Although I also liked his original book The 80/20 Principle, Richard Koch has done a much better job in applying Vilfredo Pareto's 80/20 principle to everyday life in Living the 80/20 Way . The 80/20 principle means that in any area of life a few (approximately 20 percent) are vital and many (approximately 80 percent) are trivial. The key is to focus your time and energy on the 20 percent of your work projects, friends, investments, and leisure activities that are really important.

As the author of the international bestseller The Joy of Not Working(over 225,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages) and How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free (over 90,000 copies sold) , I can lay claim to a measure of Real Success not attained by the majority of people in North America. In fact, not so long my net worth was minus $30,000. Yet today I have a comfortable net worth, work only four to five hours a day, and have an income in the top 20 percent of wage earners. To get there I have implemented the following principles, which in one way or another are emphasized and expanded on by Richard Koch in Living the 80/20 Way.
1. Put more effort into simplifying your life and less into complicating it.
2. Reject the adage that everything worth doing is worth doing well - striving for excellence where excellence doesn't matter is the stuff that misfits are made of.
3. Concentrate on the things that really matter and be oblivious to practically everything else.
4. If you work more than eight hours a day, you are in the wrong job - either that or you are doing it wrong.
5. The belief in the morality of hard work signifies a hard head.
6. Forget about security and focus on opportunity.
7. Live life on your own terms and not someone else's.
The material in this book can be much more valuable than an MBA if you would like to get what you want out of life without killing yourself for it. I should know. I have an MBA and have never found anything worth reviewing from the courses I took in the program. Yet I find Living the 80/20 Way a great resource for reminding me what helped me become successful. It is also a valuable reminder for how I can continue to work fewer hours than most people and be more successful at what I do than most people who work in the same field.

- Ernie Zelinski , author of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free ( )