“There is no magic bullet, secret formula, or quick fix to success. You don’t make $200,000 a year by spending two hours a day on the internet, lose thirty pounds in a week with a ‘Hollywood diet,’ rub twenty years off your face with a cream, fix your love life with a pill, or find lasting success with a get-rich-quick scheme.”

Darren Hardy introduces his success program with a warning—that it involves hard work and dedication. He critiques marketing claims for other systems that promise an easy road to wealth and happiness. His system takes effort, he argues, but it leverages simple principles to generate persistent, ongoing benefits.

“One of Dad’s core philosophies was, ‘It doesn’t matter how smart you are or aren’t, you need to make up in hard work what you lack in experience, skill, intelligence, or innate ability. If your competitor is smarter, more talented, or experienced, you simply need to work three or four times as hard. You can still beat them!’”

Hardy argues that working hard will overcome nearly all obstacles; you will rise above those who, despite talent or other advantages, don’t work as diligently. Consistent, well-designed behaviors are the key to success. Hardy uses personal anecdotes to bring home his advice.

“Small, Smart Choices + Consistency + Time = RADICAL DIFFERENCE.”

People often fail to take advantage of the principle of sustained effort because the payoff usually takes some time to accrue. The small, daily steps needed don't immediately materialize, and people become discouraged. The point of the Compound Effect is that small consistent efforts that seem to go nowhere pile atop each other until finally there is a mountain of accrued value.