80-20

I was inspired to read more about Pareto's 80-20 principle after watching Wong Tze Wah's 2001 performance on video a month ago. Yes, one could actually learn a lot by watching Wong, a stand-up comedian I had mentioned in my earlier post and whose show I would be attending in December. Richard Koch, who claimed that he wrote the first book dedicated to the application of Pareto's 80-20 principle, surfaced during my idly trawls online. His claim to fame was through applying the principle, whose essential message is 80% of results are achieved through 20% of efforts, in not only business but also in managing money and personal relationships, and reaching for happiness. In short, he advocates a total lifestyle approach towards practicing the 80-20 principle. What it means is to be very clear about where one's strengths lie and leverage them, and devote effort, resources and time to 20% of those activities that produces the greatest impact on every aspect of our lives, be it in work or personal life. It is more than being efficient; it is about being effective which means getting more of what we want with less. The principle is powerful because what it advocates is counter-intuitive but evident everywhere.

Conventional wisdom says input=output (or more commonly, garbage in, garbage out). 80-20 says - the doctrine of the vital few and trivial many:

• There are only a few things that ever produce important results.
• Most efforts do not realize their intended results.
• What you see is generally not what you get: there are subterranean forces at work.

One of his many suggestions that stuck to me and which I have interpreted and applied consciously and diligently is that whenever I do something, it must fulfill the two requirements:

1. It must be unconventional. Not radical or earth-shaking, just slightly different from the herd. I believe that doing things differently may not guarantee success but successful people are always different.
2. It must promise to multiply effectiveness.
   

The results are amazing and sometimes quite unexpected. This is probably because the principle requires me to look at and think about things differently. Kind of like taking photos from an unusual angle and being surprised at what you get.