Less and Simplify - the secret of a successfully life and startup

Today we have a “More with More” mindset. We are told that we need to do more to gain more and so we are struggling with lots of commitments and complain that how busy we are, whether it’s with work, our family, or community club, it seems to be where there’s no time or energy left for our self, family, or healthy relaxation.

In addition, it is sad that most people in the world work jobs they don’t like and only truly live their passions on weekends and outside of working hours. Unfortunately myself currently is under this situation. So how would I resolve this problem? Is there a way to get more of the great things that life has to offer, with less effort and cost?  

To find out the answer, I recently read a book The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More With Less by Richard Koch. The whole book is about two core ideas: less is more and create more with less. It shows you how to apply the 80/20 rule to yourself, work and finance, relationships to has a simple and good life, and will help you to develop a personal action plan to transform your life.

The 80/20 principle is the well-known secret that 80 percent of all our results in business and in life stem from a mere 20 percent of our efforts. Because not everything is equal in the world. No matter what you do, there are always a few vital tasks (the 20%) high-value tasks produce the 80% results, you should focus on the vital tasks rather than spread yourself thin across everything.  This is also known as “Less is More” where doing less will gives you more results.

For example,

80% of our revenues are generated by 20% of our customers.

20% of the employees contribute to 80% of the sales.
Similarly, 1 percent of entrepreneurs - notably Bill Gates, who is worth more than $30 billion - make more than 80 percent of the money from new enterprises. 

So how to apply the 80/20 rule to your daily life? Well, the book is about action, but less action.

Applying “Less is More” means asking yourself: How can I focus my energy on activities that make me happier and more fulfilled? How can I remove the tasks that do not create as much value?

The book provides action plan templates and samples to show you how to achieve your goal step by step .  

For example, if you love your current job, what are the 20% activities which you enjoy the most? How can you increase them to further drive up your love for your work?

For entrepreneur, it's simple  to take your business from Startup to Game Changer - that's "Simplify". Richard Koch has published another book "SIMPLIFY: How the Best Businesses in the World Succeed" which apply the same rule "Less is More". Using the "Price-simplifying" and "Proposition-simplifying" concepts lead you to decide which simplifying route is better for your firm, and how to do it.

There are lots of successful samples of applying "Less is More".  One of them is Steve Jobs using the "80/20" rule into his personal dress code and business work in Apple to build their easy-to-use products for a large market willing to pay a premium.

Being lazy and work less is the nature of human being, Author Richard views his own life as an experiment in ‘more with less’ and he now only does things that he finds enjoyable, fulfilling, or useful to close friends. 

Tips of my experience

In terms of passion, you may need to classify them onto two categories: activities that you enjoy but consuming other's output such as go to restaurant or watch movie;  activities that you passion to create output for others to enjoy or make practical use. Only the activities in second category could convert a passion into a sustainable income. Those passions often leads to a greater income because the quality of your output is so much higher.

Moving Forward
You don't need to complete the whole book to begin using the 80/20 rule. Start off with a small part of your life first, then move on from there. You will start truly experiencing the meaning behind ‘Less is More’ and ‘More with Less’.  Life is short, so let’s read the book and start today!

You would attend online courses as well such as "Become a SpeedDemon: Productivity Tricks to Have More Time".

Book

Online Course: Become a SpeedDemon: Productivity Tricks to Have More Time