How the 80/20 Rule Can Get You Results Faster

How the 80/20 Rule Can Get You Results Faster

A few years ago, author and lifestyle experimenter Tim Ferriss designed a unique challenge where he tried to learn thirteen entirely different skills, giving himself just five days for each.

Five days to learn how to play the drums before performing with the band Foreigner in a live stadium show.

Five days to learn Brazilian jiu-jitsu before stepping onto the mat to spar with world champions.

Five days to learn high-stakes poker before risking hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The secret to Ferriss’s rapid learning model was the Pareto Principle: the idea that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. Instead of trying to master an entire discipline, he would identify the vital components of a skill and focus exclusively on that critical 20%.*

In a coaching or leadership context—especially when you are facing constraints like limited time, small rosters, or low buy-in—you simply cannot optimize everything. Trying to teach every technique, run every tactical scheme, or address every behavior issue doesn’t work.

I recently applied this while coaching youth football. Originally, I was working with all the players on learning to score with both feet. But considering we only practice three times every two weeks, this made zero sense for the 80% of kids who aren't trying to become elite professionals. By narrowing our focus strictly to their dominant foot, I instantly doubled their repetitions. The impact was huge. Players feel improvement much faster when you narrow the focus—and that feeling of progress is what drives motivation.

I learned this years ago while coaching basketball. Instead of practicing every imaginable shot, I identified the single most frequent, high-value shot for each individual player. We spent 80% of our practice time working exclusively on those specific shots. The result? We improved our team shooting percentage by over 15% in a single month and went on to have our best season ever.

The exact same principle applies in a cultural context. Leaders often burn themselves out trying to police every single behavior. Instead of managing ten different standards, focus on the two non-negotiable behaviors that will naturally drive the other 80%. In my book, The Culture System, I talk about these as your foundational anchors. For me, those two are showing up on time and practicing engaged listening. When players do those things well a lot of other good things tend to happen.

Consider where your energy goes on a daily basis:

The People: We often spend 80% of our emotional energy trying to drag along the bottom 20% of resistant people. Instead, redirect that 80% into empowering your top 20%—your organic leaders—and let them pull the rest of the team upward.

The Environment: Instead of spending 80% of your time correcting "below-the-line" behaviors, spend 80% of your energy publicly celebrating and elevating the exceptional behaviors within the team.

I’ve had to learn this lesson the hard way in my own business at TOC. Over the last year, I realized I was spending 80% of my energy trying to convince everyone on our massive contact lists, social followers, and casual subscribers to join us in this important work of cultural transformation. Moving forward, I won't make that mistake again.

I am shifting my focus to spend 80% of my time and energy supporting the core 20% of coaches, athletes, and programs who are already fiercely committed to this journey. By investing value in those ready to do the heavy lifting, they will achieve results faster.

And honestly? I have a feeling I’ll enjoy the work a whole lot more, too.

—J.P. Nerbun

Note* I first learned about this experiment in The Art of Impossible by Steven Kotler. I highly recommend it.

P.S. If you want to help your athletes find their purpose on the journey, my new book, The Culture Captain is the perfect read. If you want to facilitate powerful, reflective conversations with your athletes, this is the perfect guide. Grab your copy on Amazon, and then download the companion Field Guide at theculturecaptain.net.