Episode 604 · Jun 21, 2022

Stop Letting Perfectionism Kill Your Progress

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George Wright III opens this episode of The Daily Mastermind with a direct challenge: stop waiting for things to be perfect. The pursuit of flawless results sounds admirable, but it often becomes the thing that holds you back the most. Good enough, executed today, beats perfect, delivered never.

George makes the case with two contrasting stories from rock and roll history. One band rode imperfection all the way to superstardom. The other was paralyzed by it.

The Jon Bon Jovi Lesson: Launch Before You Feel Ready

When Jon Bon Jovi was 21, he won a radio contest that let him record his first song in 1983. He quickly formed a band, released a debut album that went gold, and opened for ZZ Top at Madison Square Garden. The momentum was real. Then came the rush to record a second album.

Bon Jovi was unhappy with parts of it. One song in particular, he didn't believe was good enough to include. He wanted to pull it. The people around him pushed back, and he listened. That song was "You Give Love a Bad Name." It became one of the band's most well-known singles, helped send them to number one, and launched them into superstardom.

And ironically, it launched them into superstardom and they went on to sell, oh my gosh, they sold like 100 million records, I think it was.

The song Bon Jovi thought wasn't ready became the one that changed everything.

The Tom Schultz Warning: When Standards Become a Trap

Now consider the flip side. Tom Schultz is often called the smartest man in the history of rock and roll. He holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering from MIT, is an inventor with around 34 patents, and played every instrument on his band Boston's debut album in 1976. That album sold 16 million copies and is still considered one of the best-produced albums in history.

Schultz had extraordinary talent and extraordinary standards. The problem was that he let those standards take over. He spent eight years finishing Boston's third album. CBS and Epic Records grew tired of waiting and sued him for breach of contract, then dropped the band from the label entirely.

High standards are not the problem. Letting those standards become an excuse to never ship is.

Why Progress Matters More Than Perfection

George reframes the entire equation with a simple principle: it is progress to perfection, not perfection to make progress. You do not wait until everything is right before you move. You move, and you refine along the way.

Time is money in business. Doing a good job today is more profitable than doing a great job tomorrow. Deadlines have to be kept and payroll has to be made. Your team, your clients, and your partners cannot wait indefinitely while you polish something that is already good enough to deliver real value.

So time is money in business. You've got to realize that doing a good job today is way more important than doing a great job tomorrow.

How to Manage Mistakes Productively

One fear that drives perfectionism is the dread of making mistakes. George addresses this directly. Highly valued employees do not necessarily make fewer mistakes than average employees. They often make more, because higher productivity comes with higher volume, and more attempts mean more errors. The difference is in how they handle those errors.

Robert Kiyosaki's advice to fail five times faster captures the mindset. Failure, managed well, accelerates growth. Mistakes are not the problem. Unmanaged mistakes are.

George offers a clear framework for handling mistakes the right way:

Catch your own mistakes. Don't wait for someone else to find them.
Correct your own mistakes. Take ownership of the fix, not just the acknowledgment.
Accept responsibility. Blame kills trust. Accountability builds it.
Don't make excuses. Fix it and move on.
Don't hide mistakes from your boss, clients, or customers. Transparency preserves relationships better than concealment ever could.
Learn from every mistake. If you don't learn, you repeat.
Don't repeat the same mistakes. That's the only kind of mistake that truly holds you back.

The "Say Yes, Then Figure It Out" Principle

George returns to a concept he has shared before: say yes, then figure it out. This is not recklessness. It is a commitment to motion over stagnation. Perfectionism pretends it is protecting quality when it is often just protecting you from the discomfort of being seen before you feel ready.

The willingness to ship something good, then improve it, is what separates people who build careers and businesses from those who spend years preparing to start. Progress is the key. Movement creates momentum, and momentum compounds.

Action Steps

Release the good enough. Identify one project you have been holding back waiting for it to be perfect, and take one concrete step to move it forward today.
Build a mistake management habit. When you make an error, catch it yourself, own it immediately, and fix it without excuses or delay.
Study your perfectionism. Notice when the desire for perfect is genuinely about quality and when it is really about fear. The two feel similar but lead to opposite outcomes.
Say yes first. The next time an opportunity arrives before you feel fully prepared, commit and then work out the details. Momentum rewards action.
Learn faster by failing faster. Review a recent mistake and extract one specific lesson so you do not repeat it.

Perfectionism is not a virtue when it keeps you from making progress. Good enough, shipped and refined, beats perfect, held back forever. It's never too late to start living the life you were meant to live. Start now, imperfectly, and figure out the rest on the way.

READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT

Welcome back to The Daily Mastermind. George Wright III here with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education. I've been on the road traveling, so we have not had our podcasts drop about the same time every day, but hopefully you're still getting some great content. I want to really do what I can to inspire you this week. And one of the concepts I want to talk to you about today is how to get away from perfectionism and realize that good enough is better than perfect. And this concept is one that I've got a couple of stories to kind of share with you, but I've seen this over my career many, many, many times because I'm kind of a perfectionist myself. A lot of times we spend too much time trying to get things perfect and it's much, much more productive in order to get it going along the way. So some people kind of waste their whole lives trying to avoid making mistakes, but they cripple their careers since, you know, perfection isn't really attainable. And ultimately, you know, they make fewer mistakes, but accomplish less because they waste so much time trying to make sure that things get perfect. So time is money in business. You've got to realize that doing a good job today is way more important than doing a great job tomorrow. And an example of this, an example I wanted to kind of give you is this rock star, Jon Bon Jovi. So many of you know who Bon Jovi is. You know, Jon Bon Jovi's career could have ended before it started if he didn't understand this principle of, you know, good enough. Because when he was about 21, he won a contest on the radio to record his first song in 1983. And he quickly formed a band and released a debut album that went gold the following year. and suddenly there was just tons of concerts and things you know going on and he opened for ZZ Top at Madison Square Garden you know they rushed a second record second album and and tried to get out there real quick but they got kind of poor reviews in 85 and you know Jon Bon Jovi was unhappy with the album and wanted to do it better, but timing was so critical, so he really just had to get it released. And even though he wasn't happy with the album because he didn't think, you know, one particular song was good enough to be on it, fortunately he listened to the people who knew what they were talking about. That song was actually You Give Love a Bad Name, which became one of the band's most well-known singles and literally helped send them to number one. And this is the song that he didn't believe was even good enough. And ironically, it launched them into superstardom and they went on to sell, oh my gosh, they sold like 100 million records, I think it was. And had they waited until that second album was perfect, they probably would have lost lost basically this momentum that they had. And there's another example of that, which is actually kind of the opposite, and it's what happened to a rock legend, Tom Schultz. Now he's kind of referred to as the smartest man in the history of rock and roll. He holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering from MIT. He's an inventor, has like 34 patents. And in 1976, the debut album by his band Boston sold 16 million copies. It's still, I think, the biggest selling debut album in history, but it's considered to be one of the best produced albums in history. And Schultz played every instrument on the song and produced the album himself. He's just totally brilliant and talented, but he's also a consummate perfectionist who took eight years to finish the third album they did. And that's when CBS and Epic Records kind of got tired of waiting for him and they sued him for breach of contract and dropped them from the label. This was Boston, the group Boston. So, you know, obviously it's okay to have high standards as long as they realistic but it not okay to procrastinate until everything is exactly the way you want it to be because your employer your business your partners they don have time to wait around until things get perfect Deadlines have to be kept and payroll has to be made. So this principle I've talked about in the past, it's a real key to success, is say yes and then figure it out. And it's progress to perfection, not perfection to make progress, right? So you just got to remember that highly valued employees don't necessarily make fewer mistakes than the average employees. In fact, they often make more mistakes because the number of mistakes increases the productivity along the way. You just have to know the right way to manage mistakes because making mistakes is okay as long as you manage it the right way. So I wanted to give you a few keys to successfully making mistakes and this might be a way you can look at it and say, I'm going to hedge my risk against this perfectionist tendency that I have, because a lot of us are very much perfectionists. So let's talk about what you can do if you make a mistake, because the key here is that you've got to be able to manage your mistakes. So first of all, you've got to understand that it's reasonable to be able to make mistakes. It's okay to make mistakes, but then you have to catch your mistakes. It's very important that you catch your mistakes and that you correct your own mistakes. What you don't want to do is have other people identify your mistakes and then you don't fix them, right? So it's important that you catch your own mistakes and you fix your own mistakes and that you also accept responsibility. Accepting responsibility is one of the key things that you need to do because you can't blame other people. It's so much better for you to accept responsibility and just move on and move forward. Then people know that if you make a mistake, it's going to get taken care of. And it's also important that you don't make excuses. Don make excuses for your mistakes Just fix them and then move on Another thing to keep in mind is don hide your mistakes from your boss your clients your customers, or people. Don't hide your mistakes. Just be open, quick, move on, rectify it, and move forward. And then obviously some of the most important things is learn from your mistakes. Because if you make a mistake and you don't learn from it, you're going to continue to make that mistake over and over and over. and also don't repeat the same mistakes. And the best way to do that is to learn and identify from your mistakes. So many people, they want to so quickly forget their mistakes. And as long as you apologize when it's appropriate and you learn from your mistakes and you don't repeat them, then you're going to find that these mistakes are the things that are going to help catapult you. It's like Robert Kiyosaki talks about fail five times faster. The key, and it's an interesting way for you to look at, but sometimes the key is to find ways to fail faster. Because failure does lead to success. And I think that's a key principle that you can learn in your life. And so I hope this is something that will help you. The real point I wanted to make here is that good enough is better than perfect. Good enough is better than perfect. Because perfection sometimes keeps you from creating that success and movement and momentum that you need. anyway that's my message for today I hope you have an amazing day and do me a favor if you haven't already hit like and subscribe on the podcast and make sure you share it share it with at least one person if you've gotten some value today help us to be able to share the message get the community growing and it'd mean the world to me and I hope that it'll help you to also teach these principles to others it'll help you to internalize it a little bit yourself that's the daily mastermind for today have a great day and we'll talk with you tomorrow Enough.