I'm reading an interesting book at the moment. It's called I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 by Douglas Edwards. It provides an inside look at the start of Google—back when it was a startup fighting for recognition.
It's hard to imagine Google fighting for recognition, right? But they did. And look at them now.
I'm only about a third of the way in so I have no idea how it will finish, but one thing seems clear: perfection has never been the goal. Here's a quote:
"Good enough is good enough" was the standard Urs [Google's head of engineering] set for engineering. In those five words he encapsulated a philosophy for solving problems, cutting through complexity, and embracing failure. It should be stitched into the fabric of every cubicle at Google. It drove Google's software development, the heart and soul of the company's technology."
Solving problems. Cutting through complexity. Embracing failure.
All I've gotta say is, if Google can fly by the seat of their pants, certainly I can too. And so can you (those of you who are fellow perfectionists)!
Take it from Google, "Good enough is good enough."
Do not stress unnecessarily. You're only slowing yourself down!
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True! Thanks for sharing
Love this Amy! Good enough is good enough for Google!
Works for me!
I needed this!!! Thank you!!!
I admit to be a perfectionist. So … thank you for sharing this!
You offer some interesting ideas.Let me offer you another one which I used for years in the many performance development courses I designed and dleivered. During a visit to a Toyota factory in Japan way back in 1984 I saw a small notice attached to a panel beside the controls of every machine that was opersated by a person (many of them were automated). When I askec what it said I was told it said: "Don't strive for perfection, it's not good enough and you can do better."
I taught many trainees to embrace that approach and every single one who has done so has showm markedly improved performance in everything they did thereafter.
Failure is never an option, what appears to be failure is merely a delay in delivbered success.
Interesting thoughs, Ian. Not sure I agree that perfection is not good enough, but I do think that excellence should always be pursued! Thanks for the input!
Great advice! I am a perfectionist too, and striving too hard for a blog post or design to be perfect can often paralyze my ability to actually getting anything done.
So, so true! If it weren't for all the times I've embarrassed myself royally, I wouldn't be as confident as I am today. Thanks for sharing and reminding me that it's always best to try!
Yes, embracing failure. Not fun, but sometimes really worth it!
I completely agree. If you're not failing, you're not doing hard enough things!
Thanks for this article, great advice!
This is my problem, too! Wanting to make sure something is so perfect, that I'm scared to start- or leave it until later, when I have more time to focus on it. It usually ends up on a long to-do list instead.
Me too.
Ha! I wish my dad were standing here so I could show him this. He owned a moving company while I was growing up and they had a big banner in their back office that said "Good enough is never good enough." And I wonder how I became a perfectionist…
I've heard that "sometimes a good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow" – sometimes you've just got to dig in and go – no paralysis of analysis.