The Principle (my version)

I like sheep (not that way) I used to live in Derbyshire, England (lots of sheep) I had a sheep dog called Sam who chased sheep, I like to eat lamb chops once in a while and I used to attend sheep dog trials around my home town when I could. (I want to refrain from obvious comments like; were the sheep found guilty? etc but it just seems to flow) But most of all I work with sheep, we all do. I ain’t no shepherd I hear you all say, I know that, but just stay with me ok?

Italian economist Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto observed in 1906 that 80 percent of the land in Italy was owned by 20 percent of the population. Later, he observed this noteworthy ratio seemed to apply to other parts of life, such as gardening: 80 percent of his peas were produced by 20 percent of the peapods. Over time, this concept has come to be known as the "Pareto Principle," (Only the Italians could go from real estate to peas to management principle in one swoop)

This is a concept that most of us have grown to know over the years and I suspect in the most part agree with, it certainly applies to all the ‘sales agencies’ I have worked with.

Ok, so we all agree with Mr. Pareto here and I guess like me you have used this principle your self on a number of occasions, but I want to take a look at the big picture – How big?, how about the Human Race – yep that big, seven billion give or take a few I may have missed last time I counted. I’m not including Management Consultants in this figure because I don’t consider them to be part of the equation. (You want to know what I have against Management Consultants now don’t you? – well you’re just going to have to keep reading and find out then)

But I have discovered a new one; it’s called the 95% or Sheep Principle for the more visual readers. What it says is that most people on the planet (remember I’m not including management consultants here) in this case 95% or 5,700,000,000 ish are followers or if I may be so bold to call sheep. Now I don’t mean resemble sheep although come to think of it – No let’s not go there. (And I don’t mean to be disrespectful either I know a lot of very resourceful sheep) what its saying is that most folks would rather follow than stand out in the crowd so to speak, which is ok. We are at our most basic level still pack animals, to survive we need to live together, hunt together and evolve together and as with any other pack animal on the planet there has to be a leader and then some guys to follow behind so we’re doing what comes natural right? Wrong! We’re doing what is expected, what we’re supposed to do, what generations before us have designed us to do, its what they want, you know THEM.

Yeah! So what you say. This is exactly my point we can’t all be successful, not everyone can run the 4 min mile like Dr Roger Banister or hit the most home runs like Babe Ruth. Who cares if you don’t have an hour glass figure like Marilyn Monroe or have the right ‘six pack’ like some Greek god. It doesn’t matter and it’s ok to be you. I guess! Its ok to just be part of the pack – isn’t it? Nah I don’t buy it, if nature wanted us to be like sheep she would not have invented mint source.

Interestingly, another of Pareto's most noteworthy and controversial theories is that human beings are not, for the most part, motivated by logic and reason but rather by sentiment. – So most of us are all a bunch of sentimental non thinking group following non leading wooly animals then. No I still don’t buy that, well not all of it anyway.

I was at a seminar some time ago to see a ‘famous’ Network Marketer (more of them later) talk about how good he was, how rich he was, how big his house was, who his famous neighbors were, how may cars he had, how many swimming pools he had, how many…..etc etc….and how go we could be just like him if we did what he did. Yeah cool. We’ll talk more on that stuff later. What was unusual about his talk and the only bit I remember was that he said that its ok for people to be maids (so they can clean his big house) or its ok to be gardeners (so thy can look after his big garden) or its good that we have people to do the ‘menial’ jobs (talk about reaching out to your audience) because for people like him who were ‘rich’ they needed people like us (the audience, you know the menial ones) to do their laundry.

Now I guess that makes sense but my initial comment what F*#% You buster you supercilious shit. Yes you need me but I certainly do not need you, nor do I want to be you.