The Compound Effect: Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success

by Darren Hardy

WARNING! These chapter headings look simple. Success strategies are no longer a secret, but most people ignore them. You think you already know the secret to success? So does everyone else. But the six strategies within this book, when applied in sequence, will launch your income, your life—your success—like nothing before. After 25+ years as the central curator of the success media industry, I’ve seen it all. Nothing works like the power of the Compound Effect of simple actions done right over time. This is it. The real deal on what it takes to achieve massive success in your life. Whatever your dream, desire, or goal in life, the plan to achieve it all is found in the book you’re holding. Read on and let it rock your world.

No matter what you learn, what strategy or tactic you employ, success comes as the result of the Compound Effect.

Are you satisfied with your life the way it is right now? Or are you flipping through this book because you’re looking for some sort of transformation?

achieving your dreams and goals doesn’t have to be complicated or stressful.

Your decisions shape your destiny. Little, everyday decisions will either take you to the life you desire or to disaster by default.

don’t just listen to what that person says; watch what they do. Because what people say is one thing, but what they do reveals the truth about them.

your own decisions shape your destiny. The future is what you make of it. The choices you make—even small, everyday decisions—will take you to the life you long for or to regrettable results.

My challenge to you is to stop living in reactive mode—choose today to take control of your life and make decisions that shape the destiny you desire. If you want to grow (and I hope you do!), take advantage of tools like this book. Use it as a guide to create the life and the success you want. Remember, success is simple. Do the right things—and keep doing them day in and day out—and I know you will experience the best life has to offer.

This book is that detailed, tangible plan of action. Let it shake up your expectations, eliminate your assumptions, ignite your curiosity, and bring value to your life—starting right now. Take advantage of this tool. Use it as a guide to create the life and the success you want. If you do this, and if you do all the other right things—and keep doing them day in and day out—I know you will experience the best life has to offer.

There is no magic bullet, secret formula, or quick fix to success. You don’t make $200,000 a year by spending two hours a day on the internet, lose thirty pounds in a week with a “Hollywood diet,” rub twenty years off your face with a cream, fix your love life with a pill, or find lasting success with a get-rich-quick scheme. It would be great if you could buy your success, fame, self-esteem, good relationships, health, and well-being in a nicely clam-shelled package at the local Walmart, but that’s not how it works.

I wrote this book to take you back to basics. I’m going to help you clear the clutter and bring focus to the core success fundamentals that matter.

Although I hate it when authors beat their chests about their fame and fortune, it’s important you know I speak from personal experience. I’m offering you living proof, not regurgitated theory. As Tony Robbins mentioned, I’ve enjoyed significant success in my business endeavors because I’ve made it a point to live by the principles you’ll read in this book.

earning success is hard. The process is laborious, tedious, and sometimes even boring. Becoming wealthy, influential, and world-class in your field is slow and arduous.

Thanks to Dad, wake-up calls were at six o’clock every morning. Not by a loving tap on the shoulder or even the sound of a radio alarm. No, I was awakened each morning by the repetitious pile-driving sound of iron pounding on the concrete floor of our garage, situated next to my bedroom. It was like waking up twelve feet from a construction zone. He’d painted a huge “No pain, no gain” sign on the wall of the garage, which he stared at while doing countless old-school strongman dead lifts, power cleans, lunges, and squats. Rain, sleet, or shine, Dad was out there in his shorts and tattered sweatshirt. He never missed a day. You could set your watch by his routine. I had more chores than a housekeeper and gardener put together. Upon returning from school, there was always a list of instructions to greet me: pull weeds, rake leaves, sweep the garage, dust, vacuum, do the dishes—you name it. And getting behind in school wasn’t tolerated. That’s just the way it was. Dad was the original “no excuses” guy. We weren’t ever allowed to stay home from school sick, unless we were actually puking, bleeding, or “showing bone.” The term “showing bone” came from his coaching days. His players knew they weren’t allowed to come out of the game unless they were seriously injured. One time his quarterback asked to be pulled out of the game. Dad said, “Not unless you’re showing bone.” The quarterback pulled back his shoulder pads, and sure enough, his collarbone was showing. Only then was he a...

“It doesn’t matter how smart you are or aren’t, you need to make up in hard work what you lack in experience, skill, intelligence, or innate ability. If your competitor is smarter, more talented, or experienced, you simply need to work three or four times as hard. You can still beat them!”

personal responsibility.

“Be the guy who says ‘no.’ It’s no great achievement to go along with the crowd. Be the unusual guy, ‘Be The Exception’”

The Compound Effect is the principle of reaping huge rewards from a series of small, smart choices.

Whether you’re using this strategy for improving your health, relationships, finances, or anything else for that matter, the changes are so subtle, they’re almost imperceptible. These small changes offer little or no immediate result, no big win, no obvious I-told-you-so payoff. So why bother?

What they don’t realize is that these small, seemingly insignificant steps completed consistently over time will create a radical difference. Let me give you a few detailed examples.

