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The Value of Focus
Have you heard of the 80/20 rule? If you haven’t, Pareto’s Principle aka the 80-20 rule, says that 80% of an event’s outcomes comes from 20% of the causes. The rule can be applied to many things – from content curation to readers vs. commenters to the percent of people who keep you in business 
Pareto’s Principle is a well proved out theory. Then, why, oh why, do the majority continue to focus on the 80% that are not driving your business?
My favorite latest example of this rule in action is the land grab to own some of the new domain extensions. The application fee for each domain is $185,000. A steep price to pay for the chance of getting an extension approved. Application price be damned, Google applied for 101 extensions… a whopping $18.7M in fees. I guess when you’re Google you can spend money like that on the right to bid In addition to some of their “branded” terms, they also put in applications for extensions like .baby, .live, .love, .wow.
Then, there’s Apple. Apple has some brands too – iPod, iPhone, Mac, etc. Yet, Apple only put in one application – for .apple. Now, that’s focus. A focus that saved them $18.5MM right off the bat. A focus that saved them hours of manpower in filling out paperwork. A focus that’s sure to get their request approved; for exactly what they want. A focus that shows the world that they know exactly what they want and where they’re headed.
Next time you’re browsing your “To Do” list, focus on the 20% that will get you 80% of the way, not the other way around.
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