Darren Hardy ridicules get-rich-quick schemes. Success, he believes, takes effort, but the right work, correctly and consistently applied, will lead relentlessly toward success. As someone who has been at the heart of the self-improvement world for decades, Hardy says he has seen nearly every success system, has interviewed “thought leaders” in the success marketplace and tested their theories, and extracted the parts that work best. He achieved his own success by following the principles that he teaches in the book.

Hardy was raised by his single father, a tough disciplinarian who coached college football and later owned a company. Hardy’s dad gave him and his siblings daily lists of chores. He expected good schoolwork, tolerating no absences from class “unless we were actually puking, bleeding, or ‘showing bone’” (2). Hardy’s father believed that, to outperform an opponent, a person must simply work harder. By age 18, using this principle, Hardy was earning six figures; by age 24, he owned a company with a revenue stream of $50 million.

As Hardy writes: “The Compound Effect is the principle of reaping huge rewards from a series of small, smart choices” (5). By working consistently, day after day in small, positive ways, a person can accrue great success over time.