Why seeking perfection limits your opportunities and hinders your development. Here we look at a vital block to your future.
Is perfection all it is made out to be?
I bring this subject up because it can be a terrible time block to production. Many of us spend so much time seeking perfection we inhibit output and hence a following.
Writing on the internet whether blogging, building pages or funnels requires a considerable amount of time. You go through a process that has been drilled into your head in training that must be achieved.
Great keyword, headline, meta description, set up writing, linking internal, external it really is a long list of really important inputs.
However production is also important so pondering over a site for excessive time will impead the amount of writing you do.
There are those that took perfection too far. Or did they?
My favourite book of all time is the Steve Jobs biography and his rise to fame, Jobs is the brains behind Apple computers and Pixar as well the iPhone range.
All these products were based to a degree on chasing perfection. Close enough was just not good enough and every new release had to really excite the market.
He excelled even at delivery with the experience of opening your first package from Apple being a delight and mind blowing event. I have never moved away.
Jobs agonised over every minute detail to deliver perfection and to provide a user experience never experienced before.
Jobs was different in so many ways demanding experience at the expense of delaying opportunity. However I suggest in this case it worked for them.
Perfection at a cost
I went on to recently reading an un-authorised story of Elon Musk.
PayPal, Tesla, Space X and Solar City. The incredible climb of a multi millionaire.
Elon was somewhat similar to Jobs in wanting perfection and seeking new boundaries never before attempted. It was a rise and fall journey of a multi-millionaire that at times only just met a payroll deadline.
Musk was impatient to the extreme wanting to deliver early and demanded loyalty from all associated with him.
Elon would do almost anything to streamline a process and get a product to market sometimes almost too quickly.
We must remember that the products he delivered were world first designs where no one else had gone. He still demanded results that were impossible barriers.
My two different perfection perspectives
The two people were very different in most ways excep:
Both had a vision, a destination and a plan that demanded success. Hard times, low moments, self doubt were all part of the journey however they never waivered from the objective.
Musk required a close enough outcome and fix the edges later whilst Jobs looked for perfection before delivery.
At the time of writing the legacy of Steve Jobs lives on having the highest priced mobile phone on the market but selling as many as the rest combined.
The mobile phone and computer market were turned upside down and changed forever as a phone became a computer.
Musk is still firing rockets, delivering more battery powered vehicles than anyone else and providing green energy across the world.
“It's hard to beat a person who doesn't give up”
Babe Ruth
So what is my point?
Working your creation at maximum output until you get results. However if you strive for perfection every time you will slow the race down.
Every post I write could do with a bit more work, spend a few more hours on it, wait a day and re-read for errors. Add a few more pictures, do a bit more research, make excuses and generally waste time.
My target is four hundred posts on subjects that help small business. Every day I waste is a day lost. The traffic generated from 400 reasonable posts will far exceed that of 150 perfect ones. The results will be the same.
Space X drops another rocket
Just today December 2020 a Space X rocket blew up on the launching pad. Musk may have been livered and blamed everyone in sight but still said OK we have another one ready to go tomorrow. It will be better.
Perfection is developed from experience.
We all have a plan of excellence
We know where we want to go so let volume dictate your world even sometimes at the sake of excellence. That will follow.
I look back at some of my early posts and shudder at what has been left out. I now fix them up as well as I can and continue to move on.
Not unlike Elon Musk, his early cars were awful, it took many rocket failures to achieve a lift off yet he continued on taking risks until he could see the big game being accomplished.
It is a great lesson for us all.
Why Seeking Perfection limits Your Opportunities and more training.
Building your training to achieve more
Being read on the internet is critical. There are things you must do and others that matter less.
headlines, keywords and SEO are paramount and if you are not on top of these your rocket will never lift off.
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My conclusion about perfection
I see a lot of procrastination cloaked around the disguise of perfection. I don't suggest being careless however sometimes close enough is good enough.
This depends on the fundamentals being sound. I have my checklists of things that have to be done or my rocket will simply blow up. However, if I miss a few things along the way the bulk will do the work.
it is a fine line but don't be too scared to step off the line if it gets you to the end in a better way.
Musk has become one of the richest men in the world by taking calculated risks. Those risks were backed by solid fundamentals that MOSTLY worked.
Tread your own path.
Why Seeking Perfection limits Your Opportunities by Peter Hanley
