The 80 per cent rule rich people use

THE reason you’re probably not living in a huge home overlooking the harbour is simple. You’re doing too much.

“I DID it! It was pretty damn cool actually. And I sold 34 tickets.”

That’s what a client of mine, Lucy, said on our recent coaching call. The fortnight prior she was deliberating hosting an event for a select group of women in the entrepreneurial space. She was mulling it over because she didn’t feel quite ready but decided to pull the trigger anyway. And as a result, made $68,000 (seats were $2,000 each).

Her goal was to sell 40 and came pretty close.

What might someone else (well, most people!) have done if they didn’t feel ready?

Waited. Delayed. Put it off. Done nothing.

As a life coach, the top few qualities of the most successful people I’ve observed are not what you might think. It’s not IQ, being an extrovert, natural talent, even education.

The traits that define people who achieve their goals and objectives fast are even more subtle, starting with Lucy’s skill. Taking immediate action — and not procrastinating!

There’s no replacement for taking fast, massive action.

Want to live here? Stop talking about your big plans and put them into action.

As the old saying goes, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. People who take a lot longer naturally receive results a lot later and often experience a lot more frustration.

Doing — not thinking! — brings clarity and precision to your work. Thinking will only get you so far. You can learn to ride a bike or drive a car in theory all you want but it’s taking off with your butt in the seat that gets you places.

In many cases this means being OK with “good enough”. Guess what? 80% of ideal is good enough. Worrying about perfect is a waste of time for two reasons — perfection is not attainable anyway and it means you’ll never delegate, because you’ll never trust anyone else to keep to your high standard.

When I interviewed Sara Blakely (the billionaire founder of SPANX), she taught me something important — to delegate.

Here’s what she said, “When I was in my 20s, I took inventory of what I was good at, what I wasn’t good at, and what I did and didn’t enjoy. As soon as you can afford to delegate what you don’t like to do, do it. If somebody can do something 80 per cent as good as you think you would have done it yourself, then you’ve got to let it go.”

Acting on her great idea didn’t only give Sarah Blakely great wealth, but she was named one of the world’s most influential people. Picture: Evan Agostini / AP

Another quality star players possess is being OK with not knowing it all.

The smartest people always ask questions constantly. Kris Jenner (also in possession of a billion-dollar empire) told me once, “It’s important to ask a lot of questions and learn from others every day. I teach my kids to keep learning about new things.” She surrounds herself with people smarter than her asks questions constantly. Because if you’re growing, learning never ends.

And like not being afraid to not know it all, comes another important trait.

Being OK with rejection.

Because life’s full of it. And the more you do, the more you get rejected. It’s simple mathematics. It’s obvious then that not taking everything personally is critical in succeeding at work and winning at life.

Kris Jenner has certainly copped more than her fair share of criticism ... and she’s come out on top.

If J.K. Rowling was rejected by 12 publishing houses, Anna Wintour was fired by Harpers Bazaar, Michael Jordan was cut from his high school’s basketball team and Walt Disney was told he had no creative ideas, we can all suffer a little rejection, too.

Chin up! It’s rarely personal. Because a lot of rejection is, in fact, just bad timing.

Finally — the most dominant quality of successful CEOs, entrepreneurs and leaders is

a “never give up” attitude, also known in the coaching world as a “no-excuses” mindset. This is easier said than done I know, especially in the face of failures, stress and all of the small and large feats leaders are challenged with every day.

And so, in order to master this attitude, a resilient mindset is typically facilitated with some type of daily ritual — meditation, EFT/tapping (a technique where lightly tap themselves to relieve tension), reading personal development books and listening to inspirational podcasts. For a minimum of 15 minutes per day — as close to waking as possible. The first 10-15 minutes of our morning sets the tone for the entire day. So keep your paws off your phone and do something soothing for the mind.

Our mind is our greatest asset and so insulating ourselves from distractions, negativity and self-doubt is paramount to winning. A confident, focused mindset is an unstoppable force. Like you wouldn’t feed your body junk food and expect to be your best, don’t feed your mind rubbish either.

The best part? It’s all entirely up to you.

Susie Moore is an Australian high-performance coach, author and creator of Side Hustle Prep School. She lives in New York City and has been featured on the Today show, Forbes, Oprah.com and more! Sign up for her free weekly confidence boosting email here.