good morning believe nation today’s
message is pursue perfection over you
Benedict Cumberbatch you can never
perfect what we do there is no way I’ve
never met anyone who goes that’s
perfection I mean to an audience outside
of your work people can think that
that’s the only way they’d ever want to
see that part played or that moment done
whatever but as an actor and this isn’t
mock humidity I think it’s just it just
goes for all art forms really the whole
point is perfection is unachievable so
it’s that constant pursuit of the
unobtainable which is kind of magic
really you know and and and should keep
us kind of motivated to try better you
know it’s the bakit thing you know fail
again fail better
my unhealthy relationship with
perfection cost me 40 million dollars
when I was 22 years old I had my
software company we were growing and we
had this big vision for what we could do
we had this big business plan for the
types of companies that we could help
and the flaw was I wanted to have the
perfect planet and I spent an entire
summer working on the plan building the
plan researching the plan and zero time
actually trying to execute the plan and
there came a time when I was 22 when we
had the opportunity to sell our company
and a big player was coming in there is
a huge fund like 800 million dollars to
go out and buy companies and they were
looking at our biggest competitor and
then they started looking at us and we
were late to the party where we were a
late throw-in and we weren’t ready but
we got to be number two it was between
the two of us and they chose our
competitor over us they chose our
competitor because they had more the
plan worked out they were executing
harder work for us we had some of the
plan worked out but we hadn’t done
enough and so we lost that deal and they
bought our competitor for 40 million
dollars and that’s stuff that hurt that
was a big loss for me I took that really
hard and I realized
if we just did a better job of executing
our plan if we didn’t care about
reaching perfection if that wasn’t our
sole goal then maybe we would have got
that deal you know that regret that
feeling like if I did things a little
differently I probably could have got
that deal and so perfection is this
funny thing perfection is a great thing
to try to go after to try to reach to
always try to get better but not let it
hold you back from doing something this
plagues so many entrepreneurs so many
wannabe entrepreneurs you have an idea
for what you want to do and so your
planning planning planning planning
planning and then you never do and then
you miss your window you miss your
window because that opportunity has
passed or some life event comes up and
distracts you or you know some other
thing happens like you miss your window
it happens and then you see somebody
else go out and make tons of money and
have a huge impact that was your idea
and you can’t blame that person the only
person you can blame is yourself because
you didn’t do anything about it because
you spend so long planning and planning
and planning to get the perfect plan
understand that there was no such thing
as a perfect plan there is no such thing
as a perfect product there’s no such
thing as a perfect service if you ever
hit perfection go out and quit and go do
something else because you’ve hit the
highest it’s never perfect and that’s
also part of the fun like the struggle
and the strive to hit perfection needs
to be the game not just hitting
perfection the struggle and the drive to
get better at what you do to make better
videos to make a better service to have
your customers love you more is the game
is what you should be loving doing and
working on improving and so yes you want
to try to pursue perfection understand
you’re never going to hit it and that’s
not only ok it’s great it’s great to
continue to have this goal that you’re
shooting towards because once you hit a
goal you fall off you get depressed and
so don’t let that pursuit of perfection
prevent you from taking action it’s both
it’s take action and make it better it
starts
and improve don’t let that pursuit of
perfection prevent you from getting
started on your path
don’t make that 40 million dollar
mistake that I made and I learned my
lessson time and I’m hopefully never
gonna make again so the question today
is I’m curious are you a perfectionist
and has it held you back in your life
your business super curious to find out
leave it down the comments below and
we’ll join in the discussion I also want
to give a quick shout out to Miguel
Kamara Miguel thank you so much for
picking up a copy of my book your one
word
I really really appreciate the support
and hope you’re enjoying the read thank
you guys so much for watching I believe
in you I hope you continue to believe in
yourself and whatever your one word is
and I’ll see you again tomorrow morning
for another shot of espresso
I believe nation if you want to go a
little bit deeper into this topic and
learn more and get more context I’m
