Are you a control freak? I’m a control freak. I think it’s a prerequisite for being an entrepreneur. It’s hard to not be, right? I mean you put all your heart, soul, and money into your idea. You imagine every single little perfect part in your head and everything seems so clear (to you). You know exactly how everything should look, feel, smell, and act. So naturally, you are determined to make every detail absolutely perfect.
The problem with perfection is that it just doesn’t exist. If it does, it’s definitely not in a start up business. There’s nothing wrong with wanting perfection or striving do the best you can. You should always try your best. Just don’t say no to things that are good enough to get you going only because they’re not your vision of perfection.
The Paralysis of Perfection
Here’s the deal with perfection. Perfection is usually in the details, but so is the devil. At least that’s what they say. Perfection leads to the word “no” a lot. No, that’s the wrong color. No, that graphic’s all wrong. No, that font doesn’t have enough attitude. No, that brochure’s not classy enough. NO NO NO.
Every time you say NO, nothing gets done. More time is spent wasted trying to decide on something that just simply doesn’t matter in the beginning. Are you making money, yet? No? Then who cares what kind of plates your using if you’re not serving any food on them? In the beginning, your focus should be to get things moving. You will be absolutely amazed at the power of a little momentum. Every time you say no because somethings not perfect, you kill your momentum. If it’s good enough, let’r rip and tweak it later. The important thing is to just get it going and to keep it moving forward.
It’s ALIVE!
If you’ve ever been a part of a project you know that they take on a life of their own. The finished product is usually very different from what was imagined in the beginning. Why? Because things change. What was originally speculated as a good approach is soon realized not to be. As the project changes, so do the details. This is another reason why spending so much time focusing on the details in the beginning is a waste of time.
Decide what you want your outcome to be. Decide the best way for you to get started (now) and get started. Let the momentum you create keep you inspired and moving forward. You’ll get more done in a shorter amount of time and you’ll be less stressed about getting everything together. The longer things take and the more you force yourself to think about them, the more stressed you become. There are plenty of things in life to stress you out. Why make yourself into one of those stressors?
Get it going now and tweak it later.
Great Things Come To Those Who (don’t) Wait
Have you ever heard, “Oh, something better will come around.”? Yes, it’s true. Most of the time something better will come around, but that doesn’t mean it’s coming anytime soon. What if it doesn’t come for another 5 years? How’s that going to help you now? It’s not.
Don’t put off making decisions that can be made now because your waiting for something better. (Warning: This is not the best marriage advice. Business, yes. Marriage, no.) Don’t put off making decisions because you don’t want to deal with them either.
Every month I go to a meeting at my church where we end up talking about the same things over and over month after month. It literally drives me crazy. It’s enough to make me want to quit. As a result of not getting enough people to vote on a decision, nothing happens and no momentum is ever created and people like me lose interest.
Don’t let this happen to you. Make the bold decisions that need to be made now. Get it going. Build some momentum. Tweak it later.
I often talk about building an empire. It takes a lot of bricks to build an empire. Think of every decision as a brick. You can’t build your empire if you don’t have any bricks, right? If you don’t pull the trigger and make decisions, nothing will ever happen.
So get to it!
Are you making bold decisions? What details are holding you up?
Here’s you chance to get motivated by talking it out in the comments.
