There’s a saying that goes: "He who Knows How Will Always have A Job He Who Knows Why Will Always Be The Boss"

I love that saying because to me it is an affirmation of the 80/20 Law? However let’s not get ahead of ourselves…let me explain the 80/20 Law just in case you have never heard of it.

The 80/20 Law

The 80/20 rule goes by several names which include the following:

⇒The 80/20 Law

⇒ Pareto’s Law

⇒Law of the Vital Few

⇒Law of the Trivial Many

The 80/20 Law was the principle that was first suggested by Joseph M. Juran, a management thinker, in resepect to the observations of Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto that 80% of Italy’s income resided in the hands of just 20% of the population.

As it is the 80/20 Rule is possibly the single greatest time and labor-saving application you known to mankind (and that is no exaggeration; you’ll soon see why).

Basically what the Law of the Vital Few states is that just 20% of what you do is responsible for 80% of what you accomplish. Put another way, if you think of effort as input and accomplishment as output then 20% of your input is responsible for 80% of your output.

Note that despite the fact that the 80/20 Rule is attributed an 80/20 percentage ratio, that ratio may flucuate. Thus in a real world scenario the 80/20 Rule may actually be a 10/90 Rule where 10 percent of your efforts are responsible for 90% of your accomplishments!

Some Real World Scenarios of The 80/20 Rule

1. As previously mentioned economist Vilfredo Pareto observed that 80% of any nation’s wealth typically resides with 20% of that nation’s population. This concept can be expanded to encompass the entire planet in that 80% of the world’s resources is controlled by 20% of the world’s population.

2. In the business environment 80% of the revenue earned by any given company is generated through the activity and efforts of 20% ofg its employees. And correspondingly 80% of all salary allocated goes to 20% of the very same staff (think mega-bonuses).

3. From an environmental perspective 20% of the world’s nations are responsible for 80% of the world’s pollution as are 20% of those same nations responsible for using uo 80% of the world’s natural resources.

4. In any given company/enterprise 80% of its profit is derived from the 20% of its productsa and/or department activity!