Chase Good Enough, Not Perfection

As we’re rounding third base on Rule Four, let’s quickly run through how we got here. We’ve been moving through uncomfortable territory for a few weeks, learning to accept an undercooked first product, determining how to ferret out our early adopters, venturing beyond our network to find the best prospects for market testing, playing with pricing and figuring out how to take feedback with a stiff upper lip. Now it’s time for the hard part. (Kidding. We know it's all been difficult, and you’re doing great!) But this last piece of Rule Four will really test your mettle as we ask you to set aside your perfectionist tendencies for the sake of moving your business forward. 

Accepting “good enough” is one of the hardest things about this rule, and we know it’s not in your DNA to settle. Indeed, most of us are Type A perfectionists who became entrepreneurs because we were sure we had a better idea or mousetrap. We're often the ones with the meticulously color-coded to-do lists and a penchant for trying every new productivity app, always striving to be more efficient today than we were yesterday.

But perfection really is the enemy of success, especially in the entrepreneurial world where getting fixated on unrealistic standards for every last detail will stymie creativity and bring progress to a halt. It’s time to get out of your own way and give your brilliant idea the opportunity it deserves.

Know yourself and what you’re up against.

Okay let’s not be too hard on ourselves. It turns out it really is in our DNA and our gender to by Type A as 72% of women display some sort of perfectionist traits. We worry more about making mistakes than men do (63% of us define this as our most frequent worry). And, to complete the one-two-three punch, 64% of us admit to worrying more about what other people think than what we think ourselves.

Yes, we’re wired to be in our own heads. This trifecta of perfectionism, fear of failure and external validation can turn our minds into mush. For us, we became paralyzed and literally stood in place for weeks trying to overcome the terrible feeling that our lives were about to fall apart. We kept tweaking and re-tweaking and talking ourselves into and out of things, further pushing out our launch date. We didn’t sleep, we ate too much and often couldn’t fight the urge to bury ourselves in our phones.

But we got past it. And so will you.

Put perfection in its place. 

It helps to remember that you don’t have to give up on perfection forever. Just for now. It’s okay to keep telling your yourself that one day, you will have a perfect product. With all the bells and whistles customers want. At the perfect price point. With a great profit margin and fantastic customer reviews.

But not right now. For now, the product is going to be pretty good. Serviceable. Maybe even very competitive. But not perfect. Tell yourself that’s not just okay, it’s critical.

Yes, we often wished for a magic formula or a foolproof coping mechanism to navigate the rollercoaster of startup life. But let’s face it, the journey is messy. And perfection really can be overrated. Right? Right! Embracing the fact that being a "B- student" is sometimes the best we can be is liberating, allowing us to move forward, take the risks we need to take and keep from getting stuck and letting our competitors get ahead.

Understand that the best is yet to come. 

One approach recommended to us that we really wanted to embrace, but couldn’t, was the concept of “perverse pleasure” (no, not that kind). In his book, Mastery, Robert Greene says this is “the enjoyment one can derive from enduring the challenges and discomforts associated with the path to mastery.” He is basically saying that you can get some level of happiness just knowing you are on the path to good things.

Maybe. Or maybe you just have to keep your head down and fake it till you make it.

Ultimately, all the mantras about getting comfortable with being uncomfortable might sound great in theory. But that doesn’t make them any easier to put into practice. For us, the only way to get out of bed during this period was to keep our eyes on the future. As you keep persevering through your one hard thing a day (remember our Golden Rule?), keep picturing the top tier reviews, the happy clients and the bank accounts flush with enough cash to start thinking about your next pursuit. 

What’s Next?

If you have stuck with us at every step and done what it takes to Start Before the Gun Goes Off, you’ve surely felt the pain (and hopefully the excitement) of operating at a less-than-perfect level. You’ve learned how to celebrate achieving good enough. And you are well down the path to your dreams. It’s time to move on to Rule Five: Flip the Script, and Keep Flipping It, which is all about flexibility, agility and an innate ability to respect the pivot. Get ready!