How many times have you said, “This (fill in the blank) still isn’t perfect…?”

I’m not guiltless – I find myself saying such things and try to stop myself in mid-sentence before the P-word gets out. I find that perfectionitis — as it’s called in the medical profession — is the number one impediment to my writing. I don’t mind speaking “imperfectly” but I struggle with publishing words that aren’t perf…. Argggghhhh, I can’t say it. P-P-P…

It doesn’t just slow writing, but marketing, product development, seminars, new ideas — it slows down everything.  Dedicated perfectionists would say that’s a good thing.  I say it slows down progress.

Perfection prevents progress.

How? The two number one skills (talk about being unreasonable) of an entrepreneur or leader of any kind are 1) coming up with great ideas, and 2) getting someone to carry them out.

And perfection delays execution. You wait and wait and wait and wait while first the idea, and then the execution, are perfected, and only finally do you bring your wares to market much later than otherwise.

There’s a reason why software has bugs when it first comes to market. It’s because it’s just too darn expensive to make it perfect and has much more value in the hands of users — even though it has problems. This is true of all sorts of other products and services as well. Even flawed, they are better in users and consumers hands, than if they were sitting back at the lab made perfect.

Progress comes from trial-and-error.

Get it out there in the world and see how well it works. Find the flaws and fix them in real time. That’s the unreasonable route to progress.