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A review by chrysfey
The Compound Effect: Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success by Darren Hardy
2.0
I did get a few nice tips and techniques out of this book (like Weekly Rhythm Registers, building bookend morning and evening routines, and the habits and behavior formula), but there were things that bothered me.
First, Darren Hardy doesn’t list or mention a single woman who is a superachiever or highly success in their career. There’s a list of six men at the beginning of Chapter 4 as examples of “superachievers.” Six men, from CEOs to athletes. Why not list some women there? Why not make it equal 3 men, 3 women? Why not acknowledge your female and feminine audience and show you also notice and pay attention to and learn from smart women? There are many successful women out there. After all, there have been women featured in SUCCESS magazine (which he owns), proving that women are also successful in their fields and read SUCCESS magazine.
I wonder if this book were to be given an update with a new edition (it was first published in 2011) if the author would include more women as inspirational references. An easy one would be to swap out the mentions and story for Michael Phelps for Simone Biles.
But that’s not all… There’s not a single quote by a successful woman throughout the entire book. Nor is there a reference to a woman’s technique or routine for success as an example to support his theories. Only in the final chapter is Oprah’s name dropped, which I was wondering why she wasn’t mentioned in the very beginning of the book, but she’s not discussed because of a technique or routine. No, what he decides to talk about is Oprah’s generosity and how she gave an entire audience new cars. Me: Really? Oprah made “a-ha” moments legendary and that’s what you go with? So, no, this mention of Oprah and her quote “Everybody gets a car” does not count.
He totally missed a great example of a morning routine (for Chapter 4) in not talking about Michelle Obama’s routine while she was First Lady, in which she’d wake up at 4:30 am to exercise, even before Barrack would get to the gym. I read that in O Magazine when Oprah shared the cover with Michelle in 2009. Maybe Darren should read O Magazine…
Only a few times were women mentioned and they were people Darren helped by giving his advice to them and supposedly making their lives better.
Also, there’s four pages of praise for his book (24 quotes in total) and there’s only ONE quote by women on the third page of praises. (I looked them up to be sure.)
All of that is telling in my opinion.
The other things that bugged me… “thunderous thighs;” how many examples had to do with losing weight and being thin as the ultimate goal, which encourages fat shaming; and his overall tone and how self-absorbed he is.
Also, I didn’t like how he says his friend didn’t get a job because he didn’t follow Darren’s over-the-top, aggressive advice of buttering people up with tons of gifts and finding anyone he knows who knows someone in an organization to bug them and get them to put in a good word for him. That advice made me cringe. But so did the fact that Darren believes his friend lost the job because he didn’t follow Darren’s advice to make an impression. This is something that I noticed a couple of other times. Darren believes that anyone who doesn’t follow his advice and fails is proof that he’s not just right but better. That’s the tone he gives off.
Finally, the book is very short, but it’s way too long for this concept. It could’ve been COMPOUNDed into a concise, informative article for his magazine and had a bigger EFFECT (see what I did there?), minus the annoying attitude of being superior (hopefully) and the bits that rubbed me the wrong way.
First, Darren Hardy doesn’t list or mention a single woman who is a superachiever or highly success in their career. There’s a list of six men at the beginning of Chapter 4 as examples of “superachievers.” Six men, from CEOs to athletes. Why not list some women there? Why not make it equal 3 men, 3 women? Why not acknowledge your female and feminine audience and show you also notice and pay attention to and learn from smart women? There are many successful women out there. After all, there have been women featured in SUCCESS magazine (which he owns), proving that women are also successful in their fields and read SUCCESS magazine.
I wonder if this book were to be given an update with a new edition (it was first published in 2011) if the author would include more women as inspirational references. An easy one would be to swap out the mentions and story for Michael Phelps for Simone Biles.
But that’s not all… There’s not a single quote by a successful woman throughout the entire book. Nor is there a reference to a woman’s technique or routine for success as an example to support his theories. Only in the final chapter is Oprah’s name dropped, which I was wondering why she wasn’t mentioned in the very beginning of the book, but she’s not discussed because of a technique or routine. No, what he decides to talk about is Oprah’s generosity and how she gave an entire audience new cars. Me: Really? Oprah made “a-ha” moments legendary and that’s what you go with? So, no, this mention of Oprah and her quote “Everybody gets a car” does not count.
He totally missed a great example of a morning routine (for Chapter 4) in not talking about Michelle Obama’s routine while she was First Lady, in which she’d wake up at 4:30 am to exercise, even before Barrack would get to the gym. I read that in O Magazine when Oprah shared the cover with Michelle in 2009. Maybe Darren should read O Magazine…
Only a few times were women mentioned and they were people Darren helped by giving his advice to them and supposedly making their lives better.
Also, there’s four pages of praise for his book (24 quotes in total) and there’s only ONE quote by women on the third page of praises. (I looked them up to be sure.)
All of that is telling in my opinion.
The other things that bugged me… “thunderous thighs;” how many examples had to do with losing weight and being thin as the ultimate goal, which encourages fat shaming; and his overall tone and how self-absorbed he is.
Also, I didn’t like how he says his friend didn’t get a job because he didn’t follow Darren’s over-the-top, aggressive advice of buttering people up with tons of gifts and finding anyone he knows who knows someone in an organization to bug them and get them to put in a good word for him. That advice made me cringe. But so did the fact that Darren believes his friend lost the job because he didn’t follow Darren’s advice to make an impression. This is something that I noticed a couple of other times. Darren believes that anyone who doesn’t follow his advice and fails is proof that he’s not just right but better. That’s the tone he gives off.
Finally, the book is very short, but it’s way too long for this concept. It could’ve been COMPOUNDed into a concise, informative article for his magazine and had a bigger EFFECT (see what I did there?), minus the annoying attitude of being superior (hopefully) and the bits that rubbed me the wrong way.