saying, ‘I can’t.’ You need to start asking, ‘Why not?’
320 pages, Paperback
Published August 17, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 15, 2026
a great book to go running to. some highlights:
- ‘judgment comes from people who are threatened. accountability comes from people who are invested’
- ‘parenting for the 30 year old adult not the child in front of you’
- ‘you don’t rise to the occasion, you fall
to the level of your training’
especially pertinent when trying to run longer kms:
- ‘the key behind hard work is that it makes everything easier.’
- ‘judgment comes from people who are threatened. accountability comes from people who are invested’
- ‘parenting for the 30 year old adult not the child in front of you’
- ‘you don’t rise to the occasion, you fall
to the level of your training’
especially pertinent when trying to run longer kms:
- ‘the key behind hard work is that it makes everything easier.’
August 21, 2026
An inspirational look at a world champion. At an early age he and his Karen’s were told Matt would never achieve anything in life due to impending blindness. His parents would not accept any limitations and encouraged him to be the best he could. This book tells of Matt’s personal struggles, physically and internally until he realised he was the only person who could determine his life’s path. Self discipline has made him a world champion and record holder in different disciplines, has earned him an AOM by the Australian Government.
Throughout the book he often refers to the values instilled in him by his parents, their support and also the support of his wife.
A book which would be an excellent tool for business and also for anyone seeking their path in life.
Throughout the book he often refers to the values instilled in him by his parents, their support and also the support of his wife.
A book which would be an excellent tool for business and also for anyone seeking their path in life.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews