In the podiatry profession, we’ve always had podiatrists that have gone out there and made things happen, the action takers, the doer’s, the VITAL FEW, the ones that are shining a light for others to follow; however, we’ve also had the whingers and complainers, the one referred to as the TRIVIAL MANY.
In 1906 Italian Economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula that observed that 80% of the wealth in his country was owned by 20% of the population. This was called the Pareto Principle, and then in the 1930s, Dr Joseph Juran called it the Vital Few & Trivial Many.
Today it is known as the 80:20 Principal, and most people are aware of this concept.
For example, at work, are you aware that:
- 80% of your heartache will come from 20% of your patients
- 80% of your business errors will come from 20% of your team
- 80% of your income comes from 20% of the services you provide
That last one is significant to understand. When you look at all the services you currently offer your patients, you’ll find many of them are underutilised and rarely used, yet valuable space is being allocated for them.
Who are the Vital Few in podiatry?
They are the 20% of the profession who:
- Earn more
- Have businesses that look professional
- Have businesses with modern equipment
- Contribute to the profession
- Involved in research that matters
- Are invited to speak
- Everyone knows their name
- Everyone wants to connect with them on social media
- People read follow their blogs
- They have consistent marketing strategies
- Their websites are alive and constantly changing
- They are sadly missed when they retire
Who are the Trivial Many in podiatry?
This is really easy. They are the ones who:
- Earn far less, and complain about it
- Have very average podiatry businesses
- Have outdated equipment
- Contribute nothing, but will be responsible for 80% of complaints to the Podiatry Board
- Are never invited to speak
- No one knows their name
- Have an uninspiring social media presence (they’ll say they’re not into that shit)
- Have an out of date, tired-looking website
- Have no marketing strategy, and complain about everyone else’s
- Will not be missed when they retire
Another important point is when they sell their businesses, the Vital Few will sell their business for significantly more money than the Trivial Many.
In fact, the Trivial Many will find it difficult to sell their business and sometimes close their doors because no one wants to buy an insignificant business.
And, when this happens, no one notices.
So, what’s my point?
If you’re going to be in business for yourself, focus your energy 100% on your activities, not your competitors, and every day set a goal to be better than you were the day before.
If you can do this…you will succeed, and you will be one of the Vital Few.
Those podiatrists that go out there and take action and do the work don’t complain about other podiatrists success. In contrast, those that sit on their butts look for reasons to complain and constantly point the finger at others for doing the wrong thing, which is a shame because if they put that same amount of energy into their own business, they would be doing so much better.
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