WHY LESS IS MORE: THE PARETO PRINCIPLE IN A NUTSHELL - ALBERT ELISHA OBERDORFER
The idea of working less to achieve more sounds counter-intuitive, right? Yet, an Italian economist by the name of Wilfredo Pareto discovered a powerful principle that says that the majority of results is the result of a minority of causes. Pareto noted an 80/20 ratio. 20 % of something causes 80% of the results. And vice versa: 20% of input causes only 20% of the results. If this is true—and countless studies have shown this is to be the case in all areas of life—then we should do less of what doesn’t work, and focus more on what does. So we can achieve more by working less. Find out how you can apply the Pareto principles in all areas of your life by doing less, not more. You will be amazed.
The idea of working less to achieve more sounds counter-intuitive, right?
Yet, an Italian economist by the name of Wilfredo Pareto discovered a powerful principle that says that the majority of results is the result of a minority of causes.
Pareto noted an 80/20 ratio.
20 % of something causes 80% of the results.
And vice versa: 20% of input causes only 20% of the results.
If this is true—and countless studies have shown this is to be the case in all areas of life—then we should do less of what doesn’t work, and focus more on what does.
So we can achieve more by working less.
Find out how you can apply the Pareto principles in all areas of your life by doing less, not more.
You will be amazed.
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L e s s<br />
is<br />
Why<br />
M o r e<br />
The Pareto Principle<br />
in a nutshell<br />
How<br />
you can<br />
boost your productivity<br />
by working less<br />
<strong>ALBERT</strong> EL<strong>IS</strong>HA <strong>OBERDORFER</strong><br />
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This book is for all who are striving for<br />
excellence and would like to be more<br />
effective in all areas of life.<br />
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4<br />
What if it’s the wrong tree?
WORK<strong>IN</strong>G HARD <strong>IS</strong><br />
NOT ALWAYS <strong>THE</strong> BEST<br />
TH<strong>IN</strong>G TO DO.<br />
This sounds counter-intuitive.<br />
Because we have been told that it is hard<br />
work that makes the day.<br />
But is that so?<br />
The answer is, “yes, and no.”<br />
It depends.<br />
What is, if you are busy cutting down a<br />
tree, but after a while, you find out that it’s<br />
the wrong tree.<br />
In other words, working hard is a good<br />
thing.<br />
But, you need to make sure that you are<br />
doing the right thing.<br />
Because if what you are doing yields<br />
minimal results, then it is time to re-think.<br />
And perhaps find something that yields<br />
better results.<br />
Instead of plowing on.<br />
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Working smart—this is what it is all about.<br />
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Instead of doing something fundamentally<br />
flawed.<br />
In other words, we should not mistake<br />
being busy with being productive.<br />
Some people may be inherently lazy, but<br />
they are very smart.<br />
If they only do things that bring them<br />
results, they are better off than people who<br />
are super diligent but are doing things that<br />
don’t bring them results.<br />
Robert Koch poignantly puts it like this:<br />
One of my favorite quotations comes—<br />
rather oddly perhaps—from one of the<br />
Prussian army officers called Erich von<br />
Manstein, who had this to say about his<br />
people. He said,<br />
“There are only four types of officers. First,<br />
there are the lazy, stupid ones” Now did he<br />
suggest firing these people? Not at all. He<br />
said, “Leave them alone. They do no harm.”<br />
Because at least they are lazy. “Second,<br />
there are the hard-working, intelligent<br />
ones.” Now, they are good, obviously. They<br />
make excellent staff officers ensuring that<br />
every aspect of the plan is very carefully<br />
considered. “And third, there are the hardworking,<br />
stupid ones. Now, these people,”<br />
he said, “are a menace. They must be fired<br />
at once. They create irrelevant work for<br />
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Results are what matter.
