Richard Koch is the author of this book, which is based on the famous Pareto principle of Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist - focusing on 20% most important things to achieve 80% of all success in life.

... 80% of results are almost always created by 20% of the effort. 80% of revenue from 20% of customers, from 20% of employees, from 20% of invested money. 80% of divorces come from 20% of people that just divorce more often and thus skew the average statistic. 80% of pandemic deaths are caused by 20% of viruses and so on. Sometimes it’s 90/10, sometimes 99/1, but the key is that average numbers give us a false impression in, well, in 80% of the cases.

Koch says,
1. Expect 20 per cent to lead to 80 per cent and 80 per cent to result in 20 per cent.
2. 80/20 Thinking is inherently optimistic because, paradoxically, it reveals a state of affairs that is seriously below what it should be.
3. 20% of what we do leads to 80% of the results; but 80% of what we do leads to only 20%. We are wasting 80% of our time on low-value outcomes.
4. Rather than pursuing every available opportunity, Koch suggests we “calm down, work less and target a limited number of very valuable goals where the 80/20 Principle will work for us.”

More 80/20 Principle Examples
20% of criminals account for 80% of crime
20% of motorists account for 80% of accidents
20% of married individuals account for 80% of divorces
20% of your carpet probably gets 80% of the wear
20% of streets account for 80% of the traffic
20% of product flaws account for 80% of problems
20% of clients usually account for 80% of profits

Applying 80-20 to your employees:

1. Stupid and Lazy : Leave them alone - they do little damage.
2. Stupid and Hard-Working : Fire immediately.
3. Intelligent and Hard-Working : Keep them, Good staff employees.
4. Intelligent and Lazy : Outperformers, Key people.

The 10 golden rules for successful careers in an increasingly 80/20 world:
1. Find a narrow niche and develop core competency
2. Find a niche where you have the chance to become a recognized competency or market share leader
3. Recognize that knowledge is power
4. Find your market, find your main customers and make them happy
5. Find out what 20% of your efforts lead to 80% of your results (duh.)
6. Learn from the best
7. Go entrepreneur as soon as possible
8. Try to find as many valuable people as possible to help you
9. Outsource everything except your core competency to outside contractors
10. Use leverage of capital

Applying the 80/20 Principle to creating your ideal life:
We need to know what we want. It also helps to be unreasonable.
Start with some simple questions.
What do you absolutely LOVE to do?
What comes to you effortlessly?
With whom would you love to spend your time?
What would you be doing throughout the day?
How much would you make?
Where would you live?

The final lesson: Pursue those few things where you are amazingly better than others and that you enjoy the most.
So, what are you amazingly better than others at?

[From the Great Books  Series. Also see The Success Manual  - Encyclopedia of Advice, which contains summaries of 100+ Most useful books.]