The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less

by Richard Koch

Remember the main tenets of the 80/20 Principle: • The doctrine of the vital few and the trivial many: there are only a few things that ever produce important results. • Most efforts do not realize their intended results. • What you see is generally not what you get: there are subterranean forces at work. • It is usually too complicated and too wearisome to work out what is happening and it is also unnecessary: all you need to know is whether something is working or not and change the mix until it is; then keep the mix constant until it stops working. • Most good events happen because of a small minority of highly productive

forces; most bad things happen because of a small minority of highly destructive forces. • Most activity, en masse and individually, is a waste of time. It will not contribute materially to desired results.