فصل 06 و جمع بندی

CHAPTER 6

ACCELERATION

When I lived in La Jolla, California, for exercise and a test of will, I would regularly ride my bike two miles straight up Mount Soledad. There are very few things you can do voluntarily that cause more pain and suffering than riding a bike up a steep mountain without stopping. There is a point at which you “hit the wall” and come face to face with your true inner character. Suddenly, all the projections and ideas you had about yourself are stripped away and you’re left with the naked truth. Your mind starts inventing all sorts of convenient alibis on why it’s okay to stop. It is then when you’re faced with one of life’s greatest questions: Do you push through the pain and continue on, or will you crack like a walnut and give up?

Lance Armstrong was the SUCCESS cover feature in June 2009. I remember watching Lance during his first Tour de France victory. The Tour had entered the grueling mountain stages of the race. The other riders dismissed Lance, because he had never been a renowned climber. During the third mountain ascent through freezing rains, mist, and then hail, Lance got separated from his team. He was left fighting the top climbers in the world, alone. On the final ascent, eighteen miles straight up into Sestriere, after five and a half hours climbing mountains, every rider was suffering. Each needed to search the depths of his stamina and self-definition—could they endure? It became a test of who could best survive the hardships and find the strength to keep going—who would crack and who wouldn’t.

With five miles to go, Lance was thirty-two seconds behind the leaders, an eternity while climbing a mountain on a bike. During a curve, Lance stood up and surged ahead until he caught the two leaders—both established world-class climbers. Having expended almost everything he had in him, Lance then launched an attack and gained several lengths on the leaders. He later said in his book It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life (Putnam, 2000), “When you open a gap and your competitors don’t respond, it tells you something. They’re hurting. And when they’re hurting, that is when you take them.” Completely exhausted, struggling to breathe, his legs and arms burning with fatigue, Lance kept pounding the pedals. Some tried, but no one could catch him, they just didn’t have it in them. At the finish line, with fists pumping in the air, the unexpected contender won the stage race and ultimately the Tour de France.

In this chapter I want to talk to you about those moments of truth and how the Compound Effect can help you break through to new and greater levels of success—faster than you imagined possible. When you’ve prepared, practiced, studied, and consistently put in the required effort, sooner or later you’ll be presented with your own moment of truth. In that moment, you will define who you are and who you are becoming. It is in those moments where growth and improvement live—when we either step forward or shrink back, when we climb to the top of the podium and seize the medal or we continue to applaud sullenly from the crowd for others’ victories.

We’ll also look at how you can consistently deliver more than people expect, compounding your good fortune even further.

Moments of Truth

“There is a point in every race when a rider encounters his real opponent and understands that it’s himself,” writes Lance in his autobiography. “In my most painful moments on the bike, I am at my most curious, and I wonder each and every time how I will respond. Will I discover my innermost weakness, or will I seek out my innermost strength?”

When I was in real estate, I hit the wall several times a day. While driving to an expired listing property, after just getting pummeled by the last prospect, I’d start conjuring up all sorts of excuses to skip the sales call and head back to the office. While out canvassing a neighborhood, dogs would snarl at me or it looked like it might start to rain. I’d be in the midst of “money time” (5 to 9 p.m., cold-calling) and frequently get chewed out for interrupting someone’s dinner or favorite TV show. I was sure I needed to take a break to go to the bathroom or get a glass of water. But instead of quitting, every time I hit one of those mental and emotional walls, I recognized that my competitors were facing the same challenges. I knew this was another moment that, if I kept going, I would be strides ahead of them. These were the defining moments of success and progress. It wasn’t difficult, painful, or challenging when I was just running with the herd, just keeping up, but not really getting ahead. It’s not getting to the wall that counts; it’s what you do after you hit it.

Lou Holtz, the famous football coach, knew it was what you did after you did your best that created victories. In one game his team was down 42-0 at halftime. During the halftime break, Lou showed his team a dramatic highlight reel of second efforts to block, tackle, and recover the ball. He then told the players that they were not on his team because they could give their all on every play; every player on every team does that. He said they were on his team because of their ability to make that critical extra effort on each play. It’s the extra effort after you have done your best that is the difference maker. His team went on to win the game in the second half. That is how you win.

Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest fighters of all time, not only because of his speed and agility, but also because of his strategy. On October 30, 1974, Ali regained his heavyweight championship, besting George Foreman in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history in the “Rumble in the Jungle.” Almost no one, not even Ali’s longtime supporter Howard Cosell, believed the former champion had a chance of winning. Both Joe Frazier and Ken Norton had beaten Ali previously, and George Foreman had knocked both of them out in only the second round. Ali’s strategy? To take advantage of the younger champion’s weakness—his lack of staying power. Ali knew if he could get Foreman to his wall, he could then take the advantage. This is when Ali came up with the tactic later termed “Rope-a-Dope.” Ali would lean on the ropes, shielding his face, while Foreman threw hundreds of punches over seven rounds. By the eighth round, Foreman was exhausted; he was at his wall. It was then that Ali dropped Foreman with a combination at center ring.

Hitting the wall isn’t an obstacle; it’s an opportunity. During Lance Armstrong’s second attempt at winning the Tour de France, it was once again time to head into the mountains. The first big climb would be where Lance had experienced a devastating crash on a wet, spring day earlier that same year. The crash left him with a concussion and a broken vertebra. Now it was raining yet again. Instead of being concerned or hesitant, he said, “This is perfect attacking weather, mainly because I know the others don’t like it. I believe that nobody in the world is better at suffering. It’s a good day for me.” He was right. Lance brought home his second v ictory.

When conditions are great, things are easy, there aren’t any distractions, no one is interrupting, temptations aren’t luring, and nothing is disturbing your stride; that too is when most everyone else does great. It’s not until situations are difficult, when problems come up and temptation is great, that you get to prove your worthiness for progress. As Jim Rohn would say, “Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.” When you hit the wall in your disciplines, routines, rhythms, and consistency, realize that’s when you are separating yourself from your old self, scaling that wall, and finding your new powerful, triumphant, and victorious self.

Multiplying Your Results

I have an exciting opportunity for you. We’ve talked about how the simple disciplines and behaviors will compound over time, delivering amazingly powerful results for you. What if you could speed up the process and multiply your results? Would you be interested? I want to show you how just a little bit more effort can add exponentially to your outcomes.

Let’s say you’re weight training and your program calls for you to do twelve repetitions of a certain weight. Now, if you do the twelve, you’re fulfilling the expectation of your program. Great job. Stay consistent, and ultimately, you will see this discipline compound into powerful results for you. Yet, if you get to twelve, even if you’ve hit your max, and you push out another three to five reps, your impact on that set will be multiplied several times. You won’t just add a few reps to the aggregate of your workout. No. Those reps done after you hit your max will multiply your results. You’ve just pushed through the wall of your max. The previous reps just got you there. The real growth happens with what you do after you’re at the wall.

Arnold Schwarzenegger made famous a weight training method called “The Cheating Principle.” Arnold was a stickler for perfect technique. He contended that once you reached your maximum number of lifts in perfect form, adjusting your wrists or leaning back to recruit other muscles to assist the working muscles (cheating a little) would allow you to do five or six more reps, which would significantly improve the results of that set. (You can also achieve this by having a workout partner who assists the last few reps you couldn’t have done on your own.) If you’re a runner, you know the experience. You get to the goal you set for yourself that day, and you’re feeling the burn, you’re at your wall, but you go a little farther, a little longer. This “little longer” is really a massive expansion of your limits. You have multiplied the results of that single run.

Take the magic penny we talked about in Chapter 1, the one that doubles in value each day, showing you the result of small compounded actions. If you just doubled that penny one extra time per week during those same thirty-one days, the compounded penny would result in $171 million instead of $10 million. Again, just extra effort in four days and the result was many times greater. That is how the math of doing just a little bit more than expected works.

Viewing yourself as your toughest competitor is one of the best ways to multiply your results. Go above and beyond when you hit the wall. Another way to multiply your results is pushing past what other people expect of you—doing more than “enough.”

