Doing Something

A mentor once gave me a piece of advice that shocked me. After thinking it through (and some explanation from him), the shock retreated, and I understood the wisdom of his words. And years later, his words remain some of the best advice I’ve ever received. First, two pieces of context: 1) I was raised to do things with excellence (perfectionism?), and 2) my mentor was a highly successful CEO who was also, anyone would have said, committed to excellence. The advice was this:

“Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.”

As I said, I was initially shocked. Then I thought about it—a lot. Then I lived several more years of life. And now, here’s what I know:

My mentor was not espousing poor performance. He was not encouraging half-hearted effort. He was espousing…doing something. Taking action. Not waiting for something to happen, and certainly not waiting for things to be perfect. He believed in making things, creating things, and moving things forward. And as a result, he built a small company into a global enterprise and created jobs for thousands upon thousands of people in this country and around the world. Not bad for someone willing to do something poorly.

As much as I’m interested in things getting done right (yes, yes, perfect would be nice), thanks to my mentor, I’m more interested in things getting done, period.

This week, if you have to decide between “perfect” and “action,” depending on what your task is, of course, I recommend “action.” Who knows what you may make happen—what products, services, art, science, jobs (and so on) you may create, as a result?