Hey friends,

Happy Weekend, Happy Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers release weekend!

A milestone birthday in the family served as great motivation to get this email out early. Today’s essay explores a simple (but powerful concept): the Pareto Principle.​

A simple trick to uncover personal leverage

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Most of the things you do don’t matter.

Yup, that tweet you’re reading. No impact.

The presentation you just edited. No one’s going to read it.

And that feature you just shipped. Crickets.

As you’re taking a mental inventory of all your activities, this may feel a bit harsh.

But the Pareto Principle states that for many outcomes, 80% of the of consequences come from 20% of causes.

Take your company’s revenue.

80% of your company’s revenue, probably comes from 20% of your clients.

If you’re a manager, take a look at your direct reports.

Do 80% of your personnel issues come from 20% of your personnel?

Or does 80% of your team’s output, come from 20% of your team?

Now clearly, it’s a rule of thumb. But an expansive (and incisive) one. One that covers careers, happiness, health, relationships and economics.

It’s also the perfect starting point to identify a critical ingredient in $10K Work: Leverage.​
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Here are this week's top reads:

// one

Desire for mission is a career limiting belief

6 minutes | Commonplace
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Anytime you introduce a constraint, by definition, you reduce your set of options. These days, people their companies to provide a lot. What role does mission play? And given that such a small set of companies have noble missions (let's face it, most businesses exist to reward shareholders), how important of a criteria is it vis-a-vis the tangible (income) and the intangible (learning)?

→ Read the post​

// two

103 bits of advice I wish I had known

12 minutes | The Technium
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Birthdays are a great time to reflect on what we’ve learned, and what better activity on your 70th than to share your sage wisdom with others? Among the hundred plus pieces of advice from the founder of Wired Magazine, there are many gems we could all benefit from remembering: don’t ever work for someone you wouldn’t want to become, efficiency is overrated (and goofing off is underrated), and every breakthrough is laughable at first.

→ Read the post​

// three

What your younger employees are really thinking

13 minutes | NYT
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Millennial Americans are noticing how the pandemic has drastically shifted their careers. They’re feeling mixed emotions about work - from optimistic to burnt out to bored to empowered to nervous. They quickly learned to stop working long hours with unsupportive managers, how to set boundaries with colleagues, and most importantly, they realized how much power they have.

→ Read the article​

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// four

How to say no

5 minutes | Tweetstorm @gauravsingh961​
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You can learn all the productivity hacks in the world and they won’t really matter if you don’t know how to say ​no. Need a playbook for this? You’re not alone — many RadReaders struggle with this (probably because of people-pleasing tendencies). A few practical tips: evaluate the present value of future time, optimize for highest enthusiasm, audio message instead of call and ask for permission (to say no!).

→ Read the tweetstorm​

// five

The arc of the practical creator

20 minutes | More to That
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Being “a creator” is particularly in vogue today. After all it seems like the perfect way to merge passion, artistic expression and income. But what are the trade-offs between creating for creation’s sake and creating to make money. Once again, my dear friend Lawrence examines all of the nuances of this new career track and if it’s worth exiting to the corporate rat race to do so.

→ Read the post​

Below the Fold

ICYMI

• I wrote two tweetstorms on how I use Savvycal for scheduling and identifying leverage using the 80/20 rule​

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LAST WEEK'S MOST READ

• ​Would you do data entry on a Saturday? (RadReads, 669 clicks)
• ​How to know when to stop (Lenny's Newsletter, 444 clicks)

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And finally, the likely origins of Kendrick’s Oklama.

With gratitude,

Khe

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PPS Refer 2 friends and get the Weekly Review Cheatsheet. Here is your personal RadReferral link: https://sparklp.co/9ac1b50d

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