Beat the Expectations

Oprah is famous for using this principle—blasting beyond anyone’s expectations with her generosity and ability to live and work in a BIG way. Do you remember how she launched her nineteenth season in September 2004? When it comes to Oprah, we know to expect some fanfare… but she blew everyone away. That season opener was all the media or anyone else talked about for days afterward.

Let’s go back in time for a minute…. The audience members were selected because their friends and family members had written in saying each of them desperately needed a new car. Oprah opened the show by calling eleven people to the stage. She gave every one of them a car—a 2005 Pontiac G6. Then the real surprise: She surpassed everyone’s expectations when she distributed gift boxes to the rest of the audience saying one of the boxes contained a key to the twelfth car. But when the audience members opened their boxes, every one of them had a set of keys. She screamed, “Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car!” While this might be her most famous example, Oprah continues to go beyond our expectations in most everything she does. In other segments, Oprah surprised a twenty-year-old girl who had spent years in foster care and homeless shelters with a four-year college scholarship, a makeover and $10,000 in clothes. And, she gave a family with eight foster children who were going to be kicked out of their house $130,000 to pay for and repair their home.

Now you might be saying, yeah, but she’s Oprah, of course she can do those things. But the truth is there are plenty of others in Oprah’s position—with the finances and the fame—who could do those things, but never venture into the realm of extraordinary. Oprah does. That’s what makes her Oprah. Take a lesson from her. You can do more than expected in every aspect of your life.

When it was time to propose to my wife, Georgia, I could have done what was expected and met with her father to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Instead, I decided to pay great respect to her father by preparing my speech in Portuguese (I got Georgia’s sister to translate what I wanted to say). He understood English well enough, but wasn’t entirely comfortable with it. All the way up to Los Angeles from San Diego, I rehearsed the words. I walked through the door carrying flowers and treats and asked her dad to join us in the living room. I then delivered my memorized speech. Thankfully, he said, “Yes!” But I didn’t stop there. On the way back, and over the next couple of days, I called each one of her FIVE brothers and also asked for their blessing to join the family. Some were easy to convince, others proceeded to have me “earn it.” The point is, she told me later that one of the most special aspects about how I proposed was how I had honored her dad and how I had called every one of her brothers (and had her sister teach me Portuguese). That made the act extra special. The result of that extra effort paid off exponentially.

Stuart Johnson owns the parent company to SUCCESS, VideoPlus L.P. Stuart put a lot of money and a twenty-two-year reputation on the line when he decided to acquire SUCCESS magazine, SUCCESS.com and the other properties of SUCCESS Media. During one of the most challenging economies in recent history, and as print publishing was being seen as unfavorable, the move in itself was bold and audacious, but then he did even more than could be expected. While the new business enterprise was still finding its legs (translation: still operating in the red), and his primary business was taking a couple steps backward like the rest of the world during the economic tsunami of 2008 and 2009, Stuart launched a nonprofit foundation dedicated to kids. If he was going to make a commitment to helping teach the fundamentals of personal development to the world, he wanted to be especially sure that information would reach teenagers. So he launched the SUCCESS Foundation (www.SUCCESSFoundation.org). He had the fundamental principles of personal achievement compiled into a book called SUCCESS for Teens and is distributing it for free through responsible partners and nonprofit organizations to help nurture young minds.

Stuart personally funded the administration and management of the SUCCESS Foundation, and for the first year, with the help of a few good friends, he funded the distribution of more than 1 million books. Today, that number is far greater and growing! Now, Stuart was already in for a heavy investment and big risk without the burdens of funding the new foundation. But the additional contribution and dedication to the foundation multiplied the statement of his commitment several-fold to potential partners, the press, his peers, and his own staff. He was doing far more than expected—and it spoke volumes.

Where in life can you do more than expected when you hit the wall? Or where can you go for “WOW”? It doesn’t take a lot more effort, but the little extra multiplies your results many times over. Whether you’re making calls, serving customers, recognizing your team, acknowledging your spouse, going for a run, bench pressing, planning a date night, sharing time with your kids, whatever… what’s the little extra you can do that exceeds expectations and accelerates your results?

