There was an Italian economist by the name of Vilfredo Pareto (guys, see his pic ? below ) who studied the distribution of wealth in his country.
Pareto observed that 80% of the wealth in his country is owned by 20% of the population.
Later, management thinker Dr. Joseph Juran, called this 80/20 thingy, the Pareto Principle.
Dr. Juran observed that this principle can be applied universally.
Pareto’s principle is not only limited to businesses but can also be applied in your life, in your activities.
The rule of thumb then is that eighty percent of your successes will come from the twenty percent of the things you do.
Massive success can be gained by following the Pareto Principle. You don’t have to do everything perfectly.
Time is your constraint. Exert more effort into activities that would produce sizeable results.
If you have ten activities for the day, for example, identify two of these activities that you should put more effort into.
You could spend eighty percent of your time in them and expect to reap large gains.
Sorting out which activities belong to the twenty percent is painstaking work. But hey! The rewards are enormous.
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 5:20am