The 80/20 rule By Vilfredo Pareto
Roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.
In business, or in life in general, there are things that are more important than others. Giving everything the same importance is a fatal mistake. You need to understand what are the things that really make a difference and where all the clutter is. Spot it and wipe it out.
Credibility Assumption – Deliverance from Error By Al-Ghazali
If a person is good at one field, it doesn’t follow that they are good at another.
If a person with great expertise and credibility is good in one field, it should by no means be deduced that they would be good at another too. Therefore, if people who have done great things in life criticize or appreciate an idea or argument, then it should be considered with a pinch of skepticism (an expert grammarian is not necessarily great at metaphysics, and therefore shouldn’t be considered as an authority).
Sunk Cost Fallacy
The more you invest in something the harder it becomes to abandon it.
This is both an economic concept as well as a concept studied thoroughly in psychology. Our bias towards things that we’ve put effort into-be it relationships, investments, careers, etc.- are difficult to walk away from even though we know deep down that it’s no longer the wisest decision. This is, unfortunately, a common theme for most so being able to turn cold to this subconscious bias is the best thing that you could do for yourself.
Active Inertia
“We get stuck in a rut, so when an entirely new situation arises we revert to old responses”, says MIT professor Don Sull.
This is akin to paralysis by analysis. Going around in circles and doing the same things causes one to lose sight of the changes required on the strategic level. Think of it like sitting in a rocking chair – it certainly gives you something to do but gets you absolutely nowhere.
Parkinson’s Law By Cyril Northcote Parkinson
“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”.
In college, you had all semester to write a paper, and yet you wrote it in the last 72 hours. Minutes before the deadline you emailed it in, probably at 5 am, the morning it was due. Why did you do it that way? If you waited until the last minute then it would have only taken a minute.
Lean Startup By Eric Ries
So many people believe that it’s all about the idea and that large corporations are starving for ideas and consequentially lack innovation. The truth of the matter is that it’s the execution of the most routine, boring, and operational stuff that eventually makes a difference. No one wants to clean up the mess and everyone enjoys basking in the limelight.
The Art of Refusal By Tim Ferriss
Learn to ignore or redirect all information and interruptions that are irrelevant, unimportant, or unactionable. You would be surprised how many are all three. An interruption is anything that prevents the start-to-finish completion of a critical task. Limit access and funnel all communication towards immediate action.
Fast And Roughly Right – The Wikipedia Model
Encyclopedia Britannica, at one time, had total industry domination and was used as a primary source of knowledge. It was backed by thousands of literary scholars and every word had to be carefully weighed and measured – which consumed time. Wikipedia is created and completely changes the way we look at and look for information. Neither Encyclopedia Britannica nor new technologies such as Microsoft’s Encarta keep up with the brilliance of the public managed Wikipedia. It provides all kinds of information in no time and is absolutely free. In today’s day and age, one needs to evolve, and evolve fast. You can be a bit wrong here and there, but you can’t afford to waste time psychoanalyzing everything. FYI…You can download the entire contents of Wikipedia onto a USB drive here.
Bad Arguments – Dr. Jonathan Brown
“You can’t listen to people make bad arguments. You have to know how to identify bad arguments”.
It leaves many of us crippled in our decision-making process. Things we adhere even after realizing that there are alternative arguments existing about the matter. Just because another argument exists doesn’t necessarily mean that it is a good argument or that you have to loosen up your ideology. After critically examining the arguments you can choose for yourself and even stick to it without feeling guilty about doing so. even if the arguments are made by highly acclaimed people or by the majority of people.
Death – Steve Jobs – Stanford Commencement Speech
“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking that you have something to lose. You are already naked, there is no reason not to follow your heart”.
This is hands down the best advice that you’ll ever get about time, purpose, priority, or life. The idea that you will die and you can’t escape it should be the biggest motivator to make a difference, or in the words of Jobs himself, “to make a dent in the universe”.
Mike Hamson 