Do the Unexpected

I’m a contrarian by nature, I know. Tell me what everyone else does, what’s the consensus and what’s popular, and I will typically do the opposite. If everyone is zigging, I’m gonna zag. To me, what’s popular is average, it’s what’s common. Common things deliver common results. The most popular restaurant is McDonald’s, the most popular drink is Coca-Cola, the most popular beer is Budweiser, the most popular wine is Franzia (yeah, the stuff that comes in a box!). Consume those “popular” things, and you’ll be part of the common, average pack. But that’s ordinary. There’s nothing wrong with ordinary. I just prefer to shoot for extraordinary.

For instance, everyone sends Christmas cards. But, since everyone does, it doesn’t really have much emotional impact, in my opinion. So I choose to send Thanksgiving cards instead. How many Thanksgiving cards do you get? Exactly. It makes a statement. And instead of bulk-printed, computer-generated “best wishes” cards, I handwrite personal sentiments expressing how grateful I am for my relationship with that person and what he or she means to me—same effort, but a much greater impact.

Richard Branson built his career on doing the unexpected. I love to watch him launch a new company. Each stunt is bolder, scarier, and more unexpected than the last. Whether it’s flying a hot air balloon around the globe or driving a tank down Fifth Avenue in New York to introduce Virgin Cola to the United States, Richard always delivers the unexpected. He could get by with the expected press release, a press conference or two, and some swanky party, and call it a day, but instead he goes for the astonishing. He probably spends as much as (and sometimes even less than) other companies do to launch a product; he just does it in unexpected style. The wow-factor makes a statement and multiplies the impact of his efforts.

More often than not, the extra effort doesn’t cost that much more money or energy. When I was selling real estate, everyone else would call on expired listings when they came up. Instead, I got in my car and showed up on their doorstep and hand-delivered a “SOLD” sign. “Take this,” I’d say when they’d open the door. “You’ll need it if you hire me to take over this listing.” For the price it took to keep my gas tank full, I immediately and exponentially increased my chance of getting the listing.

Recently Alex, a friend of mine, was up for a big job. He lives in California and the job was in Boston. He was one of a final twelve candidates. They were going to interview local candidates in person and those out of the area via video conferencing. He called me, asking if I knew how to facilitate a Web camera video conference.

“How badly do you want this job?” I asked him.

“It’s my dream job,” Alex told me. “It’s everything I’ve spent forty-five years preparing to do.”

“Then get on a plane and show up in person.” I said.

“No need,” Alex said, “They’re flying in the final three for a last interview.”

“Listen,” I told him. “If you want to be in that final three, you should separate yourself by doing the unexpected. Fly across the country on a moment’s notice and show up in person. That’s how you make a statement.”

If I set my sights on something, I’m going to ensure success by going all in and all out. I launch what I call “shock and awe” campaigns. During this same job hunt I suggested Alex pull out all the stops—attack from every possible front and do it relentlessly.

“Research all the decision makers,” I told him. “Find out their interests, hobbies, kids’ hobbies, spouses’ hobbies, neighbors’ hobbies, etc. Send them books, articles, gifts, and other resources that you think they might like. ‘Is this over the top?’ Heck yes, that’s the point. They’ll know you’re trying to butter them up, but they’ll appreciate your gumption and creativity—you’ll certainly get their attention and most likely, their respect.” Then I continued: “Research all the people in the organization. Take that list and run it by your entire network to see if they know anyone who might know someone in this organization. Search every name against your LinkedIn database. Find a few people to connect with. Talk with them and ask them to put in a good word for you. Send them gifts, notes, and other things, and ask them to hand-deliver these things to the decision makers. Phone, e-mail, fax, text, tweet, Facebook, etc., them during the process. Could this be overly aggressive? Heck, yes! But I have found that you may lose one out of five for being too aggressive, but you get the other four!” By the way, Alex did not take my advice, and he did not get the job. He didn’t even get to be in the final three. I can unequivocally say he was a far better choice than the person the organization hired, but Alex failed to make an impression, and it cost him his dream job.

