Just take a second and ponder this...

“It’s not the big things that add up in the end; it’s the hundreds, thousands, or millions of little things that separate the ordinary from the extraordinary.” “Small, Smart Choices + Consistency + Time = RADICAL DIFFERENCE” - Darren Hardy

Powerful, huh?

Darren Hardy is the owner of Success Magazine, a multimillionaire, a sought after speaker, and the author of the book Compound Effect. His life is full of accolades now, but it definitely didn't start out that way.

He had a borderline abusive dad, a step mom that called him, "the other woman's son", and lots of turmoil that left him saying he had a horrible childhood. Despite his trial-stricken upbringing, he became a multimillionaire with many people who attribute their success to him or the inspiration he's given thru his company, Success Magazine.

How did he make the shift?

The rags to riches story he has would make you wonder, "How did he go from horrible childhood to a successful adulthood", right? Well, he attributes his success to something called the Compount Effect.

He says that the compound effect can work in your favor or in your demise.

“In essence, you make your choices, and then your choices make you.”- Darren Hardy

The Bad Compounding

When you boil down the compound effect, the most basic ingredient is our choices. Every day we make choices. We can choose to:

• Wake up late
• Take lots of naps
• Eat lots of sweets and salts
• Spend more than we make
• Waste time
• Avoid exercise
• Smoke, drink, or indulge in choice "privileges"
• Speak without consideration
• Sell by manipulation
• Have sex frivolously
• Scam people out of their hard earned money
• Lie, omit information, or exaggerate
• Make purchase after purchase; spiraling from program to program like a gambler but claiming to look for a way to "grow our businesses" (aka. Shiny Object Syndrome)
• and the list really goes on and on of the choices that could trigger that compound effect against our favor

Each of these choices probably won't show much of a countereffect the first time we attempt them. They may even feel good (or GREAT). As a result, we try again and again because we think, "Maybe we're exempt from the consequences of these" UNTIL they've become a habit, and the consequences start rearing their ugly heads!

You may know an addict, a person who seems to always struggle financially, a person who struggles with obesity, or a person with a sexually transmitted disease resulting from promiscuity. You may struggle with steering clear from some of these choices.

You're not alone. I'm sure not exempt.

The temptation is so sneaky. It says "Try me. It won't hurt", and it doesn't hurt the first time, the consequences pile up after continued pursuit: maybe 6 months down the line, maybe 1 year down the line, or who knows. No one is exempt from the compound effect.

“Your biggest challenge isn’t that you’ve intentionally been making bad choices. Heck, that would be easy to fix. Your biggest challenge is that you’ve been sleepwalking through your choices.” - Darren Hardy

The Good Compound Effect

In contrast, you can have bad habits and choose to replace them with different ones. Maybe you decide to...

• Switch out some sugar with a fruit
• Switch out wasted time with productive time
• Switch out consumption with creation
• Tell your abuser "I mean something" and stop putting up with their nonsense
• Switch TV time with blogging time
• Or, switch out movie money with investing money

These switches may not show results overnight either. Just like the negative compounding, the positive compounding may take 6 months, 1 year, and Darren Hardy says it usually takes two years! Over time, you'll start seeing results like what I'm seeing with my case study after 15 months of compounding effort: blogging until my back hurt, my eyes wouldn't stay open, and my bed seemed to call my name! Haha.

You may even see better results than me if you just focus on changing your habits: replacing old habits with new habits that build your business.

Habits that Compound into a Successful Affiliate Business

After having studied several different successful affiliate marketers, these are the habits I believe are most important to focus on to compound your way to an affiliate marketing business:

• Creating content aggressively
• Empathizing with an audience
• Finding a solution for the audience
• Presenting the solution to the audience
• Networking
• and, Continuing to grow and improve

Now, it's your turn...

• What stories can you share about how the compound effect has manifested in your lives?
• Do you believe it's compounding effort that brings you to or away from success?
• What habits did I exclude that are required to run a successful affiliate marketing business?

Leave your comments below. Engaging with you in the comments is one of my favorite parts of writing these posts, so I want to hear from you!