I just finished teaching a class called “18 Common Mistakes Small Business Owners Make” at Wake Technical Community College in North Carolina. It’s a class I like to teach because I get a chance to ”pay it forward ” by helping current and prospective small business owners learn the joys and pitfalls of owning a business. One of the key concepts of the class is what I like to call the “75/25 Rule”.

I believe that for the most part people walk around oblivious to their own behavior and the impact it has on others. Seventy five percent of the time people have no clue about how their words and actions affect others. Take a minute to think about it. How do others see you? Have you hurt someone or made someone’s day by something you said or did? 

Unfortunately we tend to be lost in our own agendas most of the time. Only about 25% of the time do we recognize that our words and actions do have an impact on other people. If you ever got a chance to see the Mel Gibson movie, “What Women Want ” you know exactly what I’m talking about. In the movie Mel Gibson was a cocky ad executive who fancied himself an elite womanizer. It took a woman boss,  a homework assignment and an accident in the bath tub for him to realize how all the women in his world really felt about their interactions with him. It was a real eye opener and caused him to re-evaluate his behavior with women.

Whether it is a business or a social interaction,  we all need to step back and check the 75/25 Rule. What side of the percentage scale are you on? Is it working for you?

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