The 80/20 Principle, Achieving Unreasonable Success, and More | Richard Koch | The Tim Ferriss Show

Richard Koch on Mastering the 80/20 Principle, Achieving Unreasonable Success, and the Art of Gambling | Brought to you by Vuori Clothing https://vuoriclothing.com/tim and Athletic Greens https://www.athleticgreens.com/tim

Richard Koch (@RichardKoch8020) is an entrepreneur, investor, former strategy consultant, and author of several books on business and ideas, including four on how to apply the 80/20 principle in all walks of life.

His investments have grown at 22 percent compounded annually over 37 years and have included Filofax, Plymouth Gin, Belgo, Betfair (the world’s largest betting exchange), FanDuel, and Auto1. He has worked for Boston Consulting Group and was a partner at Bain & Co. before joining Jim Lawrence and Iain Evans to start LEK, which expanded from three to 350 professionals during the six years Richard was there.

In 1997, Richard’s book The 80/20 Principle reinterpreted the Pareto Rule, which states that most results come from a small minority of causes, and extended it beyond its well-known application in business into personal life, happiness, and success. The book, substantially updated in 2017, has sold more than a million copies, been translated into roughly 40 languages, and become a business classic. It was named by GQ magazine as one of the top 25 business books of all time.

His new book is Unreasonable Success and How to Achieve it.

Intro 00:00
Of wines and spirits, chat show reinvention, Michael Parkinson, Windsor Castle, and David Bowie [08:33]
Why Richard was the exception to my “I don’t give quotes for books” policy [10:10]
What secrets were revealed to Richard in Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries? [11:02]
What’s Richard’s own peculiar talent, and how did he discover it? [16:35]
The star principle of investing [19:34]
A $1.5 million bet [29:02]
The value of a business that can “segment itself” [33:42]
The principles that govern Richard’s own portfolio [36:42]
Why Richard was fired from BCG and the meeting of Bill Bain [41:10]
What is the growth share matrix (aka the Boston box)? [51:46]
What did Bain and Company appreciate about Richard that was not appreciated at BCG? [55:44]
Behaving as a partner before being announced as one [1:09:32]
Recommended books [1:13:42]
Why principles are better than knowledge and how The 80/20 Principle came to be [1:17:57]
What makes Richard the happiest and how does he make space for it? [1:32:21]
The two types of journaling I enjoy compared to Richard’s journaling style [1:38:05]
Who has more fun in life: adventurers or controllers? [1:43:12]
The spark for Richard's new book Unreasonable Success and How to Achieve It [1:45:58]
The 9 landmarks of success [1:53:37]
Landmark one: self-belief [1:56:50]
Landmark two: Olympian expectations [1:59:45]
Landmark three: transforming experiences [2:00:42]
Landmark four: one breakthrough achievement [2:09:09]
Landmark five: make your own trail [2:14:15]
Landmark six: find and drive your personal vehicle [2:19:13]
Landmark seven: thrive on setbacks [2:22:14]
Landmark eight: acquire unique intuition [2:24:50]
Landmark nine: distort reality [2:25:13]
How do these landmarks often reinforce one another? [2:25:56]
How Nelson Mandela acquired unique intuition in prison [2:28:34]
The annual question Richard asks himself [2:36:09]
Parting thoughts. [2:38:43]

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