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TOM@RICHHABITS.NET
In my five-year Rich Habits study of 233 wealthy individuals and 128 people struggling financially, I saw a pattern that separates the successful from everyone else. The rich do not sit in analysis paralysis. They take calculated risks and then they move.
Sixty-five percent of the millionaires in my research took calculated risks—starting a business, investing in a new venture, leaving a safe job for a bigger opportunity. Only a tiny fraction of the poor were willing to step outside their comfort zone. The difference was not bravado. It was homework followed by immediate action.
Calculated risk is not really risk. You do your homework in identifying the uncertainties. You estimate the probability of success and failure. You make sure the downside is fundable and survivable. You understand what you are walking into. That is due diligence. That is work.
The poor skip the work and either freeze or gamble. Both are Poor Habits.
Once the picture is clear, successful people do not keep polishing the plan. They take action.
In my Rich Habits interviews, self-made millionaires described gathering feedback from experts, partners, mentors, and trusted family. Each piece of advice was a puzzle piece. When the picture assembled, only then did they make a decision – go or no go. If they decided to go, they took action almost immediately, sometimes the very same day they made the go decision.
To an outside observer it can look impulsive. It is not. The thinking and homework already happened. What looks like speed is simply taking action, after the decision is made.
That is the “do it now” Rich Habit.
Eighty-one percent of the rich pursued at least one major dream and kept going through setbacks. Thirty-three percent of the self-made millionaires in my Study acknowledged that they had failed in business at least once. Failure did not stop them because they treated what they learned from failure as their teacher.
Unsuccessful people wait for doors to open.
Successful people knock on many doors.
Overthinking is expensive. Parkinson’s Law is real: the longer you delay a task, the larger and scarier it grows in your mind. The wealthy baby-step into hard work—fifteen minutes is enough to create momentum—then they keep going. They do not wait for perfect conditions. Perfect conditions never arrive.
Fear of mistakes keeps most people in place. The rich lean into that fear by doing their homework and gathering facts. Then, they make a decision and take immediate action. They do not confuse thinking with progress. Thinking without action is a time-wasting habit the rich in my Study did not engage in. Action after calculating the risk is how wealth, skill, and luck get created.
Do your homework. Make a decision. Then move. That is a Rich Habit.
Tom Corley is an accountant, financial planner and author of “Rich Kids: How to Raise Our Children to Be Happy and Successful in Life”, “Effort-Less Wealth”, “Change Your Habits Change Your Life”, “Rich Habits Poor Habits”, “Rich Habits: The Routines Millionaires Use Daily to Build Wealth” and “Rich Habits Wealth Academy.”
