make money and f*ck off

The first business book I ever read was 80/20 Sales & Marketing by Perry Marshall.

It’s a great read for anyone who wants to make money while f*cking off.

Perhaps you’ve heard of the 80/20 or “Pareto” principle…

It suggests that (roughly) 80% of effects come from 20% of causes.

In business: 

-> 80% of revenue comes from 20% of clients

-> 80% of value comes from 20% of employees

^-> 80% of complaints come from 20% of customers (lol)

In life: 

-> 80% of fulfillment comes from 20% of relationships

-> 80% of life’s lessons come from 20% of experiences

-> 80% of your wardrobe is worn 20% of the time

“80/20” is an approximation of course…

The point is that a lot of distributions in this world are skewed.

Take the worldwide distribution of wealth, where 46% of funds are controlled by the 1%.

Some people complain about this while others get curious.

What are the 1% doing that the rest are not?

This is a loaded question but let me take a crack at it.

Wealthy people do a lot of high-leverage activities.

They focus on the 20% that produces 80% of results.

This is how they do more with less.

In his book, Perry Marshall categorizes activities according to dollar per hour.

Here’s a list of examples below:

The difference between rich and poor people is rich people hang out on the right side of the chart.

Therefore, to make more money, scoot over to the right.

1. Gradually replace low-value with high-value activities

2. Continue this pattern over long periods of time

Eliminating -$10/hr and $0/hr activities is hard because these activities are often deeply rooted in habit.

Most people can transform their lives by getting rid of -$10/hr and $0/hr stuff.

It’s the simple, obvious solution. Not easy.

Take the leap though and you automatically start moving to the right.

You start to get momentum. Feedback loops come into play.

Let’s say you hire a maid. Now you spend less time cleaning.

You also feel better because you have a cleaner environment.

This leads you to double down on your business.

You make more money. Now you hire a chef.

Now you’re living like a pro athlete and cannot be stopped!

The cycle continues…

I like to come back to the diagram above whenever I feel stuck.

I take a good honest look at where my time is going and then choose to either:

1. Eliminate activities

2. Delegate/automate activities

3. Start doing a high-value activity that I wasn’t doing before

You may also find it helpful to do a “time study” and write down everything you do for a week in 30-minute increments.

This is a clarifying and sobering exercise. It prevents you from lying to yourself about where your time is going.

I actually have a Google sheet template that I like to use for this.

If you’d like to use it, just reply to this email and I’ll send it over.

PCE!

Graydon

Cool things I found during my weekly internet stroll.

New AI tech can predict Alzheimer's up to 7 years in advance. Pretty terrified of getting this disease so this is great news.

This guy makes beautiful videos to demonstrate the size and scale of the universe. I watched all of them and want more.

Here is the most satisfying guitar playing I’ve ever seen. His Spotify here.

Served up by Spijker & me.

De Soweto | Badbwoy, Palane

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Lost (Remix) | ZAC, PACS