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The 80/20 rule, also called the Pareto principle, comes from Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who noticed that 20 percent of the pea pods in his garden produced 80 percent of the peas. The same pattern shows up everywhere: 20 percent of a company's products often account for 80 percent of sales, 20 percent of blog posts generate 80 percent of traffic, and 80 percent of complaints come from 20 percent of customers. Today's caller wants to apply that same principle to her own side hustles.
Hi Chris, this is Deja, and I've been listening to the show for a couple of years, thanks for all the helpful advice and great stories. We've all heard of the 80/20 rule: how a minority of actions contribute to the majority of outcomes. But how do you figure out what the actions are that really move the needle? I've been thinking about this ever since I started side hustling. So far I've tried five projects. One was a bust, two have done “okay,” and I'm still waiting to see what happens with the other two. I'm pretty sure that I should be putting my attention squarely on one of them, but I don't know which, and even if I could decide, how do I know what strategies to use as I try to grow it? Thanks for your help.
You're already on the right track by testing multiple projects. Of your five, drop the one that was a bust and keep watching the other four; one of them is likely to pull ahead of the rest, and that's the one worth your full attention. As you gain experience, the pattern that works is letting go of the small wins to focus on the idea with the most potential, even if that means walking away from a side hustle that's doing okay.
Hindsight isn't 80/20, it's 20/20: once something takes off, you can look back and study what made it work, but you can't reliably predict that in advance, so keep testing. The same goes for strategy. Try different approaches, keep the ones that work, and drop the ones that produce weak results. Start things, watch what happens, then decide whether to drop it or refine it.
Have a question? Visit SideHustleSchool.com/questions.