adding in some extra bonus clips that I
think you’ll enjoy what Tesla your goal
has been to make a better car and you’ve
done that with an electric vehicle that
people covet that has quite a cult
following
that’s upgradable but you also want to
achieve and your turn of phrase is very
nice
or try to achieve this Platonic ideal of
a car right to reach your affection so
what does the perfect car look like well
I’m gonna do I do use that phrase with
our assuring sign team that
aspirationally we’re in pursuit of the
Platonic ideal of the perfect car and
who knows what that looks like actually
but it’s I want to try to make every
element of the car as as flawless as
possible I will always be you know some
degree of imperfection but try to
minimize that and and create a car that
is just delightful in every way and I
think if you do that then the rest kind
of takes care of itself my father worked
two jobs his whole life
one was that a GM GM for 30 years and
then he had a trash hauling service so
he had we had he had his own truck and
we would go door-to-door pick up
people’s trash and it was one situation
where it was probably seven below zero
and very cold Saturday morning and my
job was to pick up all the loose trash
and so we it was so cold that I got
everything that I could just grab throw
it on the truck and I ran to the to the
truck because it was just cold to jump
in by the time I got in and the door
shut my father opened it back up
grabbed me and dragged me through the
snow back to the barrels to say son you
did a halfway job and if you do this job
in a halfway manner
you’re gonna be a halfway basketball
player you put in half the time you only
put in half the time as a student and he
said you’re supposed to do this job
right so I want you to go get that
several and I want you to chop the ice
until you can get all the trash that’s
trapped in the ice and put it on the
truck and that’s that’s what happened
and so he taught me how to be a
perfectionist and do everything so those
are very important lessons there’s still
things that we very much believe the the
the strive for perfection for being the
best for only doing the best products
for staying focused the fact that
despite this table being so small that
you and I are sitting it you could put
every Apple product on it every single
one that we ship today and yet this year
our revenues will be you know
approximately a hundred eighty billion
there’s probably no other company on the
face of the earth that could say that
message is pursue perfection over you
Benedict Cumberbatch you can never
perfect what we do there is no way I’ve
never met anyone who goes that’s
perfection I mean to an audience outside
of your work people can think that
that’s the only way they’d ever want to
see that part played or that moment done
whatever but as an actor and this isn’t
mock humidity I think it’s just it just
goes for all art forms really the whole
point is perfection is unachievable so
it’s that constant pursuit of the
unobtainable which is kind of magic
really you know and and and should keep
us kind of motivated to try better you
know it’s the bakit thing you know fail
again fail better
my unhealthy relationship with
perfection cost me 40 million dollars
when I was 22 years old I had my
software company we were growing and we
had this big vision for what we could do
we had this big business plan for the
types of companies that we could help
and the flaw was I wanted to have the
perfect planet and I spent an entire
summer working on the plan building the
plan researching the plan and zero time
actually trying to execute the plan and
there came a time when I was 22 when we
had the opportunity to sell our company
and a big player was coming in there is
a huge fund like 800 million dollars to
go out and buy companies and they were
looking at our biggest competitor and
then they started looking at us and we
were late to the party where we were a
late throw-in and we weren’t ready but
we got to be number two it was between
the two of us and they chose our
competitor over us they chose our
competitor because they had more the
plan worked out they were executing
harder work for us we had some of the
plan worked out but we hadn’t done
enough and so we lost that deal and they
bought our competitor for 40 million
dollars and that’s stuff that hurt that
was a big loss for me I took that really
hard and I realized
if we just did a better job of executing
our plan if we didn’t care about
reaching perfection if that wasn’t our
sole goal then maybe we would have got
that deal you know that regret that
feeling like if I did things a little
differently I probably could have got
that deal and so perfection is this
funny thing perfection is a great thing
to try to go after to try to reach to
always try to get better but not let it
hold you back from doing something this
plagues so many entrepreneurs so many
wannabe entrepreneurs you have an idea
for what you want to do and so your
planning planning planning planning
