Darren Hardy was born in 1971. He and his siblings were raised by a demanding father. Hardy credits his dad’s tough standards for inspiring him to become a hard-working, exacting person who, by his mid-20s, had founded and built a company with a revenue stream of $50 million. He published Success magazine and authored four books on self-improvement. Using the system described in The Compound Effect, he also married precisely the person he imagined for himself, with whom he has a family that prioritizes closeness. Hardy describes his credentials thusly:

[F]or more than twenty-five years, I have been the central curator of the success media industry. I’ve worked with almost every respected thought leader, acclaimed speaker, and bestselling author you can think of. As an advisor to CEOs and high-performance achievers, I’ve trained and mentored tens of thousands of business leaders (xxx-xxxi).

Hardy offers several training programs, and his company does charitable outreach around the world. He cites, among his associates and mentors, self-help gurus Jim Rohn, Brian Tracy, and Tony Robbins. Robbins wrote a prologue for The Compound Effect.