According to Webster’s dictionary, perfection is the state of being complete or without fault, or the highest degree of excellence. According to the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary, perfection is the state of being perfect or the act of making something perfect.
As per my simplistic definition, perfection is where everything is exactly as it should be. What, according to me, are ingredients of perfection? Ownership, reliability, planning, accuracy, meeting the timelines, simple and uncomplicated, easy to understand, eye for detailing, first time right, thoughtfulness from all the angles, personal touch, in-depth subject knowledge, class, grace, hard work, humbleness, and gratitude.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Progress is defined as the process of improving, developing, or advancing toward a goal or completing something. It also means to move forward or onward, to develop over time, or to advance to a better stage or condition.
From the beginning of my professional career, I strongly believed in perfection rather than just completing the work, which is to say 80 to 90 percent there. But let me tell you that this quest for perfection has brought the best out of me. I have learnt the minute nuances of the things I have worked on because of my pursuit of precision. Perfection has reinforced me to push myself for one notch above. My quest for perfect deliverables has made me who I am as a person today, both professionally and personally.
If someone asks me what price I have paid to achieve perfection? (Now I know I am way short of achieving perfection). Because of chasing perfection, has it taken a longer time to complete the task? Have I busted the deadlines? Have I been frustrated with my expectations of my team? Have I worked under pressure and for long hours to meet my deadlines due to my obsession with perfection? Have I irritated my colleagues and bosses due to my aim for perfection? The answer is Yes. At times, it has put me under tremendous stress as I always wanted to be perfect and be first time right. This deadly combination of mine has at times given me a tremendous amount of anxiety, stress, and sleepless nights.
I am sure, like me, you would have also come across articles, podcasts, and discussions, mainly by startup founders and entrepreneurs, who have strongly advocated that one should not strive for perfection before launching a new product or service. A basic sanity check is necessary while first time starting the new venture. Once you have done that, you should go and launch your venture and start getting feedback from customers, the market, and reaction from competitors on the areas of improvement. If you wait and try to perfect every aspect of things, you will never be able to launch a product / service. The same gets improvised over a period of time and gets perfected. At times, people argue that perfection slows down progress, delays innovation, and can lead to missed opportunities. They are ready to embrace failure and label it as a learning experience by launching a “good enough” product / service instead of a perfect solution.
Let me confess that from the start of my professional journey, I wanted to be a perfectionist and torchbearer of perfection, and was striving to achieve it myself. I need to admit that even after 30 years working on the same, I am still not there, as I am still learning & working on myself on the same, as my self-expectations are too high and I am my biggest critic.
I always try to do things in the most perfect manner whether it comes to making cover note of the email, selecting a gift for any occasion, presenting the data, delivering a speech, reviewing MIS or any submissions, writing a blog, etc. (except at times posting my clicks or singing or playing instruments video, which I had taken liberty to put on social media without being perfect).
I need to admit that, till some time back, I would not have believed in progress at the cost of perfection. I believe in pushing myself and my team to be thinking and answering all the questions beforehand, and even if we know that something is missing in our service / thoughts, we as a team should know that first before someone tells us. According to me, this vigour for perfection saves precious resources of capital, avoids heartaches, minimises rounds of iterations and breakdown. One may argue that this obsession with perfection at times leads to delay beyond timelines or entirely abandoning the project itself.
The problem with all of us is that we are selective admirers of perfection. When a bowler delivers a perfect yorker and shatters the stumps of the batsman, we cheer the bowler with a big round of applause. When Arjuna at Daupradi’s swayamwara, hit the eye of the rotating fish with his arrow and pierced it with precision, till date we admire him for his unparalleled skill and focus. Just ask yourself whether anyone would have appreciated Arjuna if he had pierced the mouth of the fish instead of an eye? To date, we are in awe of Eklavya for his precise skill of shooting seven arrows into a dog’s mouth without harming it by just listening to its barking. There are so many examples of perfectionist in their own field in our ancient history.
Harishchandra mastered the art of perfection in Truth (Satya), and Bhisma was the epitome of perfection for Vow and Sacrifice. Lord Hanuman stands for perfect Bhakt (Devotion and Service). Karna has mastered the perfection of Daan.
I also need to admit that, at times, I myself is victim of my own perfection and this blog itself is delayed beyond time because of my idea of giving my best and perfect piece. I feel stressed out and frustrated as well, but I am ready to live with it without diluting my deliverables. For me, my perfect deliverable is more important than just putting the blog on the site to claim I have written so many blogs/articles. As I am from the field of finance, I can give you an example of perfection and why I am tuned to it. Being a Chartered Accountant, I have been taught to first tally the trial balance and balance sheet before publishing the Annual Report. One can’t publish an Annual Report where Financials are not tallied or there is a rounding off errors in Lakhs or Crores! Even when it comes to statutory compliances of filing returns or paying taxes, we all need to adhere to it with perfection, both with respect to the accuracy of the amount and meeting timelines. I am sure by now you would know what shaped my DNA for perfection.
After so much deep dive into the subject, I feel I was bit wrong to chase perfection. It’s good to aim for perfection and work towards that but progress should not be and can’t be ignored. Rather it need to be the focus. If I look back I feel if I would have concentrated on progress with the same intensity of perfection, I would have mastered few more skills. Recently I was about to conduct Webinar for first time in my life. I was sceptical as I am not a good orator or speaker. But despite that I tried my best and I feel I did a fairly good job (though not perfect as I wanted to be). If I would have waited to be a good speaker first and then only appear on a webinar, I do not think that day would have ever come. Hence, I need to change my fundamental belief that one can achieve perfection while progressing in his chosen field.
