Seeking Perfection

by Steve Badertscher

I received an e-mail from my son’s teacher the other day informing me that one of his projects was late and still needed to be turned in before the end of the grading period or there would be grave consequences. (Not grave as in the cemetery variety, although judging by his mother’s reaction to this news that was a distinct possibility.)

When I inquired as to why the project in question had landed him in this predicament, he assured me that he had completed it…he just hadn’t turned it in yet.

At the risk of sounding somewhat dad-like, the next words out of my mouth were “And why not?”

Because, he explained, he just didn’t feel it was perfect yet.

On a dad-like roll, I pulled out the old “No one is perfect…that’s why pencils have erasers” quote. Unfortunately the old quote didn’t have quite the impact I had intended as he reminded me that we were discussing a multimedia project, which is created using a mouse and a keyboard, not a pencil. (Okay, that’s why laptops have a delete key, then!)

Nevertheless, I was able to get through to him that turning in an almost perfect project and receiving a B+ was a much better alternative to turning in nothing and being given a big, fat zero. He finally saw the wisdom in that and turned the project in the very next day (and I didn’t even have to mention the mom factor in the equation). I’m also happy to report he was rewarded with an A for his efforts.

Do you find yourself facing a similar situation where seeking perfection sometimes freezes you into doing nothing? I know I do.

But maybe we just need to remind ourselves every now and then that there are some jobs in life where perfection matters, like brain surgery, bomb detonating and parachute folding...

And there are other jobs where good enough is enough, like yard mowing, grocery bagging – and blog writing.

As an agency, we always like to strive for perfection, but what we do is part craft and part science, so mistakes are going to happen. Fortunately, when we do make a mistake in advertising, nobody dies in our arms.

Flickr Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomsaint/