“Perfect Is the Enemy of Good” — Unlock Creative Forces and Propel Your Career
“If I catch you trying to make it perfect, I’ll give you a formal warning”
Have you ever had that feeling of why you have ideas and you know have all this creative energy and you cannot figure out why it doesn’t come out, or when it does it feels stagnate and bland? That’s what I felt every day for almost 30 years of my life until this moment in time which rocked my world.
It’s really frustrating watching as others seem to leap ahead of you and you wonder “how do they do it”.
One fateful day in 2008, my manager pulled me aside after a meeting on a project I was leading for the team and said
“I can see you trying to make it perfect, and you are slowing yourself down, lets just get it out, if it’s 85% done just get it out because the other 15% you are trying to make perfect we will probably have to change anyway, so let us go through that learning with it being live, not in a draft. I am okay with it having mistakes, just get it out”
I nodded in agreement, but I am certain he could tell I wasn’t fully committed. And in his next breath, the words that would change my career came rolled off his tongue, he captured lightning on a bottle when he uttered the sentence I will never forget, and never regret he said to me
“If I catch you trying to make it perfect again, you will leave me no choice but to issue you with a formal warning”
Now depending on the words you hear from that sentence this could be taken differently, and the art of being a leader to extract the best version of your employees and have them lead fulfilling careers is an artform many fail at, few master.
This masterstroke instantly unshackled me from the burden of trying to create perfect work, it felt strange at first, quite uncomfortable as you could be mistaken into thinking it was some trap.
This is not about lowering your standards of work, it’s realising there is a point at which you must act and execute to maximise your chances of success.
Were the original Apple Macintosh and its visionary creator perfect? the object which launched the Personal Computing industry into the space it is today.
“Perfect is the Enemy of Good” — Max Belkin, PhD Psychology
We executed the project earlier than I had originally planned, and below my original expectations, but to my surprise (and probably not his) things went exactly as he said they would.
The things I was trying to make perfect were not working, and we found the solution during the process of it being live because we were able to observe it in action, to see the things we could not see while it was in draft state.
We made the changes required, and low and behold it rapidly improved what we were trying to do with these particular partners and the outcome we were looking for was achieved and exceeded.
And in true elevated status as an influent leader in my career, he didn’t say “I told you so”. He gave me a pat on the back and said “great work, keep doing that”
From here I went all gas no brake on which made the next 12 months quite interesting, but I needed to learn where my breaking points were, and he gave me the space to explore this.
What I discovered is this new energy I had never felt before, and my ability to create and execute good work became more frequent, building momentum, building confidence in myself.
What can you take from this to apply today, to unlock your creative forces
- You can do great work, but perfect doesn’t exist. It’s just a word
- You can find creative “light bulb moments” in imperfection
- You will not regret letting go of the perfectionist handbrake
You will revert back to old habits from time to time, you will never be perfect and being imperfect. You just need to be patient and mindful of the habits and do not beat yourself up when it does happen.
I had a mild episode of it with this article, it’s a personal story for me and I caught myself out trying to make it perfect, from the headline, the back story, and the message.
Rather than just writing what comes freely and allow the process and creative forces you wish would be on by default.
When I did check myself and started writing freely I was able to come up with headlines for 2 more articles I am planning to write in the future, all coming from the words in this article.
See, it does work.
