Every so often I get an email from someone telling me how important it is to do this or do that if I want to make my business better.
However, in many cases what they’re actually telling me to do is based on their opinion and not on actual facts.
So what if occasionally I forget to do something because I didn’t put it in my plan, and I get picked up about it by a customer a couple of weeks later?
Oops!
That’s just me. I’m not perfect and I accepted that fact a long time back.
Now I prefer to get something done and out there, and then pick up the pieces afterwards.
One of my mentors calls it “Ready, fire! Aim” and that’s not a negative thing, it’s a positive.
If I waited and waited and dotted every i and crossed every t then maybe I wouldn’t be running a profitable business.
Maybe this is what’s been happening to you?
It’s more important for you to get something out there, make your mistakes fast, and then correct them later.
Making everything “perfect” and endlessly thinking about what could happen doesn’t result in any income generation for you.
What will work for you is when you get your product out there and get the odd complaint. Then you can think about what you’ve done and try to fix things for future products.
99.99% of people won’t care enough to comment on what you do wrong.
But if you don’t get it exactly right next time either, it’s no big deal.
Show me the person who’s never made a mistake and I’ll show you the person who’s never done anything.
-Frank Haywood.
Frank,
I think perfectionism only needs to be applied to building airplanes and scuba equipment.
I tend to use the 80/20 rule. That is, get the product launched and deal with the flak later. For 20% of the customers, there might be a slight flaw. However, only 20% of that 20% will notice. We’re down to 4%. Of that 4%, only 20% will be affected in any way. We’re below 1%.
I prefer to get a product or service into the hands of 99% of my customers rather than hold off on a launch just to get it “just rightâ€. As you know, there is no “just rightâ€.
I agree with your approach. Keep it up.
– Geoff Robertson
WOW!! I really wish you hadn’t done that = slapped in the face! What a wakeup! This is something I’ve battled with most of my life = perfectionism! Thanks [not really] for reminding me. Great stuff, and timely.
P.S. Notice how I “dotted every i and crossed every t, etc.” Still haven’t kicked the habit!