The Excuse Factory

How your quest for perfection is crippling you

Simone Gobbo
Aug 28, 2017 · 5 min read

The palms of my hands got drenched in sweat. Weird, it wasn’t a hot day. The office was freezing. I had been writing there for the past couple of hours on a Sunday and I got frozen to the bone. Still, I could see the sweat pearling my forehead. My heartbeat slightly increasing. The breathing getting quicker. What was going on?

I understood it immediately. I was nervous. I was scared. I was petrified.

I didn’t want to press that Publish button.


One of the most difficult clicks of my life

Writing is a daily practice for me.

I write first thing in the morning in my journal. I log every single day of my life on a separate notebook. I write for pleasure. I write for work. But that fear, that nervousness, never goes away.

On that Sunday I was ready to publish my baby. A post I had worked on over Christmas. A good story. An interesting one. It was about something I lived on my skin. I knew what I was talking about. It had legs. I was sure people would have enjoyed it.

At the time I hadn’t blogged for a long time. I wasn’t confident enough in my English and all my previous attempts had been pretty lame.

This was different. I had a concept. I had a solid structure and an interesting narrative to it. I was so confident in this idea that I had someone to proof-read it for me. I didn’t want to leave anything to chance.

And still, I was there. Petrified. Without having the guts to publish it. I was terrified of what people would say about it. I didn’t want readers to destroy my baby and I started getting anxious. All the worst case scenarios seemed so likely. I knew it would have been a disaster. A humiliation I would never forget.

I wanted it to be perfect, but every time I looked at it I found something I didn’t like. A paragraph that wasn’t clear enough. A word that didn’t sound as I desired. I wasn’t happy. But I knew I was just procrastinating. I was finding stuff to improve so I wouldn’t post it.

At some point, I told myself to cut the excuses. Publish the post and suck it up if someone didn’t like it.

I hit that button. In the loneliness of a freezing cold mouldy office. Covered in sweat. I had to force myself. I had to go against my primal instincts.

But I did it.


Why wouldn’t you do it?

I learned a lot from this situation.

I have learned that the pursuit of quality and the obsessive quest for perfection are two different things. I have learned that too often saying that your work is “not good enough” is a mere excuse.

Let’s be clear here. I am not a fan of producing stuff just for the sake of it. The pursuit of quality is one of the most important traits in life. It gives you a benchmark, a goal, a motivation. The problem is that too often get crippled chasing perfection. They use it as an excuse to not do. To not put them out there. To not get exposed.

I know that sometimes it’s hard to put an intimate part of yourself out there. I know that exposing your hard work under scrutiny by total strangers feels weird. I know that you can always do better. But sometimes progress is more important than perfection.

Perfection cannot be an excuse.

Think about it. Your work will never be perfect. Never. Practicing you will improve, but your eyes and expectations will evolve too. You will always see new imperfections. New traits you’d like to improve. New things you’d like to learn.

It’s a never-ending process.

In the meantime, you using this excuse meant that you haven’t exposed yourself to confrontation. You haven’t discussed your work. You haven’t had the bad feedback that motivates you to do better. You haven’t had the good feedback that motivates you to do more. You’ve been still. You probably got fed up. You couldn’t see the point. You got downhearted and gave up.

Just because of an excuse. Just because you didn’t have the guts. Just because you were scared.


I am glad I brought myself to push that publish button.

That post is still one of my most successful blog entries ever. That story allowed me to connect with some amazing people I am still in touch with today.

I have re-read that post a couple of weeks ago. I hate it. But it doesn’t matter. That post allowed me to get back to the blogging game. Since then I wrote almost 100 posts. Some of them good. A lot of them pretty bad.

I don’t mind. I see my failures as battle scars. If you read through my blog you can see my journey. You can see my mistakes and my improvements. You can see the effort I put in. You can appreciate it or not, that’s for you to decide.

I know for a fact that a lot of you are holding back because you think your stuff is not good enough.

Cut the crap.

Publish that post, that pic, that art. Let the world decide how much more work it needed. Get the feedback on board and jump on your next work.

I am serious. Do it. Don’t live with the regret.

Push that damn button.


A link to my last post. Would mean a lot if you gave this a read.


Thank you for your attention. If you liked what I had to say, hit the clap button or drop me a response, keep in touch following me. It would mean a lot.

I’d love to connect with you. Hit me up on Instagram, Twitter or drop me an email at simone@creativekernel.com!

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Simone Gobbo

Written by

Digital Strategy @ Shape + Letter.

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