An Italian guy in 1906 observed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. Then a bit closer to home for him, he also observed that 20% of pods in his pea garden gave him 80% of the peas. So began the Pareto Principle, which was turned into the 80/20 rule by a management consultant.

Politicians, lawyers and consultants love to make up rules – especially new ones to add to the millions that have been generated before them. But the 80/20 existed way before the rule was made. It should rather be called an observation than a rule – it was never ‘man made’. It is natural because just by looking around you, you will be amazed at what you see that is 80/20.

20% of what you see makes up 80% of your world.

This casual observation should make you sit up and take notice.

80% of your time goes into making only 20% of your achievements – whilst 20% of your achievements define 80% of your life. 80% of your life is spent in dreamland and you are only fully conscious 20% of the time. …And I am sure that you can think up more examples of how this 80/20 thing works in other areas of our lives.

…But what good is all this 80/20 business for practical purposes?

Well, the detergent marketeers used this to great effect. They realised that housewives could easily be misled by sheer volume. So they made their detergent boxes bigger and cheaper at no extra cost to the manufacturer – purely by putting in only 20% active ingredients and 80% useless ‘filler’ in their ‘super strength’ detergents.

Journalists bulk up their news by filling up their reports with 80% of un-important ‘facts’. And they know that the headlines take up 20% of the news space but it makes 80% of the difference between whether the article gets readership or not.

So the 80/20 observation has been put into good use by the business, finance, political and news sectors. They know that they on a winner because the 80/20 ‘thing’ will never go away.

The question that we must ask ourselves is whether we constantly realise that the world runs 80/20. Then perhaps we can recognise that remarkable 20% that is masked by the 80% of ‘filler’ that masquerades as the important things in our lives…