Too few have too much money.
But that’s the way the world works.
What do you mean, that’s the way the world works?
It’s called the Paredo Principle. It’s also known as the 80-20 Rule. The 80% to 20% is an actual percentage, but the world works based on a small edge making a big difference.
I don’t understand.
Well, the reason we have airplanes and man can fly today is because of the small edge at the leading edge of a wing that provides lift. That’s a small change leading to a big difference.
Another example is the wealthy, since you already commented on it. I believe you said, ‘too few have too much money.’
Yes, I did.
If you look at the list of the wealthiest people in America and you rank them in order of wealth, you’ll find out of the top 20, the top 4 or 5 have 80% of the wealth. But it continues… If you look at the wealth throughout the world, 20% of the world’s population control 80% of the world’s wealth.
But that’s so unfair.
It may be, but if you divvy up the wealth equally and let the economy function without government interference, soon 20% of the people will again control 80% of the wealth.
But let’s make this more concrete in a way you can do something about it.
OK… I’m not sure where this is leading, but I’m listening.
Did you know that 20% of the employees at a business do 80% of the work? Did you know that 80% of the value you provide your employer comes from 20% of what you do? Did you know 80% of the sales a business makes comes from 20% of its customer base?
What that means is a smart business owner would:
- Figure out who the 20% are so they can focus on employing more people like them
- Figure out what each employee does that provides 80% of the value they give me throughout the work week and have each employee work exclusively on that task
- Figure out who those 20% of the customers are, determine what commonalities they possess and then market to attract more people like those 20%ers.
But how do you use it for yourself?
As I said, 80% of the value you provide your employer or your customer base comes from 20% of your efforts. Doesn’t it make sense to determine what tasks you do which provides 80% of your value.
It also calculates to a 2ndary and tertiary level. So 20% of the 20% yields 80% of the 80% of the value. Which means, in a 40-hour work week, something you do for 1.6 hours a week yields 64% of your results.
Doesn’t it make sense to focus on that task exclusively and become THE expert in that task.
Let me show you with money.
You make, in this demonstration, $2000 a week, or $400 a day. You provide $1600 of value during 8 of your work-week and only $400 of value the remaining 32 hours. Taking this to the next level, you provide $1280 of value to your customers within 1.6 hours of your work-week.
That’s pretty crazy, isn’t it?
Isn’t it reasonable to focus on what you do in those 1.6 hours and do that as exclusively as you can. In an optimal week, you’d earn $32,000 a week as that’s $1280 x 25 (1.6 hours x 25 = 40 hours a week).
Do you focus your energies on this? Probably not…
Then why should you complain about those ‘rich people’ who do leverage their time like this when you could easily be one of those rich people, earning $1.44 million a year while working only 45 weeks a year. Think of the help you could provide others with your money when you start thinking in this way.
