The Compound Effect

The Compound Effect had been on my reading list for a long time, but I had not been able to bring myself to read it for reasons I do not even know. But when a friend of mine recommended it to me, I knew it was time for me to finally read the book. My friend had told me that reading the book was life-changing for him and it’s one of his favorite books, so I knew it must be a really good book. Another thing that got me hyped was when I found out that Darren Hardy cited Jim Rohn as his mentor. I have been listening to Jim Rohn for a while and I absolutely love him. So, when I saw that Darren was his mentee, “this should be good” was what I thought to myself.

In light of all these, I had a lot of expectations before I even opened the first page of the book or read a line. Having read the book, I can attest to the fact that it is a great book. One of the things I loved most about the book is that there a lot of actionable insights in the book; Darren Hardy did his best to give life to his ideas by breaking them down into things you can inculcate in your daily life. He tried to show that the ideas he was trying to share are not some bogus or fictitious concepts. Another thing I loved about the book is the writing style of the author — he writes in simple and plain language. You didn’t need a million trips to the dictionary to understand the things he was saying.

So, if you’re looking for a book recommendation, this is one. But, before you read the book for yourself, these are five things I learnt from the book:

#1. The beauty of The compound effect is in its simplicity.

Overtime, the idea that you need a major shift to change your life has been peddled almost everywhere we look especially in the media. Most of us have learnt from various sources that we need some major shift to happen for our lives to change. But I’ve found out that it is seldom true. You don’t need a grand show or change to change your life; for the larger part of our lives it is the small, seemingly insignificant steps completed over time that hold the capacity to bring about consistent change in our lives.

Small, Smart Choices + Consistency + Time = RADICAL DIFFERENCE

#2. Quick fixes don’t bring about lasting change.

The most challenging aspect of the compound effect is that we have to keep working away for a while, consistently and efficiently before we begin to see the payoff. Your only path to success is through a continuum of mundane, unexciting and sometimes daily disciplines over time. Real and lasting success requires work and lots of it.

Success = Consistency x Time

#3. Strong work ethic is still a thing.

The world today is filled with dreamers; everywhere you look there is someone with a grand idea of how he or she intends to change the world. I think people are more comfortable with dreaming now, more than any other time. Most people have now realized that their dreams are valid and achievable. It seems to be that there’s nothing like a dream too big. But what we’ve lost is the work ethic on how to bring these dreams to fruition. You cannot wish your dreams into reality, there are a combination of things — like grit, hard work, and fortitude — needed to do that. Do not buy into the idea that self-affirmations or desire alone can take you from where you are to where you want to be. Values like hard-work, consistency, tenacity, perseverance are still very much in vogue.

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 and intelligence, or innate ability. If your competitor is smarter, more talented, or experienced, you just need to work three or four times as hard. You can still beat them!

No matter the challenge, make up in hard work wherever you might be disadvantaged.

#4. Resist the urge to get too comfortable.

Consistency is an integral part of the compound effect and building good habits. But the problem is a lot of us do not know how to delay gratification. The moment we’ve been at something for a while and begin to notice positive changes it’s human proclivity to want to slow down “celebrate your wins”. This is detrimental because it breeds complacency which then leads to retrogression. You no longer do the things that made you successful in the first place. We need to realize that treasure is uncovered by the force of flowing water, and it is buried by the same currents. Whatever price a man pays to go up, he doubles to stay up.

Nothing fails like success.

#5. You’re responsible for your success or failure.

The choices we make and habits we cultivate have the ability to make or mar our lives. Nothing outside of you has enough power to set you in any direction, good or bad, unless you let it. Everything is up to you. You’re responsible for everything you do or didn’t do, or how you respond to something that was done to you.

If you notice that you engage in Finger-pointing, playing the blame game, victimhood all the time, these are indicators that you’re not taking responsibility for your life. The problem with this kind of mentality is that it cripples you by making you think you’re a victim, or you’re having it worse than every other person. When in reality, there are people out there with less than you have who are doing way more than you’re willing to do. Somewhere, someone else is happy with less than you have. If you point one finger at someone, four point back to you. It is not wise to continually wait on someone or the government to come to your rescue. You need to wake up and begin to go after the things you want.