I’m on the board of a company that needed a congressman to sign off on a piece of legislation that affected whether this company could move forward on an important project. This guy wasn’t budging, not because of the actual issue, but because of a political axe he was grinding against others who publicly favored the issue. Instead of making any more futile appeals to sway him, I suggested we go above his head and talk to his boss—his wife. We went through our network until one person led us to someone who was friends with his wife. We then waited for her outside following a church service she attended, and had her friend introduce us. We explained our important case and cause, which was to build an after-school facility in an impoverished neighborhood that would affect the lives of hundreds of children if her husband would support it. Needless to say, he signed on by Tuesday that following week and the company got its project.

In our attention-deficit, propaganda-saturated society, sometimes doing the unexpected is required to get your voice heard. If you have a cause or ideal worthy of attention, do what it takes, even the unexpected, to make your case heard. Add a little audacity to your repertoire.

Do Better Than Expected

Invisible Children (www.InvisibleChildren.com), another nonprofit for which I’m a board member, helps rescue and recuperate children who have been abducted and made soldiers in northern Uganda and the Congo. To gain awareness for their cause, they staged a hundred-city event called “The Rescue,” where more than eight hundred thousand young people camped outside until prominent leaders of the community came to “rescue them,” thus gaining their attention and support. After four days, all but one city had been rescued, having people like U.S. Sens. Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, Val Kilmer, Kristen Bell, and many others show up in ninety-nine other cities. The last city to get rescued was Chicago, and it required Oprah. After six days, Oprah was a no-show. On the fourth day, they organized a march that went round and round her studios. The next day they put on a singing and dancing presentation that went on all day and night. Then the sixth day, having endured harsh weather and sleeping in the rain, the more than five hundred participants surrounded her studio and stood in silence holding signs starting at 3:30 a.m. That morning Oprah walked out the doors of Harpo Studios, spoke with the organization’s founders and invited the entire group to participate in a live broadcast segment that morning to her more than 20 million viewers. That attention got Invisible Children on Larry King Live and 232 other news outlets—to reach a total of more than 65 million people. A bill is currently moving through Congress supporting Invisible Children’s efforts to save these children. The organization had already pulled off more than expected with the Rescue event, but the little extra gumption and steadfastness to capture that last city (and the attention of Oprah), gained Invisible Children its biggest advocate to date, multiplying its results many times over.

Find the line of expectation and then exceed it. Even when it comes to the small stuff—or maybe especially then. Whatever I think the dress standard is going to be for any event, for example, I always choose to go at least one step above it. When I am unsure of the attire, I always err on the side of dressing better than I suppose the occasion calls for. Simple, I know, but it’s just one way I try to meet my standard to always do and be better than expected.

When I do keynotes for large companies, I spend a considerable amount of time preparing—learning about their organization, products, markets, and their expectations for my talk. My goal is always to significantly surpass what they expect, and I do this through tireless preparation. Doing better than expected becomes a big part of your reputation. Your reputation for excellence multiplies your results in the marketplace many times over.

I did some work with a CEO whose philosophy was to pay people, including his vendors and suppliers, a few days in advance of the contract commitment. I was always blown away when I received a check on the twenty-seventh of the month from him for next month’s payment. When I asked him about it, he said the obvious, “It’s the same money, but the surprise and good will it buys is immeasurable—why wouldn’t you?” This is one of the reasons why I admire Steve Jobs so much. Of all the sensational people we’ve featured on the cover of SUCCESS, Jobs is one of my favorites. Whatever your expectations are about the next Apple product launch, Jobs always has a little (or a lot of) something extra to WOW you. In the grand scheme of things, it might be only a minor addition, but even so, it’s better than expected and multiplies the impression and response from his customers and deepens their loyalty. In a world where most things don’t meet expectations, you can significantly accelerate your results and stand out from the pack by doing better than expected. I like the boldness of what Robert Schuller told us in his SUCCESS feature (December 2008), “I say no idea is worthwhile if it doesn’t start with ‘Wow!’ ” Nordstrom is famous for this standard. When it comes to customer service, they always strive to do better than expected. Nordstrom has been known to take back an item that a customer bought more than a year ago, without a receipt, and in some cases, purchased at a different store! Why would they do that? Because they know exceeding expectations builds trust and creates customer loyalty. As a result, they’ve developed an extraordinary reputation that continues to attract attention. After all, I’m reminding you of it here. The multiplier keeps growing!

