Striving for Perfection

I’m thankful that I realized in my early teenage years that it’s perfectly okay to enjoy both Pearl Jam and Sade at the same time. At that age, I was constantly searching for direction, and this discovery was initially unsettling. But when I found Pearl Jam’s Vs. and The Best of Sade on the desk of my older friend, I felt a sense of calm. I’m still grateful today that my mind remains open to a wide variety of music genres.

How can I connect this introduction to product management or, at the very least, to my career path?

Recently, I came across a piece online where Sade’s saxophonist, Stuart Matthewman, reflected on the circumstances surrounding the creation of their debut album.

“The songs ended up being really simple and stripped down. The reason for that was because none of us were great musicians, but we all sounded good. Sade had a gorgeous voice, but she wasn’t a trained singer. The same thing with me; I could get a nice sound with my sax, but I never studied jazz. Andrew would play simple chords and Paul was a simple bass player. We just had this stripped down, simple sound. If any of us had been ten or twenty percent better as musicians, it would’ve been horrible. It would’ve been too much. What made our sound special is that we were young and na?ve, and we didn’t really know what we were doing.”

When I read this, it reminds me of moments in my career when I was always striving for perfection. While I sometimes felt fulfilled, I often ended up frustrated because my personal ambitions weren’t being met. I would compare myself to others and easily recognize gaps in my skills or intellect — areas where improvement wasn’t a matter of learning but of inherent abilities and predispositions. I clearly remember the bitter feelings that followed: I couldn’t celebrate my colleagues’ successes or give them recognition. I couldn’t recognize my own value, which made it difficult to truly appreciate the value in others.

I learned the hard way to embrace my limits and accept that, in most areas of product management, I’ll remain at a mediocre level, much like Shreyas Doshi describes in his LinkedIn post. At the same time, I was fortunate to receive feedback that helped me identify two or three things I’m strong at, allowing me to focus on refining those skills toward excellence. I consider this small part of me to be my contribution to my team and organisation.

[original blog post on Medium]