A book by Darren Hardy “The Compound Effect”
Summary
THE BIG IDEA
The big idea behind Darren Hardy’s book “The Compound Effect” is that we OVER-estimate what we can produce in a week but UNDER-estimate what we can produce in a year as a result of sustained, compounding activity.
KEY MESSAGE
Compounding can have a profound impact on the results from small, sustained effort. However, the biggest problem is that small steps seem insignificant in the moment, and inevitably we give up, lose our focus, and shift our efforts to what can yield more immediate, bigger benefits.
The challenge is: how can you stay the course with small steps that COMPOUND? Bigger, one-time benefits don’t scale and won’t get you the results you’re dreaming of.
Here’s an example. Let’s say someone offered you $10 a week in exchange for 30 minutes of work. And every week your payout would increase by 10%.
OR, you have an option B to get $5,000 a month every month, without any growth. Initially, you’d be making almost nothing, but after a couple of years you’ll have made more than 2 million dollars with Option A vs only $120,000 with Option B.
Small effort, when aligned with your goal and when it delivers consistent growth… gains can have a tremendous impact over time.
The ability to a) zero in on such an effort that can have a compounded impact, and b) stay the course even though initially it seems like a futile effort… that’s what the author identified as a common characteristic of most successful people.
TAKE ACTION
So how can you apply this lesson of focusing on small steps that bring compounding benefits to your business?
How about creating a Business Development habit? Every week, block 1 hour to reach out to connections and think how you can offer some value to them.
If you’re a business consultant, or offer a service where you can take a consultative approach to your clients, invest that hour to come up with 3 ideas for a prospect to take their business to the next level.
Do it for free, send it to them, share it on LinkedIn to benefit even more people in your network. Reach out to them and get their feedback. What did you miss, how could you improve your ideas, how else can you help them? Eventually, you can even put together an eBook with all your ideas.
What’s 1 thing you can do for your business by dedicating 1 hour of your time every week? It doesn’t have to change your business overnight. But it DOES have to be promising in terms of delivering compounding gains.
Don’t OVER-estimate what you can produce in a week. Be ok with making the effort, and focus on generating MOMENTUM.
