Perfectionism Is the Enemy: Why Your Best Ideas Never Ship

Perfectionism is the enemy of everything I’ve ever wanted to create. I’ve been putting off writing a novel for years. The only problem was that I never knew where to start. I wanted the characters to be perfect, the story to be riveting. As with so many things in my life, perfection became the only thing I could focus on, and my ideas never materialized because I couldn’t perfect them in my head.

Perfection is a great excuse to never get things done.

The Lie We Tell Ourselves

Whether it’s a new business idea, a script, a novel, your next project, or the answer to clean energy, if you set out to be perfect from Day 1, you’re setting yourself up to never start.

Perfection is a process. You never start at perfect. Nobody does.

Every great athlete trained for years before getting close to perfection. Every great writer knows that good writing is rewriting. The version you admire was draft number twelve, not draft number one.

We see the finished product and assume it arrived that way. It didn’t. It arrived messy and incomplete and was shaped into something worth admiring through iteration and failure.

The Cure Is Dribble

There is no excuse not to start. You don’t have to be perfect the first time around. Every time you try and fail, you’re one step closer to getting it right.

I finally took the plunge and just started writing. I didn’t know what the novel was about yet. After a few hours of dribble, certain elements started coming to light. A few more hours of dribble and I might even have a direction.

Dribble is not waste. Dribble is the raw material that eventually becomes something worth keeping. You can’t edit a blank page.

The Permission Slip

Whatever you’ve been putting off, today should be the day you decide to go for it.

Learn and build off your mistakes. If you can do that, perfection is something that will come in time. For now, just throw out some dribble, see what sticks, and go from there.

If you’re having fun, you’re on the right path. If you’re paralyzed by the need to be perfect, you’re not even on the path yet.

Writing is rewriting. And “writing” is a metaphor for whatever it is you want to do.

Perfectionism is the enemy because it convinces you not to start. But the only way to create anything worth creating is to start badly and get better.

Just start. The perfection can come later. Your future self will thank you for beginning today.