The Compound Effect Book Review

The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy isn't what I thought it would be. Apologies for the short review - despite me folding down quite a lot of pages of the book.

I thought this book would be about what Warren Buffet calls the 8th wonder of the world; compound interest. Instead it is about things you can do to improve the chances of achieving success what you want to achieve. Something i've read about again, and again, and again.

He starts like many personal development books do by telling the reader that there are no instant solutions to success, and that perseverance, commitment, consistency and hard work are the only things that guarantee success.

"Don't wish it was easier, wish you were better" - John Rohn

His own formula for success boil down to your choices, behaviours, habits,

He talks about our society's general lack of ambition and focus on self improvement with things being a lot easier than they every have been before.

"Overwhelming abundance often leads to a lackadaisical mentality, which brings about a sedentary lifecycle".

Darren Hardy mentions a few different mentors he has had and talks very highly of Jim Rohn, who I have heard before - I will need to see what he has written.

Habits

"All winners are trackers". Something that is probably true of high performing athletes and the like. To this end, Darren suggests techniques for tracking your activities daily - those you know you should be doing and those you know you shouldn't be doing.

"We are what we repeatedly do" - Aristotle

"A daily routine built on good habits is the difference that separates the most successful amongst us from everyone else".

Darren provides some techniques for starting good habits, and stopping bad habits such as public displays of accountability and success buddies.

Interestingly, he exercises an occasional 30 day vice check, as I have started doing. In May 2025, I'm abstaining from alcohol, chocolate bars and sweets.

Why

The importance of why and understanding it. "All your how's are meaningless until your whys are powerful enough".

A lesson hammered home in Simon Sinek's Start With Why.

Garbage in, Garbage Out

Regardless whether you are feeding your body or your mind, the quality of what you consume determines the quality of your growth. If you consume nothing but tick tock videos, instead of reading books, your mind will stagnate. If you consume nothing but fast food and don't exercise, your body will decline. This shouldn't be news to anyone, but is worth reminding ourselves of periodically.

Luck

He talks about the role luck (good fortune) has to play in success and how luck can partly be manufactured by choices and the manipulation a number of factors such as preparation, attitude, opportunity and action building upon the common phrase "luck is when preparation meets opportunity". Nothing new here.

Summary

Sprinkled throughout the book, are mentions of Darren Hardy's other resources and courses which I found too frequent a call to action for a paperback book and think the book would have been better without them.

Listen. There isn't anything new, ground breaking or revolutionary in this book but it's value is probably more in the amalgamation of various good practices into a single book. If you are new to personal development, this is a great place to start but if you're already well read on the subject, you will simply find this a rehash of previous techniques packaged together nicely.

I like something Darren says in his conclusion; "learning without execution is useless". There is little point in learning new skills and gaining new knowledge without putting them into practice and making good use of them.

In my opinion it is the gaining and growing of these skills, often building on top of one another that achieves a compound effect.

As I don't think The Compound Effect will have that a big impact on my life, I will take that into consideration when placing it on my all time favourite book list.

If you like books like this, then head on over to GoodBusinessBooks.com that is chock full of similar books.

-- Lee