The 80/20 rule of loving your job

Every career, regardless of how much you love it, contains a certain percentage of crap. Things that just aren't any fun to you. There's no avoiding that, so the key is paying attention to how big a percentage it is.

This article suggests thinking about it as a variation of the 80/20 rule:

Every job has its flaws, Michael Gartner, the veteran editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer, once observed during a reporting and writing seminar here at Poynter. But as long as 80 percent of a job's duties are acceptable, he said he could tolerate the 20 percent that wasn't.

...Gartner reversed the principle to make an important point about any job: there's always going to be something you don't like about it. The question is what's the percentage of bad vs. good, boring vs. interesting.

...Next time you find yourself grousing, break down the things about your job that you love and hate. What's your ratio? More important, once you know your tipping point, what do you do about it?

--

Curt Rosengren

Passion Catalyst  ^SM

Career passion e-books

Comments

[Frank Fogelfrei]

I always say that in all cases one should remember: that's why they have to pay you to make you do it. In other words, I haven't yet found a job that would pay me to sit in the hot-tub, beer in hand, at the beach house and watch the sun set.