planning and then you never do and then
you miss your window you miss your
window because that opportunity has
passed or some life event comes up and
distracts you or you know some other
thing happens like you miss your window
it happens and then you see somebody
else go out and make tons of money and
have a huge impact that was your idea
and you can’t blame that person the only
person you can blame is yourself because
you didn’t do anything about it because
you spend so long planning and planning
and planning to get the perfect plan
understand that there was no such thing
as a perfect plan there is no such thing
as a perfect product there’s no such
thing as a perfect service if you ever
hit perfection go out and quit and go do
something else because you’ve hit the
highest it’s never perfect and that’s
also part of the fun like the struggle
and the strive to hit perfection needs
to be the game not just hitting
perfection the struggle and the drive to
get better at what you do to make better
videos to make a better service to have
your customers love you more is the game
is what you should be loving doing and
working on improving and so yes you want
to try to pursue perfection understand
you’re never going to hit it and that’s
not only ok it’s great it’s great to
continue to have this goal that you’re
shooting towards because once you hit a
goal you fall off you get depressed and
so don’t let that pursuit of perfection
prevent you from taking action it’s both
it’s take action and make it better it
starts
and improve don’t let that pursuit of
perfection prevent you from getting
started on your path
don’t make that 40 million dollar
mistake that I made and I learned my
lessson time and I’m hopefully never
gonna make again so the question today
is I’m curious are you a perfectionist
and has it held you back in your life
your business super curious to find out
leave it down the comments below and
we’ll join in the discussion I also want
to give a quick shout out to Miguel
Kamara Miguel thank you so much for
picking up a copy of my book your one
word
I really really appreciate the support
and hope you’re enjoying the read thank
you guys so much for watching I believe
in you I hope you continue to believe in
yourself and whatever your one word is
and I’ll see you again tomorrow morning
for another shot of espresso
I believe nation if you want to go a
little bit deeper into this topic and
learn more and get more context I’m
adding in some extra bonus clips that I
think you’ll enjoy what Tesla your goal
has been to make a better car and you’ve
done that with an electric vehicle that
people covet that has quite a cult
following
that’s upgradable but you also want to
achieve and your turn of phrase is very
nice
or try to achieve this Platonic ideal of
a car right to reach your affection so
what does the perfect car look like well
I’m gonna do I do use that phrase with
our assuring sign team that
aspirationally we’re in pursuit of the
Platonic ideal of the perfect car and
who knows what that looks like actually
but it’s I want to try to make every
element of the car as as flawless as
possible I will always be you know some
degree of imperfection but try to
minimize that and and create a car that
is just delightful in every way and I
think if you do that then the rest kind
of takes care of itself my father worked
two jobs his whole life
one was that a GM GM for 30 years and
then he had a trash hauling service so
he had we had he had his own truck and
we would go door-to-door pick up
people’s trash and it was one situation
where it was probably seven below zero
and very cold Saturday morning and my
job was to pick up all the loose trash
and so we it was so cold that I got
everything that I could just grab throw
it on the truck and I ran to the to the
truck because it was just cold to jump
in by the time I got in and the door
shut my father opened it back up
grabbed me and dragged me through the
snow back to the barrels to say son you
did a halfway job and if you do this job
in a halfway manner
you’re gonna be a halfway basketball
player you put in half the time you only
put in half the time as a student and he
said you’re supposed to do this job
right so I want you to go get that
several and I want you to chop the ice
until you can get all the trash that’s
trapped in the ice and put it on the
truck and that’s that’s what happened
and so he taught me how to be a
perfectionist and do everything so those
are very important lessons there’s still
things that we very much believe the the
the strive for perfection for being the
best for only doing the best products
for staying focused the fact that
despite this table being so small that
you and I are sitting it you could put
every Apple product on it every single
one that we ship today and yet this year
our revenues will be you know
approximately a hundred eighty billion
there’s probably no other company on the
face of the earth that could say that
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