“What’s your biggest weakness?” One of the famous interview questions. We spin the answer “I’m a perfectionist so I tend to take more time doing something to make sure it’s done properly”.
This weekend, I was with a group of amazingly productive women so I took the opportunity to ask them what their top tip to overcome procrastination was.
Romana Handler, branding strategist and one of my mastermind buddies said “Better done than perfect” (1)
As an entrepreneur, being a perfectionist can be a real weakness as you can waste a lot of time. You may have heard the quote by Reid Hoffmann “If you’re not embarrassed by your first version, you’ve launched too late”.
You spend so much time perfecting something when it would have been so much better put out, seen by real people and used by real users. Get it out to the market as soon as possible. You can always go back, tweak and change it. With feedback, you can make it even better so whilst I’m all for a quality product or service, don’t let your “perfectionism” hold you back.
Where does perfectionism come from? Fear of what people think. Fear of criticism. Sometimes it’s a learned behavior from a demanding parent or teacher. Typically the root is not feeling good enough.
If you find yourself in this situation, set yourself a deadline and get it out. After all, better don than perfet. 😉
Footnotes
1) Video with Romana