everybody. And finally, there the intelligent<br />
lazy ones. Now, these people are suited for<br />
the highest office.”<br />
So the good general was suggesting that<br />
whether you are smart or intelligent, it is<br />
actually much better to be lazy. Is this a<br />
silly paradox?<br />
Visualize it. Do you think that Warren Buffet<br />
is busy frantically crunching numbers at<br />
his desk?<br />
Do you think this is what Ruppert Murdoch<br />
spends his time doing? Do you imagine<br />
that Jim Clark does that?<br />
In other words, it’s smart work that makes<br />
the day.<br />
It’s about results. It’s not about being busy<br />
for the sake of being busy.<br />
We need to ask ourselves the question: “Is<br />
what I am doing bringing results?”<br />
If yes, then we should be thinking of ways<br />
to do more of what brings the results.<br />
If the answer to this question is no, then we<br />
should be thinking of how we can stop or<br />
replace those activities altogether.<br />
This is what the Pareto principle is all<br />
about.<br />
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MR <strong>PARETO</strong>.<br />
<strong>THE</strong> <strong>PARETO</strong> <strong>PR<strong>IN</strong>CIPLE</strong> is named after<br />
an Italian economist called Vilfredo Pareto.<br />
He realized that 20 percent of people owned<br />
80 percent of the land in Italy in his time.<br />
Then he started looking at the pea pods in<br />
his gardens and discovered an interesting<br />
principle.<br />
Twenty percent of the pea pods were<br />
yielding eighty percent of the peas.<br />
And eighty percent of the peapods were<br />
yielding only 20 percent of the peas.<br />
Interestingly, not all the pea pods were<br />
yielding the same number of peas.<br />
So there was a fundamental disparity.<br />
This is what the Pareto principle is about.<br />
Not all things have equal value.<br />
Some things that we do will yield more<br />
significant results than others.<br />
The Pareto principle is about finding out<br />
what works.<br />
So we can then focus on what works.<br />
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And do more of it.<br />
And focus less on what doesn’t work.<br />
And do less of it.<br />
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TH<strong>IN</strong>K FIRST.<br />
<strong>IN</strong> O<strong>THE</strong>R WORDS, before we swing<br />
into action and start doing something, we<br />
should think.<br />
First.<br />
Time invested in thinking first is time spent<br />
well.<br />
Time invested in planning is time spent<br />
that yields a very profitable return.<br />
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TOOLS FOR TH<strong>IN</strong>K<strong>IN</strong>G.<br />
<strong>THE</strong> <strong>PARETO</strong> <strong>PR<strong>IN</strong>CIPLE</strong> provides us<br />
with a valuable thinking tool.<br />
Because it causes us to focus on results.<br />
All our thinking out to be results-focused.<br />
What matters is results.<br />
Is what I am doing producing the results?<br />
If it is, I need to try and further improve<br />
whatever it is that I am doing.<br />
But if it isn’t producing the results on the<br />
level that I have envisioned, then perhaps<br />
it is time to start doing things differently.<br />
Perhaps it is time to do something different<br />
altogether.<br />
Something that produces result.<br />
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The key is to<br />
do more of<br />
what works<br />
and less of<br />
what doesn’t<br />
work.<br />
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Working<br />
smart brings<br />
results.<br />
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CONTENTS<br />
WORK<strong>IN</strong>G HARD <strong>IS</strong> NOT ALWAYS <strong>THE</strong> BEST TH<strong>IN</strong>G<br />
TO DO. 5<br />
MR <strong>PARETO</strong>. 11<br />
TH<strong>IN</strong>K FIRST. 15<br />
TOOLS FOR TH<strong>IN</strong>K<strong>IN</strong>G. 17<br />
1 <strong>THE</strong> DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SUCCESS AND<br />
FAILURE <strong>IS</strong> <strong>THE</strong> STRATEGY. 25<br />
2 KAIZEN. 31<br />
3 <strong>THE</strong> W<strong>IN</strong>N<strong>IN</strong>G EDGE. 33<br />
4 <strong>THE</strong> TIPP<strong>IN</strong>G PO<strong>IN</strong>T. 35<br />
5 <strong>PARETO</strong> ANALYS<strong>IS</strong>. 37<br />
6 FOCUS ON <strong>THE</strong> ESSENTIALS. 39<br />
7 WORK HALF, DOUBLE YOUR <strong>IN</strong>COME. 41<br />
8 <strong>LESS</strong> <strong>IS</strong> <strong>MORE</strong>. 45<br />
9 FOCUS ON WHAT <strong>IS</strong> IMPORTANT FIRST. 47<br />
