Have you heard of the Pareto Principle?

Not only would you have heard of this, but I believe that you might also know this quite well. It’s the idea, introduced in the 1790s by Vilfred Pareto, that 20% of our efforts produce 80 percent of our results. You can practically apply this to any area of your life and business to see its impact.

An example that you might be able to verify and relate with instantly.

20% of your clients generate 80% of your AUM or revenue.

OK. It might be 30%-70% in your case. I get it (don’t overthink now whether it is 20% or 30% or 40%) but the principle still applies.

I even wrote a post last week “The People Behind You”, highlighting this very issue.

Greg McKeown in his book “Essentialism”, wrote, “Much later in 1951, in his Quality Control Handbook, Joseph Moses Juran, one of the fathers of the quality movement, expanded on the Pareto Principle and called it “The Law of the Vital Few.”

His observation was that you could massively improve the quality of a product by resolving a tiny fraction of the problems. He found a willing test audience for this idea in Japan, which at the time had developed a rather poor reputation for producing low-cost, low-quality goods. By adopting a process in which a high percentage of effort and attention was channelled toward just those few things that were truly vital, he made the phrase “Made in Japan” take on a totally new meaning. And gradually, the quality revolution led to Japan’s rise as a global economic power.

Read the line marked in bold again and ask yourself a few questions:

1. What is the one thing that I could do now that is truly vital for my business and/or my life? If you can’t name one, go on and name a few.

2. What would happen if I channelled a high percentage of my effort and attention to this one thing (or these few things)?

Take your time. These are not easy questions to answer and will need some time, attention and energy.

You might want to (rather you should) invest at least 30 minutes to an hour in solitude. As Pablo Picasso said, “Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.” Your life and business are super important. Give them the time and attention they deserve.

At this point, do you find yourself saying “I don’t have time now or I will do it later”?

If that is so, simply do this now because if you don’t do this after you have finished this post, chances are you will not do this again.
So, find some quiet space with a notebook and meditate on your One Thing. Try to get out of your head for a minute! Your One Thing may not make sense rationally or in a spreadsheet, but you know it.
Write down your One Thing that, if you did, would have the biggest impact on your business and/or life in the new year.
I also want you to think about the thing that gets in your way. What’s your biggest blocker?
If you really don’t have time now, block an hour on your calendar for tomorrow and do this exercise. This is the most important meeting that you should conduct every week if not every day. A meeting with yourself to work ON the business (a post on this coming soon).

Greg added further, “Distinguishing the trivial many from the vital few can be applied to every kind of human endeavour large or small and has been done so persuasively by Richard Koch, author of several books on how to apply the Pareto Principle to everyday life. Indeed, examples are everywhere.”

Think of Warren Buffett, who has famously said, “Our investment philosophy borders on lethargy.” What he means is that he and his firm make relatively few investments and keep them for a long time. He owes 90% of his wealth to just ten investments. Sometimes what you don’t do is just as important as what you do (I have repeated this often). In short, he makes big bets on the essential few investment opportunities and says no to many merely good ones.

This brings me to the Power Law theory in which certain efforts actually produce exponentially more results than others. For example, as Nathan Myhrvold, the former chief technology officer for Microsoft, has said, “The top software developers are more productive than average software developers not by a factor of 10X or even 100X or even 1,000X but by 10,000X.” It may be an exaggeration, but it still makes the point that certain people and certain efforts produce exponentially better results than others.

The overwhelming reality is that we live in a world where almost everything is worthless, and a very few things are exceptionally valuable.

The same is true for our business.

One or maybe a few things can produce exponential results.

Changing a process might suddenly increase your capacity, drive more assets to the firm, help you grow and scale up your valuation.

This has happened to me personally as well as in business. By focusing on the exponential activities, we did in 4 years what we had achieved in 16 years before.

What are those things that can help you achieve exponential results?

• Time to Think (and work on the business)
• Time to Read
• Time to Write
• Prospecting
• Marketing to your Ideal Clients
• Developing your listening and conversational skills
• Building an Emotional Connect with your clients
• Delivering a wow experience to your clients throughout the year
• Getting a World Class Accountability Coach to work with you (Not Just Anyone)
• Running Amazing First Meetings (and All Meetings).
• Asking questions that make people think.
• Saying ‘NO’ more often
• Collaboration
• Leveraging People, Processes and Platforms
• Create more time to do all of the above by filtering out the noise, and mediocre people.

If you still can’t find time, please write to me and we will ensure you have loads of it.

Two quotes come to mind as I was writing the last 3 points.

The impossible is possible when people align with you. When you do things with people, not against them, the amazing resources of the higher self within are mobilized. – Gita Bellin

The world needs all of our power and love and energy and each of us has something to give. The trick is to find it and use it, to find it and give it away, so there will always be more. We can be lights for each other and through each other’s illumination we will see the way. – Merle Shain

On that note, I sincerely thank you for the opportunity to be in your inbox and in your life. Thank you for your valuable time, attention, feedback and love. It’s a great feeling to know that I have truly made a difference (however small or big) in your life.

There are many interesting things that I and my team are working on for all of you. As always, I look forward to hearing from you.

Wish you and your family a Very HappyRich New Year!

P.S. We are excited to be the Growth Partner for Network FP’s IPFP Summit scheduled on 19th January 2023. We have something very special for you at stall no. 32 at the summit venue. Don’t miss this one! We look forward to seeing you there.