"This book is about success and what it really takes to earn it."
- The Compound Effect, page 1
"If you were given the choice between taking $3 million in cash this very instant and a single penny that doubles in value every day for 31 days, which would you choose?"- The Compound Effect, page 10
If you chose the penny, by day 31 you would have $10,737,418.24 (!) and your friend who chose the $3 million, would likely still have $3 million. It is these small compounding effects over time that make the huge differences in our lives. And this is the The Big Idea of the book.
Hardy gives a great example of three friends. You might be able to picture them in fact. Here is the abridged version.
Larry plods along doing as he has always done.
Scott decides to make some small, seemingly inconsequential positive changes. He begins reading ten pages a day and listening to self-improvement audios, cuts 125 calories out of each day by trading a can of soda for water, starts walking an extra couple thousand steps a day.
Brad makes a few poor choices. He invests in a big screen TV so he can enjoy more of his favourite shows. He starts eating dessert more often and puts a new bar in his family room which leads him to add about one more drink per week. Nothing crazy, Brad’s just looking for a little more fun.
Ten months later – no perceivable difference is seen. But fast track to twenty-five months and we start seeing measurable, visible differences. At month twenty-seven, we see an expansive difference. And, by month thirty-one, the change is startling. Brad is now fat while Scott is trim. After investing in one thousand hours reading good books and listening to self-improvement audios, Scott earned a promotion at work and his marriage is thriving. Brad on the other hand, got sluggish from the weight gain, started feeling worse about himself and started retreating from his wife, which led to marital demise. Larry on the other hand, is exactly where he was two years ago but is now bitter about it.
You get the picture. It is the small habits we create that lead to huge compounding effects.
By the way, did you see yourself in the friends? Which one are you?
"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 Compound Effect, page 27
And would you believe that Darren said he was even more affected by this gift he gave his wife than she was! What was the gift, you ask? Each day for a year he secretly wrote one thing that he appreciated in her. In the end he’d filled an entire journal which showed her how much he appreciated her and maybe even more importantly, showed him! He said that by consciously looking for all the things she was doing “right” there was little room to find things to complain about.
And isn’t that the way we should move through each day; focusing on the gratitude for the things that are right; pushing out any room for complaining.
"Success is something you attract by the person you become."- The Compound Effect, page 72
Darren said that understanding this philosophy not only helped him find his wife but it also revolutionized his life. When he wanted to find a partner to marry, he made a long list (40 pages!) of traits he was looking for. He could have then asked himself two questions:
Had he focused on the first question, he thinks he would still be looking. Instead, by turning inward, and working on achieving the qualities that his ideal woman would want, she appeared before him, “as if she were peeled off the pages of my journal” (page 73).
He quotes Jim Rohn, a mentor of his, who said “If you want to have more, you have to become more. Success is not something you pursue. What you pursue will elude you; it can be like trying to chase butterflies. Success is something you attract by the person you become.”
It appears to be so simple. So why don’t people do it? It requires discipline and patience.
The Compound Effect gives us ideas that – when combined with consistent, positive action – will make a real and lasting difference in your life. I highly recommend you read it, again and again. I know I will.
The chair once occupied by Orison Swett Marden, W. Clement Stone, Napoleon Hill, and Og Mandino is where SUCCESS publisher and editorial director Darren Hardy now sits. Darren has been a leader in the personal-development industry for sixteen years, having led two personal-development-based television networks—The People’s Network (TPN), and The Success Training Network (TSTN)—producing and launching more than a thousand TV shows, live events, and products and programs with many of the world’s top experts.
