42: The 80/20 Rule…. And Why You Need to Know About It for Your Career!

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The 80-20 Rule (1)

Have you heard of the 80/20 rule? Episode 42 of the HTYC Podcast is all about it!

Also called:

  • The 80/20 law
  • Pareto’s Principle
  • Pareto’s Law
  • various other names…

It’s a rule that’s observed in nature over and over again. It seem’s to apply to… well just about everything!

So what is it?

It typically means 20% of something provides 80% of your results.

Wikipedia gives some common business examples

  • 80% of a company’s profits come from 20% of its customers
  • 80% of a company’s complaints come from 20% of its customers
  • 80% of a company’s profits come from 20% of the time its staff spend
  • 80% of a company’s sales come from 20% of its products

Want some more personal examples?

How about in school when you did group work 80% of the results (coordinating, project work, making sure that one guy didn’t show up to the presentation drunk) were typically done by 20% of the people

for those non math junkies out there if you have a group of 5 that is one person that is busting tail trying to get an “A” while everyone else just sort of follows their lead and is along for the ride!

What’s that, not a big enough sample size for you?

Then what about this:

Around 80% of the United States wealth is held by 20% of it’s people. (in fact since 1989 the top 20% have progressively even gained more ground see here and here

Boom!… how do you like “dem apples”

But this carries further than that!

What about how this actually relates to your career?

80% of the things you do daily are NOT moving your career in the direction you want it to go.

How do I eliminate the 20% of stuff that doesn’t work?

In this episode you will learn

-What the 80/20 rule is

-How you can leverage it for your career (whether you have your own business or work for someone else)

-Tactical advice to eliminate some of your 80%