There are times in life when everything breaks. A relationship ends. A career collapses. Your health deteriorates, your confidence is gone, and suddenly, you don’t recognize yourself anymore. The outside world keeps going, but inside, you’re stuck, confused and unsure how to start over.
Not long ago, I listened to an interview with billionaire investor Bill Ackman, the CEO of Perishing Square, that got me to pause. At one point in his life, Ackman found himself in the middle of a perfect storm: his hedge fund was under massive pressure, he was caught in painful litigation, going through a divorce, and facing the public scrutiny that comes with high-profile failure. He described that moment candidly: “I had fallen from grace.”
And yet, what struck me wasn’t just how low he had gone, it was how he came back. Slowly. Quietly. Not through some genius financial move, but through a decision to focus on personal compounding.
He started by reclaiming what he could control quickly: his health. He cut out sugar. He got serious about sleep. He exercised daily. He surrounded himself with people he loved and who loved him back. That was the base layer. No big decision. No reinventions. Just small, repeatable, positive changes, compounded over time.
That concept, personal compounding, hit me deeply. We hear about compound interest in finance, how small amounts of money, consistently invested, grow into something substantial. But we forget that life works the same way. Our habits, our thoughts, our energy, all of them accumulate. If you can get just 0.1% better each day, the growth won’t be visible at first. But keep going, and over weeks and months, the effect is clearer.
The challenge is that when we’re in trouble, and really down, we want immediate change. We look for a complete change, a breakthrough, a before-and-after story. So we make dramatic promises, particularly in business. We decide to change everything at once. But what works, almost every time, is the opposite. It’s subtle. It’s boring. It’s slow and it does not show immediate progress.
It’s drinking more water. It’s going to bed on time. It’s calling someone instead of isolating. It’s waking on the park across the street. It’s eating something that you love and that is good for you. It’s exercising even when you don’t feel like it. These acts are almost invisible actions but they signal a change. And most importantly, they are achievable even when life feels unmanageable.
After 30 days of small, steady effort, something begins to shift. Not dramatically, but noticeably. You start showing up for yourself again. You make decisions with slightly more clarity. Your energy stabilizes. Your inner voice softens. You’re no longer spiraling—you’re rising.
That’s the power of personal compounding. But it also comes with a warning: the voice of perfectionism will try to ruin it. It will tell you that missing one workout means you’ve failed and you have to start over. That eating one cookie means you’ve undone all your progress. That if you can’t do it all, you shouldn’t do anything. That voice is a liar. Progress is not about never missing. It’s about returning again and again and again.
It’s also important to resist the urge to compare. Everyone’s challenge is different. What looks like a small win for someone else might be a massive step for you. That doesn’t make it less valid, it makes it yours and you should celebrate it. Compounding is not about measuring up. It’s about building something new from where you are now.
When I think back on Ackman’s story, what inspires me most isn’t the financial comeback or the eventual success. It’s the way he started. By choosing health. By protecting sleep. By cutting sugar. By surrounding himself with people who reminded him of who he was, even when he had forgotten. That’s not just a recovery strategy, it’s an effective action plan for life.
So if you’re in a rough place, or trying to rebuild after a loss, let this be your reminder: You don’t need to overhaul your life in a weekend. You don’t need to feel inspired or “ready.” You just need to take one small action today that moves you a fraction forward.
Then do it again tomorrow. And let it compound over time.
Because reputation isn’t something you earn back. It’s something you build, bit by bit, by showing up for yourself every day.