The 80/20 Rule

Also known as the "Pareto principle", the "principle of factor sparsity" and the "law of the vital few". It suggests that a high percentage of effects in any large system are caused by low percentage of variables. The principle was named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy was received by 20% of the Italian population. It goes something like this,
80% of outcomes can be attributed to 20% of the causes for a given event.
It has been observed in many walks of life be it business  design, management or life in general.


This rule is useful for focusing resources and in turn reaching higher levels of efficiency in design/product. Other examples can be given as -  
  80% of products usage involve 20% of it's features
  80% of town's traffic is on 20% of it's roads
  80%of company's revenue comes from 20% of it's products.
  80% of innovation comes from 20% of it's people
  80% of the progress comes from 20% of it's effort
  80% of errors is caused by 20% of it's components


The numbers may differ but the essential thing to understand is that in your life there are certain activities you do (your 20%) that account for the majority (your 80%) of your happiness and outputs. This factor can also be observed playing a huge role in our society. It can be argued that 80% of the changes in our society are caused by 20% of it's members. There are people present in our society who posses the zeal and awareness to campaign for a good cause. But their potential remains untapped as they are unable to manage and focus their resources collectively rather than individually.

And also, the thing to consider is that they cannot use their 100% of the time to follow the social cause. As a professional or a student or a businessman we spend 80% of our time in pursuit of our ambition. So it can be said that most our social climate can be attributed to how those 20% of people spend their 20% of time. According to the 80/20 rule if we are aiming for major changes in society we have to bring together those 20% and utilize their 20% of time as effectively as possible.

            

This is where abhaya steps in. For the uninitiated, abhaya is an NGO totally run by volunteers. The range of activities it undertakes and effectively executes cannot be covered in one article. I will be talking about it one facet a time in my coming posts (www.abhayafoundation.org to know about abhaya ). Let us first understand the unique part it plays in the betterment of the society and the individual. It provides all like minded people a platform on which they are able to put their energy and focus to much better use. It motivates, empowers and guides the 20% and focuses their efforts in a structured manner for the advantage of society. By volunteering  20% of their time an individual finds major changes in his life too. There are people from all walks of life coming together sharing, connecting, planing and executing different social projects very efficiently under one roof. This pooling and focusing of resources eliminates the constraints faced by individual efforts. It opens up limitless possibilities and creates a web of willing contacts by which it executes even the most daunting tasks which an outsider would consider impossible (case in point,abhaya home of happiness www.abhayahome.org).

Please visit abhaya website to know more information about the revolutionary work it is doing.

Love & Life,

Rajendra