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Idea Juicing: How to Uncover Your Best Ideas Using the 80/20 Principle

“Business ideas are like buses, there’s a new one every 15 minutes.” —Sir Richard Branson (Click-to-tweet)

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What juicers + the 80/20 principle have in common.

Back in the 1930s, a man name Norman Walker wanted to figure out how he could get the best, most vital nutrients out of plants, fruits, and vegetables into his body without having to eat 8 pounds of fruits and veggies a day.

After tinkering around in his lab for a while, he found out that 80% of a vegetable’s nutrients could be found in 20% of the vegetable.

But how could he tap into it?

By pressing, mashing, and squeezing the nutritious juices out of the fruits and vegetables.

Alas, what we now call the ‘juicer’ was invented.

Walker’s earliest iterations of the juicer looked like a cross between a vita-mix and a panini machine (what we now refer to as “masticating juicers” – which came along way before the beautiful Breville pictured above). Back then, if you wanted to get that vital, nutritious juice into your body — you were gonna have to work for it.

You’d have to beat the living day lights out of any given portion of veggies until they looked like cubes — and then press down on those portions until nearly every ounce of juice was squeezed out into your glass.

In the end, you’d have a beautiful green glass of juice. BUT you’d also have a heck of a lotta pulp left over after all that work.

Now lets fast forward a handful of decades into the 21st century.

The juicer’s come a long way since Norman’s day.

But you know what hasn’t changed one bit?

There’s still a LOT of pulp left over after you’re done juicing all those fruits and veggies.

The process may have gotten a lot quicker (thanks to these swanky new juicers n’ all) but when it’s all said and done, you’re still left with the same nutritious glass of green juice that Norman had to bust his ass to fill back when he first invented the juicer.

In short, once you’re done extracting the juice, here’s what you’re left with:

• 80% pulp.
• 20% nutritious juice.

Your own ideas — whether in business or in life — are the same exact thing:

• 80% of them will probably be junk (pulp.)
• 20% of them will be the life-changing break-throughs, or money-making business ideas (nutritious juice.)

See what I’m getting at here?

Great ideas are hidden in lots and lots of pulp.

In his book “The 80/20 Principle”, Richard Koch tells us:

“The 80/20 Principle asserts that a minority of causes, inputs, or effort usually lead to a majority of the results, outputs, or rewards.”

That’s the essence of understanding how to use 80/20 to your advantage—understanding that the majority of results flow from the minority of ideas and actions.

Bottom line? You can’t get to the “juice” unless you first get past all the “pulp.”

Regardless of WHAT you do in your life, business, or career; it’s important to remember to look for the highest leverage activity — which you can do by putting the 80/20 Principle in action.

Bear in mind that sometimes it takes longer to sift through the things that you should NOT do (i.e: low-leverage activities and bad ideas – the pulp) but when you identify your ONE most powerful priority in any given moment – and then see it through until it’s done – you’re setting yourself up for success nearly every single time.

Alfred Hitchcock once said that “Ideas come from everywhere” … And if we want to enjoy the juiciest ones, it’s important that we always push past the pulp.

Enjoy the juice.

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Related + recommended

• “The 80/20 Principle” by Richard Koch
• “The 80/20 Principle” by Richard Koch – Book Summary
• “The ONE Thing : The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results” by Gary Keller – Book Summary