Parkinson's Laws: a summary. Laws of Parkinson in the stock market

You can live, go to work, create large companies or lead small business without knowing what Parkinson's laws are, but that does not mean that they do not work at this time. They are universal and relate to everything in life - from organizing bureaucratic apparatus to tricks with taxes, saving electricity and creating a strong family or a successful business.

Cyril Parkinson formulated them. The laws of Parkinson became a bestseller in the middle of the XX century, but it seems to be relevant at all times and in all countries.

Biography of Cyril Parkinson

Cyril Norton Parkinson was born in a creative family, where his father was an artist, and his mother was a music teacher. This happened on July 30, 1909. Having been educated at the St. Petra in Yorkshire, he chose a history specialization at Cambridge College Emmanuel, where he received a master's degree in 1932.

In 1935, he received his doctorate in philosophy, defending his dissertation on the trade of England in the eastern seas in 1803-1910. He travels a lot, and from 1938 to 1940 engaged in teaching activities.

From 1940 to 1945 he passed military service, and after demobilization he became a history teacher at Liverpool University. From 1950 to 1958, Cyril holds a professorship at the University of Malaya in Singapore. In the same period, he wrote the book "The Laws of Parkinson", which was originally a series of satirical articles for the journal "The Economist", later included in the book itself.

In 1960 Cyril Parkinson retired, settled on one of the Channel Islands and devoted his free time to writing novels, plays, books on business and management, sailing and painting. In 1993, on March 9, Cyril Parkinson died in Canterbury.

I Parkinson's Law

The first law of Parkinson is suitable for people who want to be effective and have time to do as much as possible of effective actions, especially if it concerns the development of their own business.

It sounds like this: "Work takes time, let it go." You can interpret it from the perspective of both people working for hire, and those who build their own business or engage in a favorite hobby. Depending on the sphere of human activity, he has different approaches for implementation.

The first law, from the perspective of an employee or bureaucrat, is interpreted in such a way that the time allotted for the performance of a task will take exactly this time and will correspond to the complexity suitable for this timeframe.

This means that if the case can be done in 2-3 hours, and 2-3 days are allocated for its implementation, then it will become so complicated that it will be executed precisely in these terms.

The same thing, which was allocated only 2 hours of work, will be simplified so as to be completed on time. The law has the following conclusion: if every time it takes just as much time as it really takes to accomplish it, it will always be completed on time.

The negative side of the first law works only for those who are not accustomed to putting realistic deadlines and do not even try to analyze how much time it is possible to do this or that task. The result is constant rush or delaying of simple and quickly executable cases.

Applying the law of personal effectiveness to an employee - to do the work quickly, and the remaining working time to devote to what you like, pretending to be very busy.

The Second Law of Parkinson

The laws of Parkinson relate not only to personal effectiveness or the growth of the bureaucratic apparatus, but also to the financial side of everyone's life. The second law of Parkinson sounds as follows: "Expenditures tend to catch up with incomes".

This law shows: how quickly the incomes of a person grow, so does the payment of its tax increase. The bureaucratic tax system is built in such a way that a person, increasing his earnings even many times, remained at the same financial level as before the increase of prosperity.

3 Parkinson's Law

The third law of Parkinson sounds like this: "Growth leads to complexity, and complexity - to the end of the path." This applies to all spheres of human life, when they are in the development stage.

As soon as growth begins in some area, it is always followed by problems of a new level. For example, a person opened a small business in which he worked himself. At the same time, the level of income and expenditure concerns only him, as well as the relationship with the tax inspector.

Things went "uphill," he began to expand his production and hired workers. The level of complexities grew in proportion to the growth of business. Employees need to pay their salaries, provide a social package, give leave, report to a tax inspector at a different interest rate.

The laws of Parkinson are always proved by life itself. At the businessman the small business became a financial empire, together with which the problems grew - the board of directors, the shareholders' council, the trade union of workers, social payments, the inflated bureaucracy and much more.

In the history of entrepreneurship, there are many examples where giant corporations ceased to exist after their maximum growth and complexity of the management structure.

Every company, like every entrepreneur, needs to know that the fall is bound to be after a lot of growth. This is normal, you just need to be ready for this. Find alternative methods of work, create additional sources of income or something else.

Law of bureaucracy

The laws of Parkinson concerning the bureaucratic apparatus are beyond doubt and do not require proof. An example of this is the organization of various legislative offices in any country in the world.

According to the author, the most effective is a cabinet consisting of 5 members, since they are easy to assemble together, four of them know exactly what they are doing, and one can not know anything, so he will be suitable for the role of chairman.

But history shows that every time a single country was created a small cabinet, but in a year or two it increased, then again and again, until it disintegrated, and it all began again.

This is especially significant in the example of the English House of Lords, which in its original form, around 1600, had 20 members, which gradually led to 850 in 1952. Each time inside the cabinet, small "podkabinets", secret offices, councils and similar bureaucratic structures were organized.

The laws of the Parkinson bureaucracy look like a kind of formula for revealing the uselessness rate of the bureaucracy.

Laws of Parkinson for Women

The laws of Mrs. Parkinson relate to more everyday topics, such as romance and marriage, driving a car and arranging a joint family "nest".

The book has nothing to do with the writer's wife, as he warns readers in the preface to it. Written with a great sense of humor, the main book is somewhat sad - people are so busy with stuff and living arrangements that they do not understand how to actually bring up children and on what foundations a strong marriage is being created and maintained.

Parkinson's laws for women also touch upon the moments when women are in a stressful situation, and the heat of their passions is aimed at destroying everything that comes in the way.

The first law that the heat of an object engaged in the performance of everyday household chores gradually increases until it is "poured out" onto another, more cold-blooded subject.

The second law says that you can not run "headlong" to the phone, if at that moment a very important work is being carried out.

The third law is the council is never to make decisions, while the heat of passion does not cool down, and the mind can again sensibly perceive reality.

Parkinson and the stock market

The laws of Parkinson in the stock market relate, above all, to the usual sums and sound as follows: "The time spent on the discussion of the item is inversely proportional to the amount in question." At the heart of the law is the division of people on the planet into two types: those who have a million, and those who do not.

Millionaires are used to big figures, but there are many more people in the world who have thousands. From such people usually there are various financial committees which, considering the application for the project in 100 $, will demand the inquiry on each spent cent and to challenge legality of their use. For other projects, they can allocate millions, without even arguing to hoarseness about the appropriateness of these investments.

Councils for entrepreneurs

Parkinson's books do not disclose "secrets", how to build a successful business or create a billion-dollar corporation. They are aimed at explaining how a business can not be built.

If we take the book "Parkinson's Law", the brief content of which concerns issues of personal effectiveness and the correct distribution of human resources, then one of its important sections are 100 councils for entrepreneurs.

Some of these tips are dedicated to the skills of human communication on which any business is based. Also, there are recommendations on how to be an effective leader for others and for yourself. If you apply them in practice, then any business will quickly turn into a profitable business.

Practical application of laws

Although Cyril Parkinson wrote his laws in humorous and ironic form, they contain serious factors that affect human life, the development of personal relationships, financial success and the realization of the creative and mental potential of people.

They were relevant for the 60-ies of the last century, will be applicable in the XXI century. Since that time, technology has improved, but the psychology of the wage worker, bureaucrat or entrepreneur has remained the same. Using Parkinson's laws, you can achieve results in any matter much more quickly.