People waste SO MUCH ENERGY trying to be perfect...
You're wasting valuable time trying to be perfect. Just make something happen and take it from there.
The one thing that trips up most people from even starting out as an entrepreneur is that they think they need to be perfect from the word GO. They waste all of their time trying to perfect every loose end and every tiny detail and they end up never starting. Or worst yet, they start and get smashed in the marketplace and never continue forward because they’ve invested all of this time into “perfection” and found out that it wasn’t good enough.
Perfection is something we all desire. We all want to come out as an entrepreneur and make the perfect product or sell the perfect service. None of us want to deal with the heartache of losing money or business or seeing our profit margins shrink.
But the truth of the matter is that being an entrepreneur is not about being perfect. In fact, I’ll let you know when the best time to seek perfection will be. But first, let’s look into how we can be more effective by just doing work to create the desired result.
Commit first, figure the rest out later. This quote spoke volumes to me when I first read it. It’s a quote by Grant Cardone from the book The 10X Rule. The quote is straightforward and to the point but it makes most people nervous. It almost seems asinine to think that someone would commit to something that they have no details or any knowledge about.
When I used this quote in my business ventures as an entrepreneur, I realized one very important thing: why it’s important to understand winning.
When I committed to something, there was something inside of me that didn’t want to fail. I didn't want to lose and I didn’t want to look stupid, so I did whatever it took to make stuff happen.
I had plenty of embarrassing moments but the key here is that I wanted to win. Not necessarily worry about being the best, it was more so about understanding how things worked when it came to business. It was about understanding how the process worked and then understanding how to get business. THEN it was about winning.
I wanted to reduce my timeframe and get to the winning part.
When you commit first, I’m talking go all-in 100% commitment no matter what, you force yourself into a mode of needing to learn fast and learn it now. Things are moving at hyper speed because you don’t know what you’re doing and you’re frustrated that things aren’t working the way that you want them to.
You realize that you’re either going to become a quitter or become a fighter. We all hit that wall where we either make excuses for why we can’t or we make suggestions and challenge why we can.
I often tell my clients this when we begin coaching from day one. You’re either all-in or all-out. If you’re still thinking about it or you need validation to get you going, then you’re not cut out for this.
Just do it. Just do work. Stop thinking and DO MORE. Many times people stop themselves from what they need to be doing and start thinking about what they want to be doing. Let me be clear: none of what you want to do will be involved in the beginning stages of your entrepreneurial journey. You’re going to have to commit to a shit ton of stuff you absolutely don’t want to do.
In fact, the best way to separate yourself from the average entrepreneurs is to get incredibly good at the things that others don’t want to do. Dennis Rodman (retired Hall of Fame NBA player) made a habit out of getting extremely good at rebounding the basketball. Rebounding a ball isn’t sexy. In fact, it’s boring. Nobody comes to a game to watch anyone rebound a ball. We’re all looking for the awesome dunks and long bomb three-pointers. Nobody gives a shit about a rebound.
But Rodman did. He made a living off of rebounding the basketball. So much so that he was selected to the Hall of Fame for it. Trust me, he wasn’t selected by his popularity or polarizing antics - he was just that damn good at rebounding.
He committed to the shit that no one else wanted to do and separated himself from other basketball players.
Pursue perfection when you know what you’re doing. When you have a solid successful formula that’s working for you, then it’s time to perfect your craft. Successful formula: when you know exactly what to do to get a certain result and can do it on autopilot.
This is important to understand because most people try to create the perfect product and they haven’t even put it into the marketplace to be tested. This often leads to people putting out products or services with the idea that it’s perfect and it’s exactly what the public wants and then it ultimately gets shut down. Then the common reaction is to get upset because it was perfect so why do I need to make any adjustments?
Let’s be honest, nothing in this world is ever perfect but it’s nice to make attempts to get it as close to perfect as possible. As an entrepreneur, you need to seek progress over perfection in the beginning stages of your entrepreneurial journey. Perfection will come but progress must precede it first.
Stay positive,
Fred