kbadeo
09-14-2007, 08:05 AM
By - Bill J. Gatten
It’s a known fact that the Universe adheres to four immutable principles. An acceptance and understanding of these guiding factors makes gods of us all. There is no more knowledge than that embodied in the following four Universal Laws (except, of course, for that Newtonian thing about everything in motion continuing in motion until smacking into an equally dynamic opposing force).
Those immutable laws are:
The basal metabolic rate of a sleeping mouse is always slightly higher than that of a dead mouse
No sharks are skinned or otherwise harmed in the making of a sharkskin suit
All rats kept in laboratory confinement die of Cancer
One will virtually never step in anything truly nasty unless barefoot
Bonus: Coloreds must never mix with whites, unless pink BVD’s, Hanes and Jockey Shorts is not a problem
No…hey….just kidding. The real principals follow:
1) PARETO'S PRINCIPLE: The “80-20 Rule”
Vilfredo Pareto was an Italian economist who, in 1906, observed that twenty percent of the Italian people owned eighty percent of their country's accumulated wealth (Not saying much for Italians, but a fact none-the-less…Jim Pasquini will appreciate this one). Over time, and through its application in a variety of environments this analytic finding has come to be called Pareto's Principle, or “the 80-20 Rule”…or “the Vital Few and Trivial Many Rule." Called by whatever name you might ascribe to it, this ratio of 80%-20% reminds us that the relationship between input and output is not equally balanced. Ever! In a management context, for example, this rule of thumb is a useful heuristic (…look it up) that applies when there is a question of effectiveness versus diminishing return on effort, expense and time expended in anticipation of a particular outcome.
A real estate broker friend of mine was once asked: “How many agents do you have working for you now?” Her reply was, “According to Pareto, maybe twenty percent at best.”
To apply Pareto to the rest of the world is to say, for example, that 20% of the people in the workforce do 80% of the work. Of those who preach the Gospel on 20% mean it…the rest are just hoping. Of those who buy tapes and book in our business of creative real estate investing, only 20% put those materials to good use and do a transaction because of them: and only 20% of that 20% do it more than once or twice. The other 80% mean well and “plan to do it.” But the never do.
The lesson to be learned from Pareto? Simple. Just put yourself in the 20% of those who do what they promise themselves they will: it takes a conscious decision to place one’s self in either of the two groups (the 80 percenters or the 20 percenters ), so why not consciously choose the 20% group versus the alternative, and determine to do what you knew you needed to do when you signed up for the course and paid your money in the first place.
2) OCCAM’S PRINCIPLE (OCCAM’S RAZOR): The Principle of Simplifying the Complex by removing (razor-like) Unknowable Uncertainty from Known Certainty
”Occam's Razor” is the term used when the unknown is stripped away from an argument or concept involving certain known and provable likelihoods. This brilliant principle in Logic is attributed to the mediaeval philosopher William of Occam (personally I call him “Willy”…he’s never complained, though perhaps only due to being dead a long time).
Occam's Razor, otherwise known as: “The principal that one should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of elements or entities required to explain anything…or they’re stupid.” In other words, one should always choose the simplest explanation of any phenomenon: that being the one that employs the most logic and requires no leaps of faith or unknowable conjecture.
For example: Which do you think is the most logical answer to, say, the “UFO phenomenon?” 1) That these reported sightings might be of space craft piloted by humanoids from another planet from a distant galaxy with no proof or real scientific evidence to back that up; or that instead they might be top-secret experimental aircraft whose developers do not wish them to be seen…or wish to explain if they are seen?
Well, since neither answer is knowable with perfect certainty…Willy O. would choose explanation number two as being the most likely to be the truth and the most reliable one with which to work and plan because we do have evidence and scientific proof that there are in-fact experimental aircraft that are not commonly observed or explained.
The lesson? So often, we want to make the concept of buying real estate via the Equity Holding Trust Transfer™ much more complicated than it really is. Here’s what you learn in a $500 3-day workshop: 1. Find a house and put it in a trust, 2. Find a human or two and put them in the house. That’s it! The documents and details that follow that process are academic and can be worked out by those of us who have nothing better to do.
