Why 80% Good Beats 100% Perfect Every Time

"The path to perfection leads to procrastination. Don’t let perfect ruin good."
– Harry Beckwith

We have all heard that practice makes perfect, but I am here to tell you that the pursuit of perfection in the world of online marketing can lead to Stuck City, or worse, Nothing Gets Done Town. One of the reasons why many business owners whose revenue depends on online marketing can’t get going or aren’t doing any better than running an expensive hobby is because they are suffering from perfection paralysis.

Perfection paralysis takes many forms; a writer having writer’s block, an artist sitting in front of a blank canvas, or the internet marketer who promises a newsletter but never delivers. I know many (including me) who suffer from perfection paralysis in some form, but I think I have a cure. I’ve come to believe that 80% good is better than 100% perfect.

Stop Perfecting and Start Doing

It was midnight and Patty Perfect was on her fourth draft of her article. She had chosen her words carefully, crafting a masterpiece of words and thoughts about her feelings of the state of junk e-mail in today’s society. She spots a typo here and a missing comma there. She types and retypes, reviews, and asks for feedback from her husband. Patty is worried - worried about what her audience will think of her and how the public will judge her. She is paralyzed at the thought of her tour de force not being perfect. Days later, she finally relents and posts to her blog.

Meanwhile, Grant Goodenough was multitasking as usual. He was taking notes while attending a one-hour teleclass and hears some great advice about what to include and exclude in e-mail “subject lines” – a hot topic with his clients. He quickly types up a couple of paragraphs thinking how he and his client, Coach Sally, were just talking about this very topic earlier today! Ok, so it wasn’t the work of art that he would have liked, but he posts to his blog anyway.

Which post do YOU think is most helpful, useful, and relevant? Whose clients do YOU think are going to benefit the most?

It’s the relationship that counts

Let’s be honest, no one is perfect. No matter how hard you try, your e-course will have a grammar error (someone will tell you and you will fix it), you will accidentally send a broadcast to a list you didn’t intend to (who knows, maybe you’ll get a client out of it :)) and, yes, a newsletter will have a broken hyperlink (it’s not the end of the world).

I know I may catch some grief for saying these things, but I’ve been doing this for awhile and trust me, it happens to everyone - even the internet marketing heavy hitters! What’s most important is that it gets done and that you maintain your relationship with your clients and subscribers.

Don’t get me wrong, I strive for perfection. Nothing makes me cringe like a giant typo front and center on an ezine headline. But I look at it this way … at least I’m getting the ezine! I know many people who are hung up on their newsletter, web page, you name it, being “perfect” that nothing gets done.

No newsletter = no relationship, no connection, no subscribers, no nothing.

I don’t know about you, but I’ll take Goodenough over Perfect any day. So, stop perfecting and start doing!

Copyright 2007, Lisa Wells.

This article is by Lisa Wells, a Certified e-Marketing Associate who partners with coaches, consultants, entrepreneurs, and small business owners, managing their many online marketing needs. Move your business to the next level and up your e-marketing game - sign up for her FREE e-course “e-Marketing Toolbox Essentials” at www.emarketingtoolboxessentials.com, where she shares ideas, tips, strategies, do’s and don’ts, as well as programs and strategies you need to avoid!

What Is Your Flight Plan?

If you are anything like I used to be, you will have already accumulated and read enough information to create a million dollar income... If not more... But for some reason you just don't take the information and use it to the full extent!

Question - How many times have you had an idea, got excited about it, but then a few days later the excitement had died down, and you didn't do anything about it?

I know of many obscure websites, blogs, eBay stores and small business that were started from a simple idea. The owners may have lost the initial excitement, but they decided to persevere, because you should never discount an idea!

Any idea you have, should be tested, as you just never know!!

I know of:

• Personalized Santa letters to kids, that generate the owner more than $100,000 over the holidays,
  
• to ebooks that were written by ghost writers in a week, generating $250,000 pa,
  
• to free My Space layouts generating more than $1,000,000 pa from contextual advertising on the site,
  
• and the list goes on...
  

