You got the Power!⚡
“Power” from Snap, 1990! Remember that song my friend? One of the first electro tuuunes! It was what I call a tune!...well I was 10 years old, so it had to be a tune! Ahah!
Can I share a deep secret with you my friend? I remember asking my mum to watch me dance to it in our living room! Yeah I know…but that is another story for later!
Today a couple words on the “Power Law” or the Pareto distribution, better known as the 80/20 rule.
The Power law is defined as “a functional relationship between two quantities, where a relative change in one quantity results in a proportional relative change in the other quantity, independent of the initial size of those quantities: one quantity varies as a power of another.”
Simply put, it is the correlation between two elements.
Back 1896 Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, noted that approximately 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population, and therefore noted the correlation between those two elements. Many years later, management consultant Joseph M. Juran developed the concept in the context of quality control, and improvement, naming it after Pareto for his discovery. The Pareto principle was born.
So the Pareto principle states that for many outcomes roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of the causes (the “vital few”), and so democratising the concept became the 80/20 rule.
Now we’ve covered the history, let’s be playful with it….
20% of the most-reported IT bugs cause 80% of your computers’ issues (Microsoft).
20% of all players produce 80% of the total wins (sport stats).
20% of hazards account for 80% of injuries (stats).
20% of your wardrobe makes up 80% of what you wear.
20% of your house carpet gets 80% of use (if you have a carpet…).
20% of the people own 80% of the world’s wealth (we could easily argue that is much more now).
20% of the time required to read a book can get you 80% of what is to be understood in it.
20% (if so) of what you might ever write will be published as 80% will end up in a bin.
20% of the people you interact lead to 80% of your thoughts.
20% of your food intake covers 80% of your calories.
20% of people celebrate you whilst 80% criticize or remain silent.
20% of your clients generate 80% of your revenue.
20% of your assets create 80% of your wealth.
20% of your stock generates 80% of your stock return.
20% of your actions create 80% of your results.
20% of your activities eats 80% of your time.
20% of your beliefs shape 80% of your life.
We could keep going...
Maybe you want to be playful and make your own personal list?
QUESTION…
What are your very few things that will change the many?