My blog isn’t perfect. I may have typos, spacing errors and other small mistakes. But I’m not focused on being perfect – I’m focused on giving you real content that you can use in your real life.
There are two kinds of work: 1) Building, growing work, that is about the next idea, developing the next product, and furthering your business. 2) Remedial work, fixing problems, bugs, and managing customer inquiries.
As people, we tend to be fixers. We want to solve problems, answer questions, improve what good things we already have. It’s easier to focus on putting something back to “normal” than to create a whole new normal — a new product or service that will really “wow” your current client base.
The problem with this is that instead of spending our time innovating and creating, we spend it fussing, micro managing, and being perfectionists.
As you know from my post In Praise of Fussiness, I believe in seeking excellence in the things that truly need to be perfect.
But with every project, it eventually hits a point where your return on investment starts vanishing. The extra time you spend on the project actually won’t help you sell any more or make your customers more satisfied.
In my office, we call this the point of “just ship it.” It means that whatever we’re working on — website design, new business cards, marketing description, blog post — is good, really good, it’s just not absolutely perfect. And at that point, when it’s “good enough,” we have to “just ship it.”
And you know what? Not once has the phone starting ringing off the hook from angry customers or emails filled our inbox with complaints.
The “just ship it” principal is what makes it possible for us to work on new projects, developing new products and programs, providing my customers with something far more valuable than a slightly-better solution to an old problem: a brand new solution to an old problem.
So, yes, seek excellence. Create a strong, viable product that is everything you say it is. And then ship it. If you can’t sense when the point of “just ship it” it hits for your product, then get ask someone who isn’t as close to the project as you are. Don’t waste your time obsessing when you could be innovating, and your customers will thank you for it.
The next time you’re reading my blog, and you see a typo, punctuation, or spacing error, understand that I’m writing the blog for the content. Rather than fussing over every letter, like I did for my best-selling book, I’m taking that time to write the next blog post.
So, what are you working on today that isn’t going to be driving your business and innovating, instead it’s just driving you and others crazy? Hit reply or comment below to share your thoughts!
As a speaker and author, Curtis Zimmerman has impacted over one million people with his life-changing messages and award-winning programs. Curtis is an expert at transforming organizations by inspiring individuals to live their lives at performance level.
Want to be inspired? Check out his podcast The Next 24 Hours.
