The underlying premise of the 20/80 principle (Otherwise known as the Pareto Principle) is that 20% of the effort typically yields 80% of the results – 20% of the people do 80% of the work and make 80% of the income –
Vilfredo Pareto called that 20% “The Vital Few” and the 80% “The Trivial Many”.
The 20% MATTERS!
A useful extension of this principle for your own life is considering all of the things you do, buy, people with whom you associate, etc . . . and asking yourself consistently if you are focusing on the things that really MATTER in your life.
We know that what we focus on EXPANDS.
So . . . I believe that we ALL deserve our 80% out of life (The highest ROE – Return on our effort) . . . To get that we must focus on our 20% . . . and stay in that 20% as much as possible.
Yesterday, I attended a fantastic event at The Scarlett Leadership Institute at Belmont University in Nashville, TN where I had the good fortune to hear Michael Beschloss, Presidential Historian and Best-Selling Author
After the speech, we participate in a small group discussion, and one of the questions that surfaced was how politicians (Leaders) deal with the MEDIA.
It occurred to me in that moment that our industry (Real Estate Sales) has been under media “attack” for quite a while now as being the primary culprit for the economic mess we are in. I don’t buy that . . . This mess was created mostly because “it was time” in the natural order of the Universe for the cycle to turn down . . . To level the playing field some.
Home Ownership did NOT cause this mess. People who made poor financial choices (including gaming the system – sometimes illegally) precipitated the unnatural high that led to the plummet. It was as if the country were on financial steroids . . . and focus wandered from the 20%.
In that process, “Home ownership” itself somehow became the scapegoat.
In the break-out session, I made the comment that I don’t pay attention to the news (media) and that I was just now realizing the reason . . . The media is focused on entertaining “The Trivial Many” (80%) . . . not “The Vital Few” . . . and “The Vital Few” were scrambling (initially) to defend their position by reacting or responding to every bit of negative media out there (I personally invested a LOT of energy into this).
Now, I “Get” (better than ever) the truth that arguing every piece of negative media about home ownership is an exercise in futility because of the sheer VOLUME and the fact that it is engineered to stir up the 80% because that’s more profitable 🙂
So . . . Seems The National Association of REALTORS and I agree about the best way to handle this (although we likely came to the conclusion in different ways) . . . Instead of fighting . . . Let’s create a mantra and continue to rhythmically and in a sustained way drum the beat of this constant message that:
HOME OWNERSHIP MATTERS!
NAR has provided a fantastic tool for this . . . for homeowners . . . a website www.houselogic.com
THAT’s our 20%!
Keep focus on the importance of homeownership, turn off the news and focus on YOUR personal 20%.
I’m just sayin’
Best,
b