Small, Smart Choices + Consistency + Time = RADICAL DIFFERENCE

Let’s take three buddies who all grew up together. They live in the same neighborhood, with very similar sensibilities. Each makes around $50,000 a year. They’re all married and have average health and body weight, plus a little bit of that dreaded “marriage flab.” Friend number one, let’s call him Larry, plods along doing as he’s always done. He’s happy, or so he thinks, but complains occasionally that nothing ever changes. Friend number two, Scott, starts making some small, seemingly inconsequential, positive changes. He begins reading 10 pages of a good book per day and listening to 30 minutes of something instructional or inspirational on his commute to work. Scott wants to see changes in his life, but doesn’t want to make a fuss over it. He recently started listening to the DarrenDaily On-Demand podcast and chose one idea from a recent episode to implement in his life. He’s going to cut 125 calories from his diet every day. No big deal. We’re talking maybe a cup of cereal less, trading that can of soda for a bottle of seltzer, switching from mayo to mustard on his sandwich. Doable. He’s also started walking a couple thousand extra steps per day (less than a mile). No grand acts of bravery or effort. Stuff anyone could do. But Scott is determined to stick with these choices, knowing that even though they’re simple, he could also easily be tempted to abandon them. Friend number three, Brad, makes a few poor choices. He recently bought a new big-screen TV so he can watch...

invested almost one thousand hours reading good books and listening to self-improvement audios. By putting his newly gained knowledge into practice, he’s earned a promotion and a raise. Best of all, his marriage is thriving. Brad? He’s unhappy at work, and his marriage is on the rocks. And Larry? Larry is pretty much exactly where he was two and a half years ago, except now he’s a little more bitter about it. The phenomenal power of the Compound Effect is that simple. The difference between people who employ the Compound Effect for their benefit compared to their peers who allow the same effect to work against them is almost inconceivable. It looks miraculous! Like magic or quantum leaps. After thirty-one months (or thirty-one years), the person who uses the positive nature of the Compound Effect appears to be an “overnight success.” In reality, his or her profound success was the result of small, smart choices, completed consistently over time.

Believing that the other person is wrong rather than looking inside and doing the work necessary to clean up your mess is basic Psychology 101 stuff.

who’s now reaping the bounty of positive results. This is the repeating of simple daily disciplines versus simple errors in judgment. It’s that simple.

With enough time and consistency, the outcomes become visible. Better yet, they’re totally predictable.

The secret to success was then, and is now, hard work, discipline, and good habits.

It’s interesting that wealth tends to skip a generation. Overwhelming abundance often leads to a lackadaisical mentality, which brings about a sedentary lifestyle. Children of the wealthy are especially susceptible. They weren’t the ones who developed the discipline and character to create the wealth in the first place, so it makes sense that they may not have the same sense of value for wealth or understand what’s necessary to keep it. We frequently see this entitlement mentality in children of royalty, movie stars, and corporate executives—and to a lesser degree, in children and adults everywhere. As a nation, our entire populace seems to have lost appreciation for the value of a strong work ethic. We’ve had three, if not four, generations of Americans who have known great prosperity, wealth, and ease. Our expectations of what it really takes to create lasting success—things like grit, hard work, and fortitude—aren’t alluring, and thus have been mostly forgotten. We’ve lost respect for the strife and struggle of our forefathers. The massive effort they put forth instilled discipline, chiseled their character, and stoked the spirit to brave new frontiers.

The truth is, complacency has impacted all great empires, including, but not limited to, the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and English. Why? Because nothing fails like success. Once-dominant empires have failed for this very reaso...

Having experienced extended periods of prosperity, health, and wealth, we become complacent. We stop doing what we did to get us there. We become like the frog in the boiling water that doesn’t jump to his freedom because the warming is so incr...

Promise yourself that you’re going to let go once and for all of your lottery-winner expectations because, let’s face it, you only hear stories about the one winner, not the millions of losers.

Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness,

By the end of this book, or even before, I want you to know in your bones that your only path to success is through a continuum of mundane, unsexy, unexciting, and sometimes difficult daily disciplines compounded over time.

Everything in your life exists because you first made a choice about something. Choices are at the root of every one of your results. Each choice starts a behavior that over time becomes a habit.

No more will most of your daily routines and traditions come as a reaction to your programming.

By employing the same idiot-proof strategies I’ve used to catapult my own life and career, strengthened by the Compound Effect, you’ll be able to loosen the mysterious grip of the decisions that are unwinding your life and pulling you in the wrong direction. You’ll be able to hit the pause button before stumbling into idiot territory. You’ll experience the ease of making decisions that lead to behaviors and habits that support you, every time.

You’ve allowed yourself to make a choice without thinking. And as long as you’re making choices unconsciously, you can’t consciously choose to change that ineffective behavior and turn it into productive habits. It’s time to WAKE UP and make empowering choices.

One Thanksgiving, I decided to keep a Thanks Giving journal for my wife. Every day for an entire year, I logged at least one thing I appreciated about her—the way she interacted with her friends, how she cared for our dogs, the fresh bed she prepared, a succulent meal she whipped up, or the beautiful way she styled

her hair that day—whatever. I looked for the things my wife was doing that touched me, or revealed attributes, characteristics, or qualities I appreciated. I wrote them all down secretly for the entire year. By the end of that year, I’d filled an entire journal. When I gave it to her the following Thanksgiving, she cried, calling it the best gift she’d ever received. (Even better than the BMW I’d given her for her birthday!) The funny thing was that the person most affected by this gift was me. All that journaling forced me to focus on my wife’s positive aspects. I was consciously looking for all the things she was doing “right.” That heartfelt focus overwhelmed anything I might have otherwise complained about. I fell deeply in love with her all over again (maybe even more than ever, as I was seeing subtleties in her nature and behavior, instead of her more obvious qualities). My appreciation, gratitude, and intention to find the best in her, I held in my heart and eyes each day. This caused me to show up differently in my marriage, which, of course, made her respond differently to me. Soon, I had even more things to write in my Thanks Giving journal! As a result of choosing to take a mere five minutes every day or so to document all the reasons why I was grateful for her, we experienced one of the best years of our marriage, and it’s only gotten better.

“You have to be willing to give 100 percent with zero expectation of receiving anything in return,” he said. “Only when you’re willing to take 100 percent responsibility for making the relationship work will it work. Otherwise, a relationship left to chance will always be vulnerable to disaster.”

You alone are responsible for what you do or don’t do, or how you respond to what’s done to you.