The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less Paperback – October 19, 1999

THE most pivotal book I've read in my business career

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Perry Marshall

June 16, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Some people have cynically commented that you only need to read 20% of this book, and the rest is all repetition.

Those people do not actually understand the fractal nature of the 80/20 principle - how pervasive it is, or the extent to which you really need to immerse yourself in these concepts. Their opinions are worthless.

I first read this book in 2003. I got to page 14 and Richard was explaining how 80/20 is closely related to chaos theory. I suddenly had an epiphany - making realizations that weren't even explicitly stated - and realized that inside every 80/20 is another 80/20, and another and another. 80/20 is fractal!

Suddenly I looked out the window and saw 80/20 EVERYWHERE - in the trees, in the street, in the carpet in my house, in nearly every column of every spreadsheet in my business. Before I'd barely seen it at all, and even then only in the rear view mirror. After, I saw it everywhere all around me.

At the time I was just starting to crack the code on Google AdWords, and I realized 80/20 is the key to pretty much everything in AdWords. And in marketing itself. 80/20 became my secret weapon. It was the backbone of AdWords and I included an 80/20 chapter in my very first ebook, "Definitive Guide to Google AdWords" which eventually became Entrepreneur Press's "Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords" which is the world's #1 book on internet advertising. It also inspired my book "80/20 Sales and Marketing."

Richard makes a key observation, which is the difference between 80/20 ANALYSIS and 80/20 THINKING. Analysis is backward-looking. 80/20 Thinking is forward looking. When you know, in advance, that whatever you do is going to be 80/20 and nothing you do can change that, you artificially stack the deck to favor early successes. You kill your runts faster. You search for patterns that most people miss, and shortcut months or years of failure.

Richard also delves into many subtleties of how 80/20 manifests in business, and how most businesses are losing money every time they sell 20% of their product line. This is a very big deal.

I'm now reading this book, 13 years later, AGAIN (not sure how many times I've cracked it) and it's still producing new jewels. Yes, you can read 20% of this book and it could still potentially change your life. But if you understand 80/20, you should read that kind of book 5 times and you can be nearly certain that you'll get 10X your time investment back every single time.

When Richard starts getting philosophical near the end about this applying to relationships and whatnot, don't give in to the temptation to think he's over-reaching. He's not. 80/20 is a fundamental axiom of cause and effect, one of the great secret laws of the universe.

I've read a LOT of great books but this one tops the list. It's been worth many millions of dollars to me in my career.

21 people found this helpful

Richard Koch is my new intellectual hero.

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Ludvig Sunstrom

December 12, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Incredible book. Richard Koch is my new intellectual hero.

The 80/20 principle has become somewhat popularized in the last 5 or so years. A lot of people think that just because they've heard about the concept, or because they shallowly know *about* the concept, that they've gotten all there is to it. Not so!

Richard shows that there is a far cry from actually *living* life the 80/20 way (which demands that you make tough decisions and learn to prioritize better). You have to take this idea very very seriously and apply it to more than one area of your life.

6 people found this helpful

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August 28, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book does an excellent job explaining the importance of focusing on what gets the most results in any outcome driven system. From the initial work of Pareto we see that in most things 20% of actions lead to 80% of results. The percentages can be more like 5/95 or 10/90 in some things but the key to the principle is to discover where the majority of results come from. This a great book that really gets the reader's mind focused on filtering what matters and what does not matter in any life situation whether business, sports, relationships, health, or your personal life. This is a key principle that has lead many people to success whether they knew they were using it or not. What really matters? What actions make all the difference? This book explains how to put the principles in action. How do you develop a good filter to know what matters and what doesn't.

6 people found this helpful

One of the best books I’ve ever read

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Bonnie Hoke-Scedrov

August 4, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is the essential “go–to” book for our time–scarce, success–driven world. The 80/20 principle of Vilfredo Pareto is actually an old idea that is has become much in vogue recently with books published like “The Four Hour Workweek”. The idea is that efficiency—and success—in all areas of life can be boiled down to that essential 20% of “inputs” that makes the remaining 80% of “inputs” (people we associate with; stuff we sell; projects we do; anything that takes our time, effort or money) obsolete. Koch makes the case (rather exhaustively!) that the 80/20 principle can be applied to any area of one’s life or endeavors and that it inevitably improves things—often dramatically.

The structure of the book is not ideal and can lead to cumbersome reading. The first half is an absolutely thorough (maybe too thorough?) analysis of every conceivable manifestation of 80/20 possible in one’s life. It’s a little too driven and one-dimensional, though I accept that the author believes it to be essential information to fully comprehending the subject matter. At the 50% juncture of the book, he kind of runs out of gas having exhausted every avenue of analysis and has to lard the rest of the book with other ideas, which, though interesting, are not enough to justify that much more copy. So, why still the 5-star review? In the second part of the book are several gems of knowledge so valuable that it justifies slogging through to the end. One such idea that blew my mind: the 40-Hour Workweek, 5 days a week, 40 year “typical” job that most people have nowadays has only existed for less than 200 years—a drop in the bucket in human history! (It is a byproduct of the factory schedule originating from the industrial revolution.) So, there is no reason people should assume that is the only option for employment or that such jobs will even continue to exist beyond the 200-year mark! We had all better be finding ways to succeed more with less…

Buy this book, read it ALL, and start following its principles.

Redundant? Maybe. Ready Every Page? Absoloutely.

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Duke-Aspen

The knowledge in this book is life changing. Others have said it didn't take 250 pages to explain the 80/20 principle. Strictly speaking this is true.Read more

Published 9 days ago

Jason C. Morris

Hidden Knowledge That Few Know

The 80/20 or Pareto principle is very old but few understand its impact on everyday personal and business life.Read more

Published 16 days ago

Zbikenut

The 80/20 impact is way deeper than I understood before this book.. Excellent.

A great book on the different ways the Pareto Principle affects our lives.

Published 25 days ago

Shane B.

Taught me not to read the whole book.

Once I understood the principle I used it to read the book and it explains that part way through

Published 2 months ago

Mark D.

Well done. Very interesting.

I thought 80% made sense, and 20% didn’t. Haha. Very interesting and I highlighted a lot. Thank you. Would recommend.

Published 2 months ago

Jake

At least it proves it's principle

Save 80% of your time by reading the title and nothing else. Input to output ratio is nonlinear in most circumstances.Read more

Good principle, but author repeated it over and over gain. I got it the first time he said it...I didn’t need another 200 pages

C. Hicks

Too much repetition

Five Stars

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The author Kept mentioning how great and amazing the 20/80 principal all the time

Mustafa A

This was the MOST REPETITIVE Book I have ever seen. The author Kept mentioning How great and amazing the 20/80 principal all the time.Read more