The Desert of Arizona
Sunny 72 Degrees
Just got back from the daily walk with Tucker, and I was listening some more to Richard Koch’s 80/20 Principle.
If the 80/20 Principle is new to you, the gist is that inputs and outputs do not occur in a balanced way in our world. In fact, it’s fairly predictable that some minority of inputs will produce the majority of outputs.
You can prove it or disprove it to yourself just by thinking through your life and business.
It’s all predictably unbalanced.
How odd that is, really, when you think about it.
It occurred to me that if most every cause and effect in this universe is predictably unbalanced, what does that mean for us entrepreneurs on the hunt for the elusive “work-life” balance?
(What I’m doing here is something that Koch refers to as “80/20 Thinking.” That’s a very unscientific way to apply the 80/20 Principle without scientific analysis. It’s more intuitive. So that explains the liberties I’m taking. My premise for what follows is that the ultimate outcome is to live a full life. I’m loosely applying 80/20 to that.)
So what if “work-life” balance doesn’t exist? What if it’s basically like fighting the universe that defaults to predictable unbalance?
What if, despite even our best efforts, the universal law of 80/20 will assert itself even though we’re trying to create a more equal “balance?”
For me, I’m not sure that work-life balance exists. At least not as we’re led to believe it might. At that point, I guess you have to figure out which gets the 80% and which gets the 20%. 80% life and 20% work sounds fairly revolutionary.
Right now, our society has been led to believe it has to be 80% work and 20% life. Just look around to see how well that’s working out.
What if the pursuit of a more 50%/50% work life balance is at the root of so much misery?
As you can see, I’m much better at asking questions than answering them. But it’s something important to think about.