January 2, 2012

3 Ways To Be An Un-Perfectionist

The Herd’s Brain Has 5 Parts
Are You Flawed?
3 Colossal Time Wasters

Everyone seeks perfection. The perfect body. Smile. Manuscript. Product. Business Strategy. Problem is, “P” doesn’t exist. It’s like pursuing The Holy Grail. For some reason we drive on to squeeze the last 10% of what we think is perfection out of whatever we are doing.

The consequences of chasing the illusive “P” are significant. We burn time. And the ROI on extra time spent is ZERO. But the real negative is that it keeps you from doing stuff.
Bre Pettis says it well: “Perfection is boring. And it keeps you from being done.” Seth Godin talks about the importance of Shipping stuff. And that if you waited until is “complete”, you would never deliver anything.

Try these 3 things to avoid the Perfection Trap:
1. Force yourself to get stuff “just about right”. And then do it. The reality is, that anything more is a waste of time given the unpredictability of the world today. It is impossible for you to accurately account for the unknown so why bother? Get a 70% solution and “Ship It”.

2. Give yourself a deadline to finish your work. When your time runs out You’re Done. Get it out the door. Get used to doing what you can in the time you have given yourself.

3. Track the results of your Imperfection with your customers. Get feedback. Determine if they are ok with what you’ve done or not. Satisfy yourself that you CAN produce good work in less time.

In business there is no such thing as The “Right Answer”. It’s what people are prepared to accept. Solutions to 6 decimal places have no role here.

Round up or down and get on with it. Ponder no longer.

Cheers,
Roy
Join me on Twitter

Strategy Creation | Leadership | Small Business | Permalink
Posted 1.2.12 at 05:00 am by Roy Osing | Read Comments (0) | Leave a Comment