According to Mark Twain “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics”. You hear that line in your very first statistics lesson. As a graduate of Mathematics and Statistics I have grown to love and use numbers and em…. Statistics. One principle though not overly statistic that has caught my fancy for a while now is the Pareto Principle. The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, 80% of the effects comes from 20% of the causes. Business management thinker Joseph M. Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy went to 20% of the population. It is a common rule of thumb in business; e.g., "80% of your sales comes from 20% of your clients."
Though Pareto first came up with this assertion in 1906, 100+ years on it is still true. I attended a seminar a while ago and one of the speakers said something that I researched and found out to be true; 80% of the wealth in the world today is controlled by 1% of the world’s population. Crazy mind boggling statistics!
I don’t think I know how to become part of that 1%, but I believe there are life principles that we can all practice to live more fulfilled lives and create the future we desire and deserve.
These thoughts may not all be original or exhaustive, but I believe that there is some veracity and benefit in the following principles.
1. Know where you want to be, where you want to go or the kind of future you want: Research shows that only 5% of the world’s population has an idea of where they want to be. Small wonder the bulk of us are led and somewhat controlled by others. For most of us, by people we do not like.
2. Take responsibility for the direction of your life and not leave the issue of your personal success to chance or fate: If you are an adult I think you should take responsibility for your life. Where you go, what you achieve is all up to you.
3. Have an idea a dream or vision. Identify practical steps to take towards the attainment of your goals and dreams and visions.
4. According to Harold Samuel the three most important things about buying a property are location, location and location. In our quest to get to the future that we desire I would say one of the most important keys to success is that we Plan! Plan!! Plan!!! That point can never be over emphasised. In Deming’s PDCA (PlanDoCheckAct) cycle for quality management, the planning stage is seen as the most important part. Even in project management, planning is given pre-eminence. Your life is a project and you are the manager. Project You needs all the planning that it can use.
5. Find the motivation and inspiration to go the distance and do the things necessary to achieve the future you plan and hope to have. Basically, take action! (Remember PlanDoCheckAct).
Hopefully we will make progress and create the kind of future we want and possibly be part of the select few that control the world’s wealth. All the best as you pursue that future.
Expect Great Things From GOD, Attempt Great Things For GOD - William Carey (1761 - 1834)
Breathe Easy!
3 comments:
Hmmm.... i definitely enjoyed this post.
"Research shows that only 5% of the world’s population has an idea of where they want to be"
The quote above is pretty unfortunate ..... if we christians can identify our place and take responsibility for charting the course of our futures coupled with the enablement of the Spirit, we can do over and above what we have dreamed and imagined.
Interestinggly, the 80-20 principle is used in Technology - Internetworking to be precise. The idea is to keep 80% of Network Traffic local and only go across the network for 20% of the traffic. Hope I'm not speaking gibberish. May God help us to do what we have to do.
I've updated
@ Comrade, Amen!
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