Perfectionism Will Lead You to the Poor House
In theory, perfectionism sounds like a good thing. After all, who doesn’t want to do a good if not “perfect” job at work… or even at play?
Indeed, it’s not a surprise if you have a tendency to be perfectionist at times. Ever since you were young, the drumbeat of perfectionism has been beating in rhythm to everything you do. Your parents and teachers probably told you, “Always do the best job you can.”
And now that you’re an adult, you can’t quite shake the feelings of guilt when you turn out something that’s not perfect. If it’s not perfect, then you probably didn’t do your best.
But here’s the thing: Sometimes we need to sacrifice quality just a little in order to gain the enormous advantages that speed brings us. This is especially true in business.
Think about it…
If you spend two months “perfecting” a product and then another month or so “perfecting” your sales process before you ever release the product, you’ll fritter away three or four months without making a dime. But if you release the product almost immediately and THEN work on improving it, you’ll actually make money the entire time!
Now maybe releasing a product first and improving it later doesn’t sound right to you. But just observe what big business does, and you’ll see they do exactly the same thing. For example, car makers roll out new cars quickly, and then later put stronger engines and better features in them. Software companies (like Microsoft) release software and then later fix the bugs with “patches” and upgrades.
And you know why they do it? Because getting products to market makes them rich. If you’re in business, you should be doing the same thing. Indeed, even your personal life can improve by finishing things fast and making improvements later.
Bottom line: People who are successful in business don’t necessarily strive to get it right the first time. Indeed, one of the biggest teachers is experience… and you can only gain experience when you stop being a perfectionist and start living life and running your business.
Incidentally, that also happens to be one of the quickest ways to getting rich, too. Ask a millionaire if his products and sales pieces are perfect, and I guarantee he’ll say no… at least not at first. But he’ll tell you that persistence and speed are far more important than perfection.
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