3) MURPHY'S PRINCIPLE (MURPHY’S LAW): The Law of That’s the Way It Is Anyway
Don’t think of Murphy as a real person, like Pareto and Occam, but if you think about it…who cares? We can’t leave Murphy out of this discussion. Whomever he could, would or might be, or have once been doesn’t matter. His Law is what keeps life interesting. Here are just a few of Murphy’s truisms:
Nothing is ever as easy as it looks
Everything takes longer than you think it will
Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong
If there is a possibility of several things that MIGHT go wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one that will go wrong
Anything dropped accidentally will land on the surface or edge that can be damaged most (e.g., the side that has the jelly on it)
If there is a “worse time” for something to go wrong, that’s when it will
If anything “simply ‘can’t’ go wrong,” it will anyway.
If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and are successful by-passing all four of them, a fifth way will promptly develop.
If everything seems to be going well, you have overlooked something.
Nature abhors a vacuum but loves a flaw
It’s impossible to make anything foolproof because of the ingenuity of fools
Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first
Every solution breeds a new problem with no solution
Every problem that can be solved already has been
GATTEN’S PRINCIPLE: The Natural Law of the Living Universe
Nowadays homely people frequently don’t act like the know they’re homely, therefore, assuming they have something we want, we are forced to treat them like…well…regular people.
Left to themselves, bad things just get worse…but so do good things, for that matter
Anything not already screwed up, eventually will be, given more than one adjustment knob and a little time
99% of Wet-Paint signs are wrong…unless for those you fail to see
One of any two missing matching items will stay lost only until you dispose of its mate
Anything that is tasty, non fattening, satisfying and well worth the money causes Cancer
He who cares the least in any relationship is in charge of it
Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for day: but give a computer nerd a three-pronged double-hooked bass jig and ample line, and he’ll invariably hook some fellow angler in the ear and have to be rushed to the hospital with a broken nose, once the bleeding fellow angler becomes disengaged.
24.3 per cent of all statistics are either made up or in error: The made-up category leading the erroneous category by a ratio of roughly 2.5 to 1…or so say 5 out of 10 economists polled.
There is no need for anyone to remain in debt, what with borrowed money being so abundant these days
He shortest line at a super market check-out stand is the one you were going to get into before you saw the shorter one that you’re in now.
If you laid the entire population of China end-to-end, head to toe, in a straight line around the world, that should seriously slow down over-population in that country.
It’s a known fact that the Universe adheres to four immutable principles. An acceptance and understanding of these guiding factors makes gods of us all. There is no more knowledge than that embodied in the following four Universal Laws (except, of course, for that Newtonian thing about everything in motion continuing in motion until smacking into an equally dynamic opposing force).
Those immutable laws are:
The basal metabolic rate of a sleeping mouse is always slightly higher than that of a dead mouse
No sharks are skinned or otherwise harmed in the making of a sharkskin suit
All rats kept in laboratory confinement die of Cancer
One will virtually never step in anything truly nasty unless barefoot
Bonus: Coloreds must never mix with whites, unless pink BVD’s, Hanes and Jockey Shorts is not a problem
No…hey….just kidding. The real principals follow:
1) PARETO'S PRINCIPLE: The “80-20 Rule”
Vilfredo Pareto was an Italian economist who, in 1906, observed that twenty percent of the Italian people owned eighty percent of their country's accumulated wealth (Not saying much for Italians, but a fact none-the-less…Jim Pasquini will appreciate this one). Over time, and through its application in a variety of environments this analytic finding has come to be called Pareto's Principle, or “the 80-20 Rule”…or “the Vital Few and Trivial Many Rule." Called by whatever name you might ascribe to it, this ratio of 80%-20% reminds us that the relationship between input and output is not equally balanced. Ever! In a management context, for example, this rule of thumb is a useful heuristic (…look it up) that applies when there is a question of effectiveness versus diminishing return on effort, expense and time expended in anticipation of a particular outcome.
A real estate broker friend of mine was once asked: “How many agents do you have working for you now?” Her reply was, “According to Pareto, maybe twenty percent at best.”
To apply Pareto to the rest of the world is to say, for example, that 20% of the people in the workforce do 80% of the work. Of those who preach the Gospel on 20% mean it…the rest are just hoping. Of those who buy tapes and book in our business of creative real estate investing, only 20% put those materials to good use and do a transaction because of them: and only 20% of that 20% do it more than once or twice. The other 80% mean well and “plan to do it.” But the never do.
