20 percent of the the input will generate 80 percent of the results. The remaining 80 percent of the input will generate only 20 percent of the results.
This is not a mild observation, this is a fact of life, a phenomenon that is undeniable.
What is the 20 percent of input that you do to get the 80 percent? Identify that, and do only that. You will have so much free time that you will feel almost ‘negligible’. That’s alright, because in the grand scheme of things, you are negligible, a speck in the Sahara, a paper boat riding the Niagara.
If you feel that you can’t do this or that because you don’t really have the time, you are being ignorant. I have tons of examples – tons! – from not only other people’s lives, but my own, where the 80/20 principle has helped in increasing overall productivity while decreasing the overall time spent to achieve it.
The 80 20 Principle
That is how it is. That is the way God has set up this place. Learn it. And live.
Our notions of cause and effect are symmetrical, but that is not how they are in real life. A small cause can have such a massive effect, and a number of large causes may not be able to give any effect whatsoever. Identification of that ‘important few’ causes is why you’d bother thinking about this in the first place.
Some Examples:
- By just being able to hire the right person, you as a business owner can free yourself from pretty much everything that goes in running a business
- By reading 20% of the book, you may know 80% of its content! (I have tried this on numerous occasions while at college and this has always worked – students call it selective study. It is selective and, if done right, is a magnificent example of the power of the 80/20 principle)
- You can pray all you want to God – but a simple act of kindness to another fellow being, especially when you know you don’t ‘have to’ be kind, bears greater rewards from the One Above (all those nights spent in prayer is the 80 percent you can easily replace, if you want to!)
- You may fall in love within seconds, and that few seconds might as well affect the remaining years of your life.
- One sixer by Javed Miandad in the last ball of the last over can cement his place in the National Cricket Team for years to come.
- The right words spoken to your spouse can replace all the expensive dinners and outings that you otherwise think you’d need to do to convey your feelings.
I can, you can be sure, go for miles with this.
Identify the 20 percent!
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Mr. Momekh i live in lahore. i have not any education or any other knowledge in this field. i have the sources but not but not know well that how to use them. please guide me about it. i have land, tube well etc. i also want want to visit some cattle\dairy farms. please guide me.
Need some instructions about starting a cattle or dairy farm in desert area near Bhakkar district. especially which is the nearest area where i can purchase animals. Thanks
I am much more interested to know the formula 80/20. how does it work ? and how to install things with the same ratio?Actually i am interested to make a dairy farm in Pakistan ( Teh . Gujar Khan).If someone experienced person can write me the right way to prepare a successful dairy farm.
The ‘formula’ is very nicely explained by Richard Koch in his book The 80/20 Principle. I have the same book (I actually ordered it all the way from Amreeeeka to here in Lahore!)… I highly recommend it. Click here to see the book on Amazon, you can buy it online if you want.
I apply these principles as told in the book to NOT ONLY my dairy farm, but pretty much everything else.
I wish you all the best. If you need to know something more specific about the 80/20, do ask!
I first read about the 80/20 principle – although not in these words – while studying computer science. It is now a pretty well-understood concept that almost 80 percent of the users of a software use only about 20 percent of the features. Hence companies like 37Signals take advantage of this fact and produce remarkable software quickly and cheaply.
agree 80/ 20 , direction should be right
Man this is one good and mind boggling theory………
And you left us with the most difficult task ‘identifying the 20 percent’. We are in a habit of eating ‘pakki pakai kher’.
I believe one’s personality can depict that what suits him best, that would be the also thing one love to do. If we do what we love to do, then there are chances to get the maximum output; 80% output in just 20% of time.
That is, I figure, why most people remain where they are; they don’t think.
And that is also the reason, I figure, why Quran stresses the importance of ‘thinking’, knowing well that we as humans have a habit of just ‘following the crowd’ and not learning.