Although a belief system is a wonderful thing, our inordinate faith in ourselves and our abilities must be a part of it. We need to develop processes that we can use continuously to improve ourselves.  Whether you believe that “God helps those who help themselves” or you believe in the approach of tapping into divine energy, you create your own fortune and this is the Law of Opportune Timing. Fortune is the result of doing the right things at the right time.

The author Steven Covey tells a story about two lumberjacks who were competing to see who could chop down the most trees. The first lumberjack worked hard all day long, scarcely even stopping to eat a bite of lunch. It seemed sure he would win the contest, because the other lumberjack was stopping almost every hour and sitting down for several minutes.

At the end of the day he lost the contest. He asked the other lumberjack, “How could that be?”

The other lumberjack replied, “Did you notice that every time I was sitting down, I was sharpening my saw?”

Sharpening the saw refers to improving ourselves. In order to be prepared for events and people that come into our lives, we must be receptive and we must be constantly sharpening the saw and adding to our skills and abilities.

What skills do you have where you excel? Do you take the time out of your day to improve yourself? Are you in the top 20%?

It doesn’t matter whether you are in sales, administration, customer service, finance or management; the outcome is really the same. You are there to add to the profitability of the company. By doing things, better, faster, more efficiently, you have the ability to do this for your employer at any level of an organization. When you can prove this to your employer, you become a valuable member of the team.

Business management thinker Joseph Juran suggested this principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto who observed in 1906 that 80% of the land was owned by 20% of the population.

He further developed the principle by observing that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80%  of the peas. Business people have taken this a few steps further and acknowledge that 20% of the customers bring in 80% of the revenue, 20% of a sales team bring in 80% of the business.

In manufacturing, 80% of your inventory will come from 20% of your suppliers, 20% of your inventory takes up 80% of the space, 20% of the staff will create 80% of the problems, There have been studies that 20% of the population use 80% of health care resources, 80% of the crimes are committed by 20% of the criminals, etc.

Depending on what you are looking at and how you are categorizing it, you can use the Pareto principle to identify both the critically good and the critically bad.

Over the last few years, businesses have laid off a lot of people. The truth is, they laid off the bottom 20-50% of their staff. Since it became okay for businesses to let everyone know that they were downsizing, right-sizing or reorganizing, this was a perfect opportunity to get rid of the people who were not performing.

The majority of business managers, owners and executives have been exposed to this rule at some point in their career and they believe it. It’s up to you to prove to them during your entire term of employment that you are in the smaller percentage of employees who contribute to the larger percentage of results.

In your job search, you want to be one of the amazingly great…the vital few. You want to demonstrate that you are one of the 20% who will achieve the 80%.

Everything you do, your approach, your resume, your conversations, your manner of speech and the way you dress for the interview has to be top-notch. You have to demonstrate that you are the best candidate for the company where you are applying.