80/20 Principle-Book Review

Book Reviews (original posted on "The village thoughts" website)

The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch

The village grows tired of books. We enjoy reading them. In fact, Barnes and Noble is the official Non-official dwelling place of villagers. However, we detest the shallow, self-promoting launching pad that books have become. Books have become an id tag much like Day planners, cell phones and more recently Personal web pages.

So, when the Village recommends a book you can be assured that it has passed the no hype promotion test. The 80/20 principle is such a read. It appears that the author, Richard Koch, is a bit of a rebel, a good rebel. We like him (in fact we have invited him to be a Village advisor). He is a British gent that is in a constant state of “Whyness”. His book is a reflection of this.

So, what is to be gained by spending time reading this tome? Uh, time. You read right. Koch’s premise is we don’t have a scarce amount of time. In fact, he states that we have to much time. The village has thought on this and believes there is some truth to this theory. For, if we did not have enough time then it would be impossible to procrastinate endless amounts of it only to wake up and do the same thing all over again.

Koch focuses on the early works of economists and social scientists who have discovered across the board that there is always an imbalance of distribution. For instance the majority if wealth is held by very few (less than 20 percent) of the population. Koch takes the reader thru the theory and evolution of the 80/20 principle in order to build his case. When he is completed with the analysis the reader is no doubt convinced that it is the smallest amount of our effort/time/resources that lead to our greatest moments of happiness and rewards.

Koch intends to encourage his pupils to find the things in life that yield the greatest results and to trash all others. He believes frantic action/activity is contrary to the theory of imbalance and makes a grand case for less of it.

The layout of Koch’s book is what gives it a good twist. IT is as if he applied the 80/20 theory when writing it. The reader can pick a topic from thr table of contenst from Money to business and start from there. The rest of the book need not be read for the principles of the book to be grasped.

You will find no self promoting Seminar trainings in the book. In fact we are still looking for his Web Presence. We find this “hunting” very refreshing.

So Get it. Read it. Be imbalanced.

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