Hello guys, Today’s book summary is of the book “The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy. This book summary contains some quotes from author as well as my informal notes which I have learned from the book. So let’s dive right into today’s book.
Compound effect is simply the principle of reaping huge rewards from a series of small, smart choices. “Slow and steady wins the race”, we all have heard this quote. This principle is based on this quote.
The interesting thing here about the compound effect is that once you decide to start applying this principle in your life, you won’t see any result for months and you might give up, which most people do in frustration. But after like 24-36 months, the magic of compound effect starts. You will see massive results but if and only if you can persist for atleast 24-36 months of consistent work toward whatever goal you want to achieve in life or whatever change you want to see in your life.
Let’s see an example from the book to better understand how the compound effect works.
The Magic Penny
Let’s say you and one of your friends were given two options to choose from. The first option is that you could take $3 million cash right away but can use it only after 31 days and the second option is that you could take a penny which will double every single day for 31 days. Which one would you choose? If you haven’t heard about the story before then obviously first one seems a good option as you have $3 million cash right away and it seems a lot in comparison to just a penny. Let’s say your friend took the other option. Now let’s see the results day by day.
So at day 1 you have $3 million dollar and your friend has one penny. On day 5 again you have $3 million dollar and your friend has 16 cents. On day 10, you have $3 million dollar and your friend has $5.12. You are spending your millions whereas your friend is frustrated as he only has a few bucks even after 10 days. After 20 full days, you are still enjoying with your millions of dollars whereas your friend has just $5243. He is frustrated but he is patient.
Then the invisible power of compound effect begins to work it’s magic. On day 25 your friend now has $167,772.16 and by the end of 31st day your friend has over 10 million which is roughly $7 million more than your $3 million. That’s the power of compounding and it is not limited to mathematics and cash only, it applies the same way for your other areas of life as well.
Your Turn
So, what’s the area of your life you want to improve, what’s the habit you want to implement today to make a big change in future. Make a list of it. May be you want to be a writer, may be you want to become good at cricket, may be you want to stop your bad habit of smoking, or may be you want to excel at guitar? Whatever the reason, the answer is to start slow, go steady, be patient and let the magic of compound effect work. That’s it.
Let’s suppose you want to become a writer. To do this start to write 10 lines everyday. Slow and steady. Slowly pace up your speed. But don’t hurry. That’s where most people make mistake while instilling a new habit. They do 50 pushups in a day and the next day they just give up on their goal to do 50 pushups everyday. This is because it takes time for any habit to get momentum. So let’s come back to our topic of writing. So keep writing everyday consistently and again just keep going because you will get better and better only if you are enough patient and consistent towards your goal. And when the compound effect will come in the job, you will see in no time you are transformed from an ordinary person to a fluent excellent writer.
The Pump Well Concept
Compound effect works like a pump well. Have you ever pumped a pump well? In sunny season when the pump well is dried up, we have to keep pumping and pumping and pumping for many times until the water comes up and out of the well. What if you give up at the middle of pumping? You guessed it right. You have to start all over again. The same concept applies in the Compound Effect. To see the results of the compound effect you have to keep working consistently for a long period of time until you see the results. Once you break the consistency and lo, you have to start all over again. So rather than racing like a hare at your goal and resting at the middle of the game like the hare tortoise story, be the hare who goes slow and steadily and wins the race.
What Luck Exactly Is
One of the main characteristic of unsuccessful people is to blame everyone else except themselves for their circumstances. They blame society, conditions, family, and not to forget luck. They blame luck for their failure. Most people believe themselves to be unlucky. And that’s why most people are unsuccessful. Author Darren Hardy says the old adage that “Luck is when opportunity meets preparation” isn’t enough. So he defines getting lucky as :
Preparation (personal growth) + Attitude(belief/mindset) + Opportunity(a good thing coming your way) + Action(doing something about it) = Luck
Let me share you my story. Before starting my blog, I also felt that I was unlucky. I used to blame everyone for my failure except myself. I used to curse my situation and eye health for stopping my engineering career before it even began. It took me a long time to realize that blaming will only worsen my situation and stop me from moving ahead in life. But yesterday night I decided to stop complaining and start working on my next dream i.e to be a blogger who connects with you people. And lo! today I am writing my first blog post.
Find Your Fight
You need to stop complaining and start doing something in your life. As Author Darren Hardy says in this book, “You need to find your fight”. Let me explain you what does this mean. From my childhood I have listened from my father one sentence, “You can do nothing in your life” and that one demotivating line is working like a burning rage inside me to prove him wrong. It has impacted me in a positive way. It forces me to do something in life, something bigger and better. So what’s your fight? May be someone said you that you can’t do it? Time to prove them wrong. Do something. Don’t sit idle and cry about your situation. Get busy and think what skills can you learn to improve your life in coming five to ten years.
So guys that’s the end of today’s post. I hope you all got some valuable knowledge and motivation from reading todya’s post. More to come. Stay tuned !
