Done is Better than Perfect

Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve always been a perfectionist. I remember back in the third grade erasing entire complete math homework assignments not because my answers were wrong, but because my handwriting wasn’t neat enough.

I’ve always wanted to put out products that were perfect down to the smallest details. Whether it was a science fair project as a kid, a research paper in college, or a cold email to a prospect as an AE, perfection was the goal.

Perfectionism can be an asset. It drives work of the highest quality and can lead to amazing success.

But, perfectionism can also be a detriment. I’ve found that in my quest for “perfect,” I get in my own way. I get so focused on perfecting every tiny detail that I lose sight of the big picture.

I remember many meltdowns at my kitchen table growing up where I felt like something I did wasn’t good enough. My mom used to to repeat a phrase to me in her attempt to calm me down.

“Don’t let the perfect get in the way of the good.”

At that moment, I wanted to scream at her. I didn’t understand how something could be considered good if it wasn’t perfect.

But lately, I’ve found myself repeating this phrase to myself quite a bit. I’m in a brand new job and to be honest most of the time I have no idea what the f*ck I’m doing.

I’m doing things I’ve never done before. Making cold outreach videos, running my company’s social media accounts, running sales calls. All things that I’m far from perfect at.

But, what I’ve come to find is that doing these things, even doing them imperfectly, is worth doing.?

Take these videos I’ve been making to send when I do cold outreach, for example. I started making these videos almost immediately when I started my job. I was awkward on camera, stuttered in almost every single video, and even said the wrong names.

Despite all these imperfections, the videos are still working. I get feedback on a weekly basis from people I have never met before saying how much they enjoyed getting a video instead of a stale cold email.

Perfection is a trap. Start doing. Even if it means you’re doing it badly. It’s better to do something imperfectly than get nothing done perfectly.