10 D<strong>IS</strong>ENTANGLE. 49<br />
11 GOLDEN HOURS. 51<br />
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12 BRA<strong>IN</strong> POWER. 53<br />
CONCLUSION. 55<br />
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1 <strong>THE</strong> DIFFERENCE<br />
BETWEEN SUCCESS<br />
AND FAILURE <strong>IS</strong> <strong>THE</strong><br />
STRATEGY.<br />
FOR 2 YEARS, the owner of the coffee<br />
shop, a lady in her late 40s, was struggling.<br />
She tried everything.<br />
Offer the students fresh sandwiches.<br />
Egg tarts.<br />
Fast food, like grilled pork on a stick<br />
and glutenous rice that students could eat<br />
between classes.<br />
Trays of all types of finger foods.<br />
Students would come into the shop, and<br />
then they had to stand in a cue and wait<br />
until she or one of her helpers had prepared<br />
a drink.<br />
It took ages.<br />
The problem wasn’t with the location of<br />
the shop.<br />
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Her shop was located in a prime spot.<br />
On the ground floor of the Faculty of<br />
Humanities of Chiang Mai University.<br />
The place was frequented with hundreds, if<br />
not thousands of students daily.<br />
Eventually, she had to close.<br />
And other owners took over.<br />
They restructured the coffee shop entirely<br />
and turned it to be an outlet of drinks.<br />
In the previous place, students could come<br />
in and sit down.<br />
But the new owners turned the place into a<br />
takeaway shop.<br />
So students could grab drinks on their way<br />
to and from classes.<br />
They didn’t offer any food, only some dry<br />
food, like candies and cookies.<br />
They also installed a cashier with a loud<br />
ring tone.<br />
Every time someone would purchase<br />
something, the cashier would ring out, and<br />
the sound could be heard from afar off.<br />
Now the place is booming.<br />
The owners are selling drinks like crazy.<br />
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All you can hear when you get near to the<br />
place is the constant ringing of the cashier.<br />
What had changed?<br />
The new owners came up with a unique<br />
selling strategy.<br />
One that worked.<br />
And that made all the difference.<br />
No amount of working hard could have<br />
improved the first coffee shop.<br />
The difference between failure and success<br />
was the strategy.<br />
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It’s all about the mindset.
2 KAIZEN.<br />
KAIZEN means continual improvement.<br />
According to the Pareto principle, a little<br />
change can have significant effects.<br />
In a business, for example, the rule is that<br />
twenty percent of the customers generate<br />
eighty percent of the income.<br />
In other words, some customers generate a<br />
disproportionate amount of revenue.<br />
It will have disproportionate effects if you<br />
can identify them and find ways to serve<br />
them better.<br />
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3 <strong>THE</strong> W<strong>IN</strong>N<strong>IN</strong>G EDGE.<br />
YOU DO NOT need to be much better<br />
than other service providers.<br />
You do not need to be hugely better than<br />
others.<br />
Being just a little bit better than others will<br />
give you the winning edge.<br />
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4 <strong>THE</strong> TIPP<strong>IN</strong>G PO<strong>IN</strong>T.<br />
<strong>THE</strong> CONCEPT of the tipping point is<br />
that if you have that little cutting edge over<br />
your competitors—over time—things will<br />
turn into your favor.<br />
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5 <strong>PARETO</strong> ANALYS<strong>IS</strong>.<br />
DO<strong>IN</strong>G a Pareto analysis means you are<br />
trying to figure out what are the things that<br />
make a real difference.<br />
For example, there will be a few customers<br />
in a business who will generate the majority<br />
of the revenue.<br />
This means that not all customers are the<br />
same.<br />
Focus on the customers that bring in the<br />
most revenue,<br />
Fin find out how you can serve them better.<br />
This will have a more significant effect<br />
than if you are trying to please all your<br />
customers.<br />
Or let’s say in the area of a relationship.<br />
If you can find out what your partner likes<br />
and then zoom in on those things, it will<br />
have a disproportionately positive effect<br />
on your relationship.<br />
The same goes for all areas of life.<br />
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I am faster than you!
