Richard Koch Quotes & Sayings

The 80/20 principle - that 80 percent of result flow
from just 20 per cent of the causes - is the one
true principle of highly effective people. — Richard Koch

Most of us don't work out what we want. And most of us end up with lopsided lives as a result. — Richard Koch

If we did realize the difference between the vital few and the trivial many in all aspects of our lives, and if we did something about it, we could multiply anything that we valued. — Richard Koch

It is not that we are short of time ... It is the way that we treat time, even the way that we think about it. A time revolution..is the fastest way to make a giant leap in both happiness and effectiveness. — Richard Koch

Marketing, and the whole firm, should devote extraordinary endeavour towards delighting, keeping for ever and expanding the sales to the 20 per cent of customers who provide 80 per cent. — Richard Koch

Only do the thing we are best at doing and enjoy most. — Richard Koch

Chose the niche that you enjoy, where you can excel and stand a chance of becoming and acknowledged leader. — Richard Koch

Celebrate exceptional productivity, rather than raise average efforts. — Richard Koch

People think that creativity is largely a matter of talent, experience, or luck. They are wrong. Talent, experience, and luck are all key elements, but there is something more fundamental, accessible, and powerful that you can use to multiply your creative effect. — Richard Koch

Make the choice that you want to be happy. You owe it to yourself and you owe it to other people too. — Richard Koch

would like to thank his colleagues, particularly Andrin and Helen, for their generous encouragement in his book-writing. Finally, he is most grateful to Christina, who, against all his instincts, got him to buy a house on a hill in the middle of nowhere. It has turned out to be a place in the middle of somewhere very special indeed, and a perfect place to write. And to his six-year-old daughter Zoe, who has taught him more than — Richard Koch

Use all the willpower at your disposal to make yourself happy. Construct the right stories about yourself - and believe them! — Richard Koch

Laziness is the road to progress, but only when it is allied to intelligent thought and high ambition. — Richard Koch

I make it a personal rule never to do anything that I don't really care about. It is surprising how much this cuts out. — Richard Koch

Not only is happiness not money, it is not even like money. — Richard Koch

The road to hell is paved with the pursuit of volume. Volume leads to marginal products, marginal customers, and greatly increased managerial complexity. — Richard Koch

To be strategic is to concentrate on what is important, on those few objectives that can give us a comparative advantage, on what is important to us rather than others, and to plan and execute the resulting plan with determination and steadfastness. — Richard Koch

If a species is diverse, it can survive and prosper. If a species is homogeneous, it is vulnerable. — Richard Koch

It is not shortage of time that should worry us, but the tendency for the majority of time to be spent in low-quality ways. — Richard Koch

If we want to sum up the theory of evolution by natural selection in two words, which have great relevance for all societies and businesses, we should simply remember: diversity works. — Richard Koch

Those who seize the day become seriously rich. — Richard Koch

Where a chunk of business is simple, the chances are that it is. — Richard Koch

It may be that you will be happiest in the rat race; perhaps, like me, you are basically a rat. — Richard Koch

Instead of expending time to train yourself not to be afraid of snakes, avoid them altogether. — Richard Koch

Progress is personal; it comes from individuals demanding more of themselves and everyone else. — Richard Koch

The key is to work out the few things that are really important, and the few methods that will give us what we really want. — Richard Koch

80% of the results come from 20% of the causes. A few things are important; most are not. — Richard Koch

Conventional wisdom is not to put all of your eggs in one basket. 80/20 wisdom is to choose a basket carefully, load all your eggs into it, and then watch it like a hawk. — Richard Koch

80 percent of products, or customers or employees, are only contributing 20 percent of profits; that there is great waste; that the most powerful resources of the company are being held back by a majority of much less effective resources; that profits could be multiplied if more of the best sort of products could be sold, employees hired, or customers attracted (or convinced to buy more from the firm). — Richard Koch

Creation occurs when ideas and individuals collide and collude. — Richard Koch

The way to create something great is to create something simple. — Richard Koch

There is no rush. If we think intelligently about what we can achieve with our time, we can be relaxed, even lazy. In fact, being lazy - having plenty of time to think - may actually be a precondition for achieving a great deal. — Richard Koch

Hard work leads to low returns. Insight and doing what we want lead to high returns. — Richard Koch

What could you achieve that would make you proud, that no one else could do with the same ease? — Richard Koch

Few people take objectives really seriously. They put average effort into too many things, rather than superior thought and effort into a few important things. People who achieve the most are selective as well as determined. — Richard Koch

Our current use of time is not rational. There is therefore no point in seeking marginal improvements in how we spend our time. We need to go back to the drawing board and overturn all our assumptions about time. — Richard Koch

Strive for excellence in few things, rather than good performance in many. — Richard Koch

The few things that work fantastically well should be identified, cultivated, nurtured, and multiplied. — Richard Koch

To get useful new ideas, we must go beyond our immediate circle and make contact with distant parts of the social system. — Richard Koch

We tend to think of innovation as difficult, but with the creative use of The 80/20 Principle innovation can be both easy and fun! — Richard Koch

In business the 80/20 principle is behind any innovation, any extra value. It is an entrepreneurial principle, a formula for value creation utilized not only by entrepreneurs, but by most managers and organizations. — Richard Koch

There is no shortage of time. In fact, we are positively awash with it. We only make good use of 20 per cent of our time ... The 80/20 principle says that if we doubled our time on the top 20% of activities, we could work a two-day week and achieve 60 per cent more than now. — Richard Koch

The most successful people change the world not through sweat and tears but through ideas and passion. It is not a matter of hard work or time on the job; it is having a different view, an original idea, something that expresses their individuality and creativity. Success comes from thinking, then acting on those thoughts. — Richard Koch

To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day. Lao-Tzu — Richard Koch

The 80/20 Principle, like the truth, can make you free. You can work less. At the same time, you can earn more and enjoy more. The only price is that you need to do some serious 80/20 thinking. — Richard Koch