221B.2— The Case of Perfection
“To-Do” or “In Progress” is the enemy of “done.” At least, that’s the case for me. I’m a perfectionist, and a designer, so I’m screwed on two levels. I can’t stand when something isn’t perfect especially when it involves a pixel here and a pixel there.
But I’m also an entrepreneur, which means I’m part of the “Big Idea Club” (we meet Wednesdays for lunch at the local Perkins). New ideas, or better ideas on top of new ideas pull the perfection line taut which usually means things stagnate.
Add to that my Economics background. Now I’m royally screwed. Throw some analytics into this pot and you have one angry Lobster. “Here’s an idea, hey let’s perfect it, we gotta have the right plan, hey here’s a better idea, cool let’s design a brand, hang on what’s the profit potential, wow that’s a great font let’s use that, scratch that it’s not such a great idea after all, meh let’s get a beer, we’ve earned it…”
Welcome to the circus.
The best method I’ve found to combat this is actually a pretty simple one: just get something done. Just ship something. Just launch. It’s not a new concept, in fact I tell it to clients all the time. But damn if it isn’t hard to swallow your own medicine yeah?
The Restoried stuff wasn’t complete, I had half a Brand Book complete, I didn’t yet have all the business strategy worked out, and I used THREE DIFFERENT FONTS YES LORD FORGIVE ME! But I had way too many thoughts sketched out in my Field Notes and way too many “strategies” half-finished, and none of those actually produce anything real.
So we put together a social campaign (Facebook, Insta, Twitter, and a landing page with email list) and we launched. I put it together in a day, that’s all I gave myself. It’s not my “best” work by perfectionist standards, but it’s work that’s “done.” And at the end of the day, the work that’s done will tower above the work that’s in your head.
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Jason is an entrepreneur, designer, and writer // he’s starting a new business in 2017 and documenting every step // dad of 3 // affable