6 FOCUS ON <strong>THE</strong><br />
ESSENTIALS.<br />
TH<strong>IS</strong> <strong>IS</strong> key.<br />
Focus on the essentials first.<br />
Before you do other things.<br />
Let’s say you want to clean a room.<br />
According to the Pareto principle, 20% of<br />
the changes will cause 80% of the results.<br />
So what are the key areas you could focus<br />
on?<br />
Which will have a significant effect.<br />
Perhaps, you first need to get some large<br />
objects in the room that only clutter the<br />
place but do not add much to the ambiance?<br />
In other words, focus on the essentials first.<br />
You may also think that cleaning your<br />
room may take you a lot of time.<br />
Not if you do it intelligently.<br />
According to Pareto, you can already<br />
affect 80% of the changes in only 20% of<br />
the time.<br />
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____________________________
7 WORK HALF, DOUBLE<br />
YOUR <strong>IN</strong>COME.<br />
IF YOU RUTH<strong>LESS</strong>LY evaluate what you<br />
are doing, you will find that there is much<br />
that you could improve on.<br />
But before you are trying to improve on<br />
anything, apply this framework to it.<br />
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Do higher-level work<br />
No<br />
Can I delegate this task?<br />
Yes<br />
Delegate<br />
No<br />
Can I automate this task?<br />
Yes<br />
Automate<br />
No<br />
Can I simplify this task?<br />
Yes<br />
Simplify<br />
Yes<br />
Do I need to do this task?<br />
No<br />
Eliminate<br />
What is / are my goal(s)?<br />
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8 <strong>LESS</strong> <strong>IS</strong> <strong>MORE</strong>.<br />
LET’S say you’d like to improve your<br />
current relationship.<br />
The answer to improving your relationship<br />
may not be to spend more time with your<br />
partner.<br />
But to spend more quality time: a time<br />
where you are entirely focused on each<br />
other.<br />
To facilitate that, perhaps you need to<br />
put your mobile phones aside during the<br />
quality time you spend with each other.<br />
In that way, you can improve your<br />
relationship significantly.<br />
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9 FOCUS ON WHAT <strong>IS</strong><br />
IMPORTANT FIRST.<br />
ONCE YOU HAVE figured out what are<br />
the things that really make a difference in<br />
your life, do the most important tasks first.<br />
Before doing other less important task.<br />
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10 D<strong>IS</strong>ENTANGLE.<br />
ALMOST CERTA<strong>IN</strong>LY, there will be<br />
areas in your life where you will need to<br />
disentangle.<br />
Disentangle yourself from doing<br />
unprofitable activities.<br />
Activities that make you look busy, but<br />
that are not productive.<br />
Useless time-fillers and time wasters.<br />
They are anathema to productivity.<br />
But the point is this.<br />
You can only know what not to do if you<br />
have clearly defined goals.<br />
Then you can come up with a to-do list.<br />
But as importantly, come up with a<br />
not-to-do list as well.<br />
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11 GOLDEN HOURS.<br />
NOT ALL HOURS of the day have equal<br />
value.<br />
The morning hours are the most valuable<br />
hours of the day because that is when you<br />
have the most energy.<br />
The most mental power.<br />
That’s when you are most focused.<br />
Use those vital hours int he morning to<br />
work on an important task.<br />
Don’t waste it on social media.<br />
Put your phone aside while you are working<br />
on your most important task.<br />
Don’t allow social media to fragment your<br />
attention.<br />
If you do, social media will kill your<br />
productivity.<br />
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12 BRA<strong>IN</strong> POWER.<br />
BRA<strong>IN</strong> POWER, mental energy is a<br />
limited commodity.<br />
It depletes during the day.<br />
Make the best use of your prime time, when<br />
your brainpower is at its peak, to work on<br />
essential tasks.<br />
Do less important tasks when your<br />
brainpower is already depleted.<br />
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Think first!
CONCLUSION.<br />
<strong>THE</strong> <strong>PARETO</strong> <strong>PR<strong>IN</strong>CIPLE</strong> is a vital<br />
success principle.<br />
Success does not come from working<br />
harder.<br />
It comes from working smarter.<br />
Before you are doing anything, you need to<br />
ask yourself the question.<br />
“Is it worth doing?”<br />
“Is there another way, better way how this<br />
can be done?”<br />
“Do I need to do it at all?”<br />
“Does it fit with my goals?”<br />
“Is there a way to simplify it?”<br />
“Is there a way to automate it?”<br />
“Is there a way to delegate it?”<br />
“How can I use my time wisely?”<br />
“What is it that really gives me the results<br />
that I am looking for?”<br />
“How can I do more of what works and<br />
less of what doesn’t work?”<br />
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And so on.<br />
The Pareto Principle is an immensely<br />
valuable concept.<br />
Use it, and you will see your life improve<br />
on all levels.<br />
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Why Less Is More—The Pareto Principle in a Nutshell:<br />
How You Can Boost Your Productivity by Working<br />
Less.<br />
Copyright 2020 © Albert L. Oberdorfer<br />
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be<br />
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,<br />
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,<br />
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the<br />
author’s written permission.<br />
PICTURE CREDITS<br />
Unless otherwise stated, all images are courtesy<br />
of Pexels.com and Pixabay.com. Any inadvertent<br />
omissions can be rectified in future editions.<br />
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