Business Buddhism

The 80-20 rule: 20% effort gets you 80% of the result – nice! To get to the 100% result, you need to add another 80% of the effort – hard work!
The Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns bites.

In a competitive situation that what sets you apart is everything that counts. All the work that you have done that makes you just as good as everyone else makes you just that: like everyone else. The harder it is to create incremental improvements, the more those improvements will differentiate you.

The blue line shows the diminishing marginal return you get for your effort. The green line shows the rewards you get for your effort.

In Range-I there are no competitive rewards – everyone is just as good as you are.
In Range-II some competitors drop off and your extra effort commands some competitive reward.
In Range-III the blue line is almost horizontal. Every extra bit of return is really hard work to obtain. Most, maybe all of your competitors call it quits. This is where you can possibly command a real premium for your exceptional excellence.

The next time you encounter that place where improvements are leveling off and you are inclined to call the output done, ask yourself: what differentiation can the next push give me and what rewards can that create? In which area are you pushing beyond everyone else?

Tagged: Differentiation, results, unique

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