Here’s a shocking truth: in America today 20% of the people earn 80% or more of all the money! That means that the remaining 80% of the population only earn 20% of all the money. Eighty percent only earns twenty percent?! You MUST be kidding!! No… I’m not. And you know what… that eighty percent is lucky to be getting the twenty percent that they’re getting. That percentage is actually shrinking. People are working harder and harder and getting better and better at doing things that bring them less and less. Until, finally they become absolutely expert at something that brings them absolutely nothing. Why is that? Well, I think why… because people are spending all their time doing trivial, unimportant tasks rather than concentrating on the important few tasks.
If I compile a list of ten items, eighty percent of everything that could be accomplished on that list is contained in only two items. My job is to find out what those two items are and concentrate on them. The remaining eight (that represent twenty percent under the best of circumstances) needs to be outsourced, delegated or simply ignored. Most people spend all their time working on the trivial eight items… never getting around to the important few. That may explain why so many people are exhausted at the end of the workday, but still feeling somehow unfulfilled… they never got around to doing the important tasks. Usually the important tasks are unpleasant, difficult, just plain hard. The trivial many is usually pleasant, easy and maybe fun to do.
A helpful hint to master this skill is to see yourself as too important to spend your time performing trivial tasks. Never do anything that someone under your supervision can do equally well. Spend your time doing the important tasks that only you can do. This is a critical point.
When you spend your time only working on the important tasks, you never feel overworked or overwhelmed… your stress level usually goes way down. You have a tremendous feeling of accomplishment… and, of course, your productivity and profitability is also way up. When you apply this principle to every area of your life, you will move into that top 20% that earns the 80%. Once there, you need to turn your attention to becoming in the top 20% of the top 20%, which means being in the top 4%. Once there, your next objective is to get into the top 20% of the top 20% of the top 20%, which means being in the top 1%. I know a salesman for a national insurance company, I once interviewed who had accomplished just that and he earned by himself more than fifty-four of his agencies top producers!
When you put yourself into the top 4-5%, you are impervious to depressions and recessions and therefore immune to any downturn in the economy. If you work for a corporation or a company, you’ve made yourself far too important to be fired under any conditions. What percentage group are you in?
Mack Newton
Copyright Mack Newton. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced in any form without the expressed written consent of the author.
