Why the Best Don’t Stop at 80%

There was a day during my prep for the Vancouver Olympics that still sticks with me.

It was a Tuesday morning in January. We were deep into our last hard training cycle before the Olympics, and my body was wrecked. Every muscle ached. My legs felt like they had 200 pounds strapped to them before I even touched the barbell. We’d been on the bobsled track in St. Moritz, Switzerland all week in freezing cold temperatures, and this day was another heavy lift day in the weight room.

I didn’t want to be there.

Nobody was watching. No cameras, no fans, not even my coach, Stu, hovering over me—just me, the weights, and the clock. And I’ll be honest: halfway through the workout, I caught myself thinking, “Does this last set really matter? I’ve done enough. Who’s going to know if I cut it short?”

But that little voice had a louder one answer back: I’ll know.

So I finished. Not because I wanted to, but because it needed to be done. That was the muscle I was really building—the muscle of finishing. And years later, when I look back at what got me to the starting line in Vancouver, and ultimately to the top of the podium, it wasn’t just talent or strategy or even desire. It was the thousands of small, boring completions no one ever saw.

That’s the part most people miss.

We love beginnings. We love the excitement of starting something new. Average people chase that spark. But successful people? The best of the best? They finish boring things. They stay with the drills, the routines, the paperwork, the meetings, the stuff no one celebrates but everyone relies on.

And I’ve seen the exact same thing outside of sports.

Years later, running my own business, I realized the same discipline carried over. I was in the middle of preparing a massive proposal for a funder. The exciting part had been the first 20%—big ideas, creative direction, all the brainstorming that feels like possibility. But the last 80%? Refining the details. Checking the numbers. Editing out sloppy language. Making sure every piece was as tight as it could be. Honestly, the boring part.

I instinctually hate the boring parts. But don’t confuse that with not doing them.

That’s the work that wins deals. That’s the work that builds trust. And it’s the same mindset I learned in that weight room years earlier: finish the set, finish the task, finish the thing in front of you, no matter how unglamorous.

And you see it in every field.

The best chefs don’t just dream up dishes—they chop, stir, taste, and repeat until it’s perfect. The best teachers don’t just deliver one inspiring lecture—they grade the stack of papers at 10 p.m. because their students need that feedback. The best leaders don’t just set vision—they slog through the tough meetings, the hard conversations, the small details that keep everything on track.

Finishing is a superpower. It looks like discipline from the outside, but what it really is, is identity. Because what you do in one thing, you do in all things. Skip the final rep in the gym, and you’ll find yourself skipping the follow-up email in business. But finish the rep—finish the workout, finish the project—and that habit multiplies everywhere.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth: the difference between those who succeed and those who don’t isn’t talent. It isn’t luck. It’s completion rate. Multi-millionaires finish 90% of what they start. But most people start 90% more than they finish. Athletes who win medals aren’t necessarily the most gifted—they’re the ones who kept going when others bailed.

And nothing stings more than watching someone with half your talent outperform you, simply because they finished.

So let me ask you: what’s in front of you right now that you’ve half-done, that you’ve been tempted to leave sitting on the table?

Because you don’t become who you are by what you start. You become who you are by what you finish.

- Steve

steve.mesler

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