Perfection is the ultimate dream. Everyone yearns for the perfect moment. The perfect swing if you are a golfer. The perfect day with your lover. The perfect meal, the perfect job. It is something we all aspire to. But sometimes, we get so caught up looking for perfection that we miss out on opportunity.
When it comes to business, perfection is often out of reach. When you first start a business, you may want everything in place. However, there is simply too much to learn, and if you never do anything, you will not achieve. And no matter how long you have been running a business, there is always room for improvement.
While perfection may be the ideal, it can be a stumbling block if you let it fill your vision. It gets you focused on what should be instead of what is and what can be. To focus on perfection is to try to get every single little detail right before you launch into anything. In the real world, this is usually impossible. It is far better to hone an ability to respond quickly to problems and unseen possibilities. A focus on perfection leads to inflexibility.
So, should you throw caution to the wind and approach business with a blind eye? No. You need to think and plan. You need to make decisions thoughtfully. At the same time, realize that you are not going to get everything right the first time.
Think of the business plan. This is a document that you might toil over, trying hard to get everything just right. You want it to be perfect. However, it is often hard to draw a complete business plan when you are first getting started, and it is next to impossible to get it 100% right. This is okay. Tim Berry, founder of Palo Alto Software which publishes Business Plan Pro software, advises that a business plan should be an active document, which you look at and tweak continuously.
Running a business is like a good adventure movie. Indiana Jones never knew what was coming next. He was successful because he was adaptable. He would lunge forward, even when doing so seemed insane. As a business owner, you need to embrace the adventurer inside of you.
The problem is not perfection itself. Indeed, you should continue your pursuit of perfect moments, and revel in them when you reach them. But those moments come through trying. And you don’t need to be perfect to try.
Holding back from doing because you don’t know all of the details will get you nowhere. Achievement comes through little steps, and there will be more than a few stumbles along the way. The point comes when you just have to lunge forward, or risk accomplishing nothing.
Don’t let the feeling that you need to get all of your ducks in a row stand in the way of your own achievement. Start from where you are. Work on being flexible and responsive, and you will be able to climb any obstacle that presents itself. Embrace the fact that you will not get it 100% right. Instead, you just need to work at your business day after day, and never run away from it. That is the path to achievement.
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Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers.
