In the space of the last two weeks, I’ve been a guest on two radio stations. The first occasion was at a BBC radio station, surrounded by professional staff and equipment in a well-funded acoustically-perfect studio. The second was in a hacked-together studio space above a pub, a guest on my friend’s web radio show on a one-year old music station, Ship Full of Bombs. The ‘studio’ was a draughty room with sheets hung at the window, staffed by a bunch of enthusiasts who fancied starting their own radio station. A BBC sound engineer may well have winced at the set-up — it was far from ‘perfect’.

But it didn’t matter. Perfection wasn’t my friend’s — and his co-founders’ — goal. They weren’t striving for audio perfection, they were just trying to make their dream a reality. They weren’t bothered about BBC production values, they were just bothered about getting their side project ‘on air’. And kudos to them — they’ve bootstrapped and hacked together an online radio station that broadcasts live six evenings a week.

Their achievement reminded me how the inevitable emphasis on perfection is often unhelpful. Because ‘perfection’ is often the wrong target to be aiming for. Always aiming to make the perfect product or to deliver the perfect experience is a surefire way to never start anything.

A few weeks ago my six year old son asked to borrow my wife’s iPad, he wanted to write a story. He wrote it off the top of his head without planning it first. A story about two poor brothers in search of their absent parents. I was impressed at his storytelling skills, at the power of his imagination to conjure up something like that. And I was impressed at his complete lack of writer’s block, how he got his ideas down on screen with no hesitation.

When I first looked at the story it was hard to read, because he’d spelt it phonetically. He started it with the word ‘Wunts…’ instead of ‘Once’. But he’s only six, he’s not trying to write flawlessly, he’s just capturing his ideas on a screen with no fear of judgement. He isn’t bothered about perfection. If he was, he’d never have written a word.

(and wouldn’t that be sad?)

Yes, of course perfection does matter. If you’re making a precision piece of machinery or performing surgery, perfection would be welcome. And yes, if you’re paying me to write an article or a book, I’ll sweat over the planning and editing, ensuring it’s as perfect as I can get it.

But when it comes to just making your idea happen, perfection is the wrong goal. If you want to start a blog, write a short story, turn your hobby into a side business, or even start an internet radio station — making it happen and getting your idea ‘on air’ is what really counts.