Now, if you've already seen this video, I'm sure you're wondering what I could possibly be talking about. How could the Tequila guy be a genius? And more strangely, how could he be an economic genius. Stick with me and I will explain the hidden economic genius of the Tequila guy.

First, have you seen this?

Tequila Guy On America's Got Talent: On YouTube

Here's the TL;DR:

This guy gets himself onto America's Got Talent with his karaoke act. He then proceeds to sing the song "Tequila."

The punchline is that there's only one word to this song.

The audience loved it.

But how? How could this be?

I know what you're thinking. How could anyone see the hidden economic genius of the Tequila guy? He isn't doing anything special! Anyone could do that!

Here's the hidden economic genius of the Tequila guy:

Are there other people more talented than him? Of course.

Are there other people who developed the skills to be amazing singers? You bet.

What the Tequila guy did was master what I call his "productivity ratio." (I wrote about this in another post, here.)

Without doing much work, he had the audience rolling over laughing.

For the amount of effort he put in, his results were off the charts.

This is the definition of efficiency.

This should translate into your life and work pretty clearly.

Getting paid $2,500/week isn't cool if you're working 80 hours.

Getting paid $2,500/week is much cooler if you're working 10 hours.

Anyone can scale up the amount of time they work. What's more important is focusing on increasing your output, earnings, or whatever "results" you're chasing while also reducing your effort.

In economics, this was originally known as the Pareto Principle (wiki). It stated that 80% of the consequences come from 20% of the causes. This was brought into business jargon as the "80/20 rule."

If you're a consultant or a contractor, you probably have a few clients where you make most of your money. Then you've probably also got a few clients who are a pain in the neck, take up most of your time and energy, and are the least profitable.

Whatever you're working on, it's up to you to reduce your input while simultaneously increasing your output.

2 Minute Action:

Take a look at all your work.

Where are you spending the most time and effort?

Now ask yourself, what work is giving you the most return on your effort?

Today is one of those days where, with the power of reflection, you can choose what your future looks like.

What path with you choose?