Perfect

Seth Godin started a small argument in my house the other day. I had the headphones on, listening to a podcast interview with him—sorry, I can’t remember which one—and at one point, I unleashed a rather loud, “WHOOOOAH.”

Of course the spouse wanted to know what I’d heard.

“Seth Godin just said, ‘Perfect is meaningless if no one sees it.'”

She said, “I disagree.”

(Whooooah.)

The spouse has one of those coder-type jobs—no one sees what she does, but a mistake could gum things up for tens of thousands of people in the organization. So after I got over my initial shock, I understood the perspective.

I explained that Seth was talking more about people like me: I could spend a month crafting the perfect paragraph, but what’s the point if no one but me reads it? Better to ship today and correct, if you need to, tomorrow. Besides, when words interact with people, they form new ideas; some may even be better.

So I let my work go. I blog here daily—some posts undoubtedly better than others—and I meet my clients’ deadlines. Always.

My work may not be perfect, but it’s not meaningless. It gets seen.

  • mindset
  • writing