I challenge you to adopt these philosophies in your own life—in your daily habits, disciplines and routines. Giving a little more time, energy, or thought to your efforts won’t just improve your results; it will multiply them. It takes very little extra to be EXTRAordinary. In all areas of your life, look for the multiplier opportunities where you can go a little further, push yourself a little harder, last a little longer, prepare a little better, and deliver a little bit more. Where can you do better and more than expected? When can you do the totally unexpected? Find as many opportunities for “WOW,” and the level and speed of your accomplishments will astonish you… and everyone else around you.

CONCLUSION

As we talked about before, learning without execution is useless. I didn’t write this book for my own amusement (this is hard work!) or even to simply “motivate” you. Motivation without action leads to self-delusion. As I said in the introduction, the Compound Effect and the results it will manifest in your life are the real deal. Never again will you wish and hope that success will find you. The Compound Effect is a tool that, when combined with consistent, positive action, will make a real and lasting difference in your life. Let this book and its philosophy become your guide. Let the ideas and success strategies sink in and produce genuine, tangible, measurable outcomes for you. Whenever you realize small, seemingly innocuous poor habits have crept back into your life, take out this book. Whenever you fall off the wagon of consistency, take out this book. Whenever you want to reignite your motivation and bolster your why-power, take out this book. Every time you read this book, it entices Big Mo to pay a visit to your life.

Let me jump off the text here for just a moment as we go through the concluding information. I wrote a blog post last year that stated how we needed to learn less but study more. The conundrum I think we find ourselves in, especially if you have found your way to this book, read success or my blog or personal development materials, is learning is not what we lack, in fact it might be what’s bottlenecking us. Beyond CDs, DVDs and books, we also live in an age of e-zines, blogs, RSS feeds, personalized readers, dig, Facebook, Twitter. We have a never ending flow of ideas, tips, quotes, suggestions and advice being continually pumped at us. We are swimming in a sea of infinite information. We paddle like crazy just to keep our nose above water and it can be exhausting, right? We read an article and then we move on to the next. We listen to an audio and then seek out the next one. We finish a book and then start the next.

There lies the problem. We are always reading a lot, seemingly, learning a lot but never really stopping long enough to digest, contemplate, act, review and improve on anything we’ve just learned. As you know, knowledge is not power. It is the potential of power. What you do with knowledge is where the power lies. Never before have we had a society filled with so many knowledgeable failures. We do not lack for knowledge. It is everywhere and most of it is entirely free. The problem is we expect to use all the ideas and get overwhelmed, thus becoming mentally paralyzed and are unable to act on anything. What we lack is real growth, improvement and development. You can mistake reading and keeping up with the action as improvement. So learning is not the problem. The lack of study and implementation is.

Please don’t just read this book and put it down or listen to this audio and move on. Read it, listen to this, summarize the key ideas and then write out how you’re going to implement those ideas into your life. Now, act, review and improve. Act again, review and improve until those ideas have affected results in your life. I suggest a study and growth plan under these time parameters. First is 21 days. Pick a new discipline, behavior, or habit you want to form and then commit to it for a minimum of 21 days. 21 days is a short enough period of time to give you hope of completion and long enough to form a new habit. I also suggest that you only work on one or two new habits and disciplines at a time. That’s a minimum of 17 new disciplines and habits that you can form over a period of an entire year. That will revolutionize your life. Think about it. 17 new disciplines and habits by next year. It has been said that we are one or two habits away from a major transformation. Imagine 17 of them.

Second, 90 days. Pick a theme of growth to work on and then commit to it for 90 days. In mastering the Rockefeller habits, Vern Harness talks about having a quarterly theme for your business. I think you should do that for your life as well. This could be a get fit theme or magical marriage or servant leader or dinner time dad, whatever significant improvement you’d like to make in your life. Focus on it for a 90 day stretch. The next time chunk, three years. With focused and concerted study, I have found that it takes about three years to get good at anything you set out to improve. Our microwave is the result expectation falsifies what it really takes for true transformational growth and improvement.

