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July 27, 2015

Perfect is the Enemy of the Good

By TMCnet Special Guest
Ilya Bodner, Start-up Enthusiast

Over the past several years, I’ve spoken with lots of people who are excited about starting their own business. Others have already kicked things off, and are anxious to move things to the next level. These people may be putting together their own start-up, or operating a vertical within an existing company.



Their energy and passion continually inspire me, and keep me motivated to work hard on my own projects. But one thing that’s interesting is that I keep seeing two common problems that sadly lead to some of these start ups’ failure:

  1. Trying to solve the entire problem through too many features, rather than focusing on one direction and doing it well.
  2. Principals becoming paralyzed into inaction because there are simply too many things to do.

These issues represent opposite ends of the spectrum – trying to do far too much, or doing nothing at all. But both issues lead to the same dead end, and by the time either principal finally gets their product to market (if at all), it’s too late. No one’s interested, the moment has passed, your product has lost its relevancy, etc.

 
Don’t let searching for ‘perfect’ derail the good.’

Both of these issues, in my opinion, are by-products of fear. Fear of releasing something into the wild before it is ‘perfect,’ or even ‘good enough.’ As Voltaire (News - Alert) said, it’s an example of when, “Perfect is the enemy of the good.”

With the second instance, it’s a fear of leaving something undone, or questioning one’s own judgment – you don’t trust yourself to decide which tasks are most important, so you find yourself endlessly prioritizing and re-prioritizing without every actually doing anything.

It’s those who manage to keep their focus, and push out a decent idea who ultimately succeed. They are the ones who realize that while you’re losing time and resources trying to attain the perfect idea or product, your good idea could be out in the world, gaining traction and momentum.

Don’t get me wrong – you have to keep consumers in mind during that process. You don’t charge them for a full product if you don’t have a full product. And you don’t expect great reviews if you don’t have anything great to share.

But there is a fine balance between getting it done, and fantasizing about the next (possibly unattainable) amazing thing.

I’m becoming a big believer in the idea that something is always better than nothing.

About the Author:

Over the course of the last 10 years as an entrepreneur I have successfully launched, managed, and sold off several businesses.  Each organization has added some value to my understanding of the business world today.  My philosophy has been that 9 things out of 10 that I try will fail, but that golden one is always worth the battle.  In my experience that has proven to be the case and my successful businesses still operate today under the management of those whom I have sold off to.


 


Edited by Stefania Viscusi

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