ADDING VALUE: Make the Parreto Principle Work for You (Supplemental)
The Parreto Principle is also known as the 80/20 Rule. You've probably heard of it: 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts.
Unfortunately, most try to go against the Parreto Principle by trying to improve upon their weaknesses. Additionally, many well-intentioned people will tell others that improving their weaknesses is the road to success.
That may lead to some improvement, but to bust past your best (as mentioned earlier today), it's wiser to improve upon things at which you already excel. Improving weaknesses takes a lot of effort and a lot of time and in reality leads all of your skills to being, well, average. Improving your specialties, however, takes less effort and less time since you're already good at them.
In other words, to truly bust past your best, you need to make the Parreto Principle work for you.
For example, consider for a moment that only 20% of all jobs are posted, while a whopping 80% of all jobs are obtained through networking. Despite knowing this, most job seekers spend 80% or more of their job search time scouring for jobs online. They're spending the bulk of their time chasing results that they probably won't get! A wiser approach is to let the Parreto Princple work for you and spend 80% of your time networking, since that has the highest probability of success.
So what of your weaknesses? Should you forget about them all together?
No. Delegate them to those who are good at your weaknesses. You can compensate for your weaknesses by utilizing others' strengths, thereby allowing you to concentrate on improving your core abilities. As a result, you can make the Parreto Principle work for you.
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