When I started out writing copy with Phillips, KCI, and other major mailers in the early 1990s, I really had a perfection complex that would put me in a fetal position.

After all, I was competing the best of the best copywriters on the planet.

That’s when this VP at one company told me that nobody’s copy comes in perfect all of the time–never.

As I have come to learn over the years, there are factors outside of the copywriters effort at work that demand changes including including a change of direction from the publisher.

Another thing you should know, especially if you are called to launch products, is that your work helps them best visualize the product they are trying to sell.

As a result, the picture you paint–even if it’s what they said they wanted in the beginning–may change because once they see it they know that it’s not what they wanted.

That said, I never pays to get hung up on perfection. Relax and be good because there will nearly always be changes of one sort or another.

DD

If I needed bypass surgery, I would want my surgeon to be “as perfect as possible”, yet in business, as I continue to drop the perfectionist mentality, I am more successful.

Jim

(Maybe he repeated this at the last System now that he’s faculty. If so, it’s a story that bears repeating anyway.)

He told me that he was so eager to implement System tactics on his site, that he immediately started sending emails to his list according to what he learned from Ken.

But his spelling and grammar were not the best, he told me, and he got a bunch of emails sent back with insults and corrections to his spelling and grammar.

(Quick, what would you feel if you got insulting emails and corrections to your writing? Be honest.)

Lloyd’s reaction?

This is great, he said, I have people editing my emails for free!

So he incorporated the changes they sent, and refined his email broadcasts.

Oh yeah, and sold a bunch of product.

(Thanks again, Lloyd, for that great example.)

Sean

1. Doing nothing
2. Delays that are so excessive that it is practically the equivalent to doing nothing
3. Severe loss of morale when things don’t go “perfectly”
4. Inability to ever delegate (and thus grow to execute on a vision) because no one else ever does it “good enough.”

By this standard, the chef who insists that every dish leave the kitchen with a sky-high standard is a “perfectionist” only if nothing ever leaves the kitchen or doesn’t get out until the next day!

Maybe we should differentiate between positive perfectionism and negative perfectionism.

Positive: It inspires you, gets you going, and ultimately gives you a sense of achievement by producting excellence.

Negative: It stops you and makes you ineffectual and miserable.

That one really hurt… but SO true! I am a perfectionist, starving in the middle of plenty. I can really relate to the debilitating side effects of the disease called perfectionism.

I always want to make it “just a little better” and it is never good enough.

How many times have I said to my children “a job worth doing, is worth doing well (right)!”? I MUST change my thinking and my practice before I ruin my children!!!

Thanks, Ken for this alert to the “death of my business”. Actually, for the procrastinating perfectonist like me… my business was dead before I even started it.

Whoa, I have a lot of changing to do… but first I will: “Start by doing what’s necessary, then do what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” (Francis of Assisi) And I will: “Start with the good and work toward the great with the good as your base”

That will make me imperfectly rich! What a real eye-opener… soooo good to know my biggest hindrance and know that I CAN change it, simply. Great Stuff!!!

Tracy
http://www.BestTeaTips.com

The truth is there is no such thing as perfection because if we’re striving for excellence, once we master our craft to one level–there’s always something higher to strive for.

So again, we must get better, achieve more.
There are those whose strive for mediocrity and it shows in all they do.

If we strive for excellence, we’ll never get there, but what a great ride!

The natural horseman, Pat Parelli, has his audiences at his tour stops repeat, “Make your good better, and your better best.”

We can’t start with our best. We learn; we begin; we progress. And hopefully, the refrain goes on until we die.

Sometimes we just have to let go, get it out there. Test and tweak.

Just see what happens.

Jan

Would a 90% success rate for safe landings by airline pilots be acceptable?

Its tough being perfect but I try my best to cope…..
Lou