The lesson to be learned from Pareto? Simple. Just put yourself in the 20% of those who do what they promise themselves they will: it takes a conscious decision to place one’s self in either of the two groups (the 80 percenters or the 20 percenters ), so why not consciously choose the 20% group versus the alternative, and determine to do what you knew you needed to do when you signed up for the course and paid your money in the first place.
2) OCCAM’S PRINCIPLE (OCCAM’S RAZOR): The Principle of Simplifying the Complex by removing (razor-like) Unknowable Uncertainty from Known Certainty
”Occam's Razor” is the term used when the unknown is stripped away from an argument or concept involving certain known and provable likelihoods. This brilliant principle in Logic is attributed to the mediaeval philosopher William of Occam (personally I call him “Willy”…he’s never complained, though perhaps only due to being dead a long time).
Occam's Razor, otherwise known as: “The principal that one should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of elements or entities required to explain anything…or they’re stupid.” In other words, one should always choose the simplest explanation of any phenomenon: that being the one that employs the most logic and requires no leaps of faith or unknowable conjecture.
For example: Which do you think is the most logical answer to, say, the “UFO phenomenon?” 1) That these reported sightings might be of space craft piloted by humanoids from another planet from a distant galaxy with no proof or real scientific evidence to back that up; or that instead they might be top-secret experimental aircraft whose developers do not wish them to be seen…or wish to explain if they are seen?
Well, since neither answer is knowable with perfect certainty…Willy O. would choose explanation number two as being the most likely to be the truth and the most reliable one with which to work and plan because we do have evidence and scientific proof that there are in-fact experimental aircraft that are not commonly observed or explained.
The lesson? So often, we want to make the concept of buying real estate via the Equity Holding Trust Transfer™ much more complicated than it really is. Here’s what you learn in a $500 3-day workshop: 1. Find a house and put it in a trust, 2. Find a human or two and put them in the house. That’s it! The documents and details that follow that process are academic and can be worked out by those of us who have nothing better to do.
3) MURPHY'S PRINCIPLE (MURPHY’S LAW): The Law of That’s the Way It Is Anyway
Don’t think of Murphy as a real person, like Pareto and Occam, but if you think about it…who cares? We can’t leave Murphy out of this discussion. Whomever he could, would or might be, or have once been doesn’t matter. His Law is what keeps life interesting. Here are just a few of Murphy’s truisms:
Nothing is ever as easy as it looks
Everything takes longer than you think it will
Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong
If there is a possibility of several things that MIGHT go wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one that will go wrong
Anything dropped accidentally will land on the surface or edge that can be damaged most (e.g., the side that has the jelly on it)
If there is a “worse time” for something to go wrong, that’s when it will
If anything “simply ‘can’t’ go wrong,” it will anyway.
If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and are successful by-passing all four of them, a fifth way will promptly develop.
If everything seems to be going well, you have overlooked something.
Nature abhors a vacuum but loves a flaw
It’s impossible to make anything foolproof because of the ingenuity of fools
Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first
Every solution breeds a new problem with no solution
Every problem that can be solved already has been
GATTEN’S PRINCIPLE: The Natural Law of the Living Universe
Nowadays homely people frequently don’t act like the know they’re homely, therefore, assuming they have something we want, we are forced to treat them like…well…regular people.
Left to themselves, bad things just get worse…but so do good things, for that matter
Anything not already screwed up, eventually will be, given more than one adjustment knob and a little time
99% of Wet-Paint signs are wrong…unless for those you fail to see
One of any two missing matching items will stay lost only until you dispose of its mate
Anything that is tasty, non fattening, satisfying and well worth the money causes Cancer
He who cares the least in any relationship is in charge of it
Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for day: but give a computer nerd a three-pronged double-hooked bass jig and ample line, and he’ll invariably hook some fellow angler in the ear and have to be rushed to the hospital with a broken nose, once the bleeding fellow angler becomes disengaged.
24.3 per cent of all statistics are either made up or in error: The made-up category leading the erroneous category by a ratio of roughly 2.5 to 1…or so say 5 out of 10 economists polled.
There is no need for anyone to remain in debt, what with borrowed money being so abundant these days
He shortest line at a super market check-out stand is the one you were going to get into before you saw the shorter one that you’re in now.
If you laid the entire population of China end-to-end, head to toe, in a straight line around the world, that should seriously slow down over-population in that country.