The key is to work out the few things that are really important, and the few methods that will give us what we really want.

There is no shortage of time. In fact, we are positively awash with it. We only make good use of 20 per cent of our time.... The 80/20 principle says that if we doubled our time on the top 20% of activities, we could work a two-day week and achieve 60 per cent more than now.

80% of the results come from 20% of the causes. A few things are important; most are not.

The road to hell is paved with the pursuit of volume. Volume leads to marginal products, marginal customers, and greatly increased managerial complexity.

Hard work leads to low returns. Insight and doing what we want lead to high returns.

To get useful new ideas, we must go beyond our immediate circle and make contact with distant parts of the social system.

Instead of expending time to train yourself not to be afraid of snakes, avoid them altogether.