One of the most important skills and attitude you can develop is patients. Give yourself a break. Don’t expect to be an overnight sensation. There’s no such thing. Stick with your growth plan. It will pay huge dividends in the end. And lastly, 5 to 7 years. This is the time that it takes to develop mastery. You can master most any skill quality or attribute if you study, practice, review and improve over a 5 to 7 year period of time. You could become world class at most anything, but it takes focused study. All right, back to the book.

Let me share with you what motivates me. My core value in life is significance. My desire is to make a positive difference in other people’s lives. So to accomplish my goals, I need you to accomplish your goals. It is your testimonial of life-changing results I’m after. I want to receive your e-mail or letter, or to have you stop me in the airport next year (or even five or ten years from now), to tell me about the incredible results you’ve realized because of ideas you gained from this book. Only then will I know I have accomplished my goals, my objectives—that I am living up to my core values in life.

For you to get those results (and me, my testimonial), I know you have to take immediate action on your new insights and knowledge. Ideas uninvested are wasted. I don’t want that to happen. It’s now time to act on your new convictions. You now have the power, and I expect you to seize it!

You are ready to make dramatic improvements, right? Of course, the obvious answer is, “YES!” But you know by now that saying you’re ready to make the necessary changes and actually making them isn’t the same thing. To get different results, you’re going to have to do things differently.

No matter where you are, or what year it is when you find this book, if I could, I’d ask you these simple questions: “Look back on your life five years ago. Are you now where you’d thought you’d be five years later? Have you kicked the bad habits you had vowed to kick? Are you in the shape you wanted to be? Do you have the cushy income, the enviable lifestyle, and the personal freedom you expected? Do you have the vibrant health, abundant loving relationships, and the world-class skills you’d intended to have by this point in your life?” If not, why? Simple—choices. It’s time to make a new choice—choose to not let the next five years be a continuum of the last. Choose to change your life, once and for all.

Let’s make the next five years of your life fantastically different than the last five! My hope is that you’ve now removed your blinders. You know the truth about what it takes to earn success. You’ve got no more excuses. Like me, you too will refuse to be fooled by the latest gimmicks or become distracted by quick-fix enticements. You will stay focused on the simple but profound disciplines that will lead you in the direction of your desires. You know that success isn’t easy or overnight. You understand that when you’re committed to making moment-to-moment positive choices (despite the lack of visible or instant results), the Compound Effect will catapult you to heights that will astound you, bewilder your friends, family, and your competition. When you hold true to your why-power and stay consistent with your new behaviors and habits, momentum will carry you swiftly forward. And then, together, with that momentum and consistent, positive action, it will be impossible for the next five years to be more of the same. On the contrary, when you put the Compound Effect to work for you, you will experience a success I’m willing to bet you currently cannot imagine! It will be incredible.

I have one more valuable success principle to pass along to you. Whatever I want in life, I’ve found that the best way to get it is to focus my energy on giving to others. If I want to boost my confidence, I look for ways to help someone else feel more confident. If I want to feel more hopeful, positive, and inspired, I try to infuse that in someone else’s day. If I want more success for myself, the fastest way to get it is to go about helping someone else obtain it.

The ripple effect of helping others and giving generously of your time and energy is that you become the biggest beneficiary of your personal philanthropy. As the first simple and small step I’d like you to take in improving the trajectory of your life, I ask you to try this philosophy in your own life. If you’ve found value in this book, if it’s helped you in any way, consider giving a copy to five people whom you care about and want greater success for. The recipients could be relatives, friends, team members, vendors, your favorite local small-business owner, or someone you just met and would like to make a marked difference in their life. I know this sounds like it benefits me. It does. Remember, I am after the success testimonials. My goal is to make a difference in millions of people’s lives, but to do that, I need your help. But I promise you this: ultimately, it will be you who benefits the most. Your helping someone else find the ideas to gain greater success is the first step toward you exercising them in your own life. At the same time you could make a marked difference in the life of someone else. This book could forever alter the course of someone’s life… and it could be you who gives it to them. Without you, they might not ever find it.

Write down the five people you will give a copy of this book to:

Thank you for honoring me with your valuable time! I look forward to reading your success story.

To YOUR success!

Darren Hardy