Living The 80/20 Way is a guidebook for living an extraordinary life with minimal effort. As part of his bestselling 80/20 Principles, Richard Koch sets out guidelines for working less, worrying less, succeeding more and enjoying life more.
Living The 80/20 Way Summary
Living The 80/20 Way opens with a quote from Warren Buffett: “It’s not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results”
Expanding on this point, Richard Koch uses this book to advise us to live simpler, more meaningful lives, by adopting an 80/20 lifestyle. Not only should we live by the rule that less is more but we can also progress more in life by creating more with less effort. In a nutshell, we are at our most productive when we are lazy.
Below are some of the key insights from the book.
Key Insights
- The 80/20 principle obtains in nature, science, literature, sports, business, investment and just about any aspect of human experience.
- By accepting that less is more we can establish much greater focus for our time and energy, which will prompt better results than scattershot but greater effort.
- The modern world is a miracle of happiness, time and prosperity, but most people are living lifestyles that constantly strive for more at the expense of happiness/meaning.
- We need to create a ‘not do’ list rather than a ‘to do’ list, as nearly all of us are attempting to do too much with our finite energy.
- To succeed, we need to establish both an 80/20 destination (vision) and look for an 80/20 route as well (action)
- It is better to act on making out strengths Olympian rather than spreading out energy too thin.
- The only way to be successful is to do what you love and love what you do.
- Applying 80/20 logic to money is as simple as saving 10% of our income and allowing compound interest to take over (The Richest Man in Babylon)
- Applying 80/20 logic to our relationships is as simple as realising that we need to invest more in quality relationships over quantity.
- Applying 80/20 logic to our lifestyle suggests we should aim for a simple life (Epicurean) where our needs are met and our desires are restricted.
- We can X/Y chart expenses against happiness to reveal which activities are truly making us happy in life.
- We can create a comprehensive 80/20 lifestyle plan by mapping areas like money, relationships, health, travel etc. against (a) destination (b) route (c) actions