I strongly agree with Sister B K Shivani of Bramha Kumaris when she says we tend to focus on perfection in what we do and in how we look, but instead of that, let us focus on perfection in the aspects that matter most: our intentions, thoughts, feelings, behaviours, and vibrations.
What are your thoughts on Perfection v/s Progress? Do you also feel like Winston Churchill when he said ‘Perfection is the enemy of good’ and our focus should be on progress? Or crazy like me for perfection? I know I have touched a topic where so far the majority of articles, blogs, talks, and debates are highly tilted towards progress over perfection. Would love to get your thoughts and insights.
Completely agree with you and I am also of the same view.
Thanks for sharing
Superb article.. covered all the dilemmas we have while giving deliverables.
Truly said Sir , there be always keep learning no one perfect . I belief in There is always scope of the improvement.
Very true Sir.
No one can be achieved 100% perfect task. Also scale of perfection is different for individual. So we should always focus on to moving forward for better than better. If anything wrong it must be corrected on right time.
Right decision on right moment lead to better success and perfection in your Goal.
And that’s the skill of individual..
Thanks
Yogesh Mule
That’s a deep insight and thought article Nimeshbhai. I always felt perfection is state of trying to delivery best possible within constrains but it was always at that point in time. Our intentions to deliver the best possible, -product, marketing campaigns, solution, business results was more supreme considering the overall scenario such as people capability, available resources, infrastructure, and general limitations.
Perfection in view is a constant process / progress towards getting better, sometimes can be incremental ( continuous optimising) and sometimes transformational ( infrequent timelines wise ) but still needs years of work to get there.
Very well articulated blog. Compliments Dear Nimesh.
My two cents – Perfection is very subjective and have no defined boundaries, therefore it could have a haircut impact on the growth and deliveries.
Near perfection while ensuring no such mistakes which could have negative impact on the desired outcome should be the preferred approach.
Perfection achievement may turn out to be temporary as what one believe as perfect may not be perfect. What is perfect today, may not remain perfect tomorrow. May be Perfection need to be evaluated with other factor, If time is essence, focusing on perfection may lead to over stretching and may have negative impact and on the other hand where perfection is the key (say satellite launch), nothing else will work but perfection as its not time here, its perfection which will drive other things and need of the situation.
I am always a 80:20 guy and love being in that space 🙂 Its quite liberating.
Most of the times, I feel perfection is self sabotaging. Perfectionists don’t smile as much 🙂 🙂
We have got to choose our battles wisely, keeping the overall well being in mind.
I agree — focusing on progress and improving our intentions matters more than chasing perfection. Better to move forward than wait for flawless results.
Great insight and well articulated. I also of the same opinion and agree with you sir.
Thank you for expressing it so well.
Thoughtful article. I think that one should always strive for the best within given situation. A prefect solution may not be the best solution in given circumstances . I believe that the continuous progress is better process where you are also taking views from others and making is better, like MVP in tech gets evolved over the period of time with feedback loops to make it better.
Good insight Nimeshbhai. Well. Summarised covering 360 degree perspective and reflecting where to draw the boundary line. Warm regards
Lovely blog. The pursuit of perfection is relentless, never ending. But in the corporate context what I believe is true and is also viable is to reach as close as possible to the view of perfection in the stipulated amount of time. That for me is the Holy Grail. If you have X amount of time than only a Y level of result is achievable. But that Y should be as close to what is achievable in the give amount of time. With your whole heart and almost justice you can do to the given task.
A blog content actually very well gone thru and experienced by all of us…. actually done is better than perfection at times because perfection is moving target , in every task initially we keep concentrating on perfection as there is deadline to be caught our focus moves on target and we realised…100 % perfection can never be achieved but in our journey of accomplishment we try to walk with it as much as possible .
Dear Sir,
Very good Articulated article. I feel that perfection is not the enemy, rather it is a final step towards progress. Like, as you rightly mentioned Arjuna’s Drupadi swayamvar, like India’s Chandrayan Mission, one should continously put efforts towards progress which one day will result in perfection.
Truly enjoyed.
Such a thoughtful post!
I completely relate — waiting for perfection often delays real growth. Taking action, even imperfectly, is what builds confidence and mastery.
I think, perfection is a direction, not a destination. Progress, with the right mindset, is what truly transforms us. 🙏
Inspiring article, I feel perfection whether it in moral or professional is required but is it must be 100% , is something one need to define.
I read somewhere which says , if your standard are so high that you give up when you fall short of them, then actually you don’t have high standards. What you have are excuses .
This blog gives me very powerful message to start , progress and don’t let excuses come in way !!
Thank you, sir, for such a wonderful article. My view is progress continues to shape man towards perfection………
Dear Nimesh,
A very well written blog, I have just one comment- perfection is also a journey, what today seems to be perfect may not be perfect in future. We need to continuously work towards the same, and it is progress!
Masterpiece!!
I agree🙌 we shud better to focus on consistent effort, continuous improvement and to accept better to do something instead to do nothing basis achieve perfection.
That is wht it counts…..😊🙏
My take is perfaction is the second name to evolution.
Beautifully put Nimesh.
Perfection is indeed very subjective and I loved the approach that your article has put forward.