When I was commissioned to produce an illustration about a column article titled "The Successful Men in China", 80/20 rule has come to my head. In fact, it applies to all successful stories in around the world.
80% of the land is owned by 20% of the population;
20% of the pea pods in his a garden contains 80% of the peas;
80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients, or your sales staff;
the richest 20% of the world's population is controlling 80% of the world's income;
80% of your complaints come from 20% of your customers;
80% of your profits come from 20% of the time you spend;
Microsoft noted that by fixing the top 20% most reported bugs, 80% of the errors and crashes would be eliminated;
20% of the hazards will account for 80% of the injuries;
20% of patients have been found to use 80% of health care resources;
criminology studies have found 80% of crimes are committed by 20% of criminals;
the writer Colin Wilson ascertained that 20% of humans are "power men", suited to governing (and, often, exploiting) the other 80% of humanity;
80% of effects comes from 20% of causes;
80% of the food is trash food and only 20% of the food gives you 80% best nutrition;
if you find you are often agreed by 80% of the people around you then you are not one of those 20% being the brightest who constantly comes up with the greatest ideas;
Among all business plans there is only 20% considered to be out of the box that leads to success taking up 80% of the market share.
80%, considered to be the mainstream, can never reach the shore one dreams of.
The good thing about the 80/20 rule is that you don't have to understand statistics to be a believer. This rule holds true in a very rough sense to an 80/20 ratio, however, in many cases the ratio can be a lot higher - 99/1 may be closer to reality.
In many cases we find that we are not born to be one of 20. But during some times in life plenty of 80/20 relate to our core competencies and passions. Assuming 80% of your outcomes come from 20% of your inputs you'll find some of your time is spent procrastinating or working inefficiently doing activities that provide very little benefit, that means, struggling and wasting time performing activities you don't enjoy or you are not good at. And it has to be corrected.
To start living 80/20 today you have only to do one thing - focus your energies on what you enjoy. The chance of reaching your dreamed shore will become higher. Even it may not let you become one of 20 at the end it at least guarantees you a happy one in the stream.
My column illustration titled "Out of the Box" | July 2013
