The Pareto Principle

You know it by another name: The 80/20 Rule.

80% of your quarter-hours come from the top 20% of your cume.

80% of your business comes from the top 20% of your clientele.

Apparently, it can be proven in every field, in every culture, and in every century. That must be why it's also known as the Law of the Vital Few.

We probably don't spend enough time really thinking about it, because it may also be a law that governs our personal life. It works whether we believe in it or not, so it's a bit like God in that way.

What might be possible if we began to think about how we use time and how we connect with others based on this law?

"I think there is a problem in the modern age and the consumer society because we have been conditioned to think that if we make a lot of money or become famous or buy expensive products, then life will have meaning. But you can't take meaning from external artifacts or even from the admiration of millions of fans. Meaning is intrinsic and personal."

That's Richard Koch, author of The 80/20 Principle, a book well worth your time.

"I make it a personal rule never to do anything that I don't really care about. Try it. Write down the three to five things in the world that you care most about - they could be people or causes or abstract qualities such as truth and beauty. I doubt that your car will figure on that list."

"You have to stop doing things to discover what is truly important."

"We are social animals and nothing is more important than the people we spend the most time with, and the quality of our relationships with them."

"One of the great advantages of starting a business or a voluntary group or even a gang is that you get to choose who to include in it. There are thousands, millions or even billions of people out there you haven't met yet, and a very few of them, maybe just one of them, could add immense meaning to your life."

"People are not interchangeable. All are unique. Only a few are truly remarkable, warm, outward-looking, and ideally equipped to help make you the best person you could be."

I have always believed some people inside your organization really are irreplaceable. That has not been a popular viewpoint since consolidation, but it doesn't make it less true.

Yes, I've found a book purporting to show a law, of which I was already aware, that proves something I already believe. That's not the point of this post.

The point is for you to start thinking of the 80/20 Rule in your personal life, not just as it governs ratings or revenue.

The point is for you to consider those rare relationships that have led to stunning success or amazing personal growth and happiness, and nurture them, regardless of company policy or budgets or any of the other excuses we've come up with to slash staffing and support.

Find the causes, the ideas, and the people that matter most to you. Invest most of your time in them. Stop wasting time on all the other stuff, the stuff that doesn't matter in the end.

Nurture the one or two unique individuals who've helped you achieve in the past because these are the very people who will help you achieve in the future.

It's not my opinion. It is apparently a natural law of our universe which, like physics, can be denied but not ignored.

You don't have to believe it to make it true.

And that's a powerful insight.