These were simple ideas that were acted upon!!

But it's not your fault... You see, you are not alone! The majority of us will think of an idea and never carry it through, but Brian Tracy has the answer with Flight Plan - Brian Tracy's Newest Book + Bonus CDs!

Here's an excerpt from Brian Tracy's Flight Plan:

"The three most important steps, discovered and re-discovered by virtually every successful person, are these:

1. Decide exactly what you want, write it down and make a plan to achieve it. Decide upon your destination.
   
   
2. Take action. Launch toward your goal. Step out in faith. Take the first step with no guarantee of success. Take off on your journey.
   
   
3. Be prepared to make continual course corrections every hour and every day of your life as you fly toward your destination. Expect an inevitable, unavoidable, and unbroken series of problems, difficulties, reversals, setbacks, and crises every day and week of your life. Since you cannot avoid them, your aim must be to respond to them effectively.

Make a decision right now to set your goal. Take off and make continual course corrections until you achieve all that is possible for you."

Flight Plan - Brian Tracy's Newest Book + Bonus CDs!

>>> Home

What The Heck Are You Waiting For?

Really, what are you waiting for?

You do want Financial freedom don't you? You want to spend your life doing what you want to do, not having to worry about where the next dollar is coming from, not having to cringe when you collect the post and see all the bills?

I'm reading "The Millionaire Next Door" by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko. They say "The median (typical) household in America has a net worth of less than $15,000, excluding home equity."

That is scary, and yet is so easy to change. My Saturday morning task is to update my score sheets... I calculate my cash flow for the financial year up to that date, then I update my Net Worth Statement, and then I compare them to my goals. You see, I believe if you are not keeping score of your life then it's like playing cricket or soccer without keeping score... It becomes pointless! Maybe fun short term but mostly pointless long term.

Now my Wife sometimes doesn't agree, because while I'm thinking that the $1,000 I've just earned will buy some great blue chip shares, my Wife is wanting the latest gym equipment... so we have to draw a line in the sand! I admit that when I'm on a mission, I tend to get overly focused... if that's possible... oops!

This is what Brian Tracy has to say:

The world seems to belong to those who reach out and grab it with both hands. It belongs to those who do something rather than just wish and hope and plan and pray, and intend to do something someday, when everything is just right.

Successful people are not necessarily those who make the right decisions all the time. No one can do that, no matter how smart he is. But once successful people have made a decision, they begin moving toward their objectives step-by-step, and they begin to get feedback or signals to tell them where they're off course and when course corrections are necessary. As they take action and move toward their goals, they continually get new information that enables them to adjust their plans in large and small ways.

It's important to understand that life is a series of approximations and course adjustments. Let me explain. When an airplane leaves Chicago for Los Angeles, it is off course 99 percent of the time. This is normal and natural and to be expected. The pilot makes continual course corrections, a little to the north, a little to the south. The pilot continually adjusts altitude and throttle. And sure enough, several hours later, the plane touches down at exactly the time predicted when it first became airborne upon leaving Chicago. The entire journey has been a process of approximations and course adjustments.

What's the big problem? The big problem is that there are no guarantees in life. Everything you do, even crossing the street, is filled with uncertainty. You can never be completely sure that any action or behavior is going to bring about the desired result. There is always a risk. And where there is risk, there is fear. And whatever you think about grows in your mind and heart. People who think continually about the risks involved in any undertaking soon become preoccupied with fears and doubts and anxieties that conspire to hold them back from trying in the first place.

So, go out and achieve, test that idea you have, explore new options, stop waiting for tomorrow, stop waiting for the stars to align, or the bank balance to be just right, because it never will!!

I look forward to your comments...



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Ian McConnell is an average guy who realized very quickly that wealth will not come from having a JOB... for more than 6 years he has generated more than $100,000 pa from home, while working part time.

To find out everything he knows:
Click Here => http://www.Ian-McConnell.com/Success.html
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