Question #13: What Does Progress, Not Perfection, Mean?

Answer: It means getting started sloppily is better than not getting started perfectly. “Sloppy success is more monetizable than perfect mediocrity” Let us explain.

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“Sloppy success is more monetizable than perfect mediocrity”

Do you know how to have a lot of big ideas? Have a lot more bad ideas. The more bad ideas you have you’ll have great and big ideas. In fact, a great way to have a lot of big ideas is to have a lot more little ideas, so getting started means progress.

It’s like going to that one percent difference, you have to get started to get warmer 80, 90, 105 degree water, but it takes another 105 to get to near boiling, so 200, 210 and 212 steam. I go from boiling an egg to propelling a rocket ship using nothing more than steam. There is power, but I need 212 degrees.

I would have never gotten to that perfection point of 213 unless I’d made the progress.

I’m going to give you a quote by Keith Cunningham who is a mentor to many including Robert Kiyosaki. He wrote one of Robert’s books; not Rich Dad Poor Dad. He’s also on Tony Robbin’s website and he wrote the book and has the concept called Keys to the Vault.

He wrote and has uttered a quote that’s changed many lives.

“Ordinary things consistently done produce extraordinary results”

~ Keith Cunningham

That is my seven word definition of what it means progress not perfection, that’s it.

Ordinary things like little ideas if they’re done consistently you get an extraordinary idea. They may not be sexy or make you famous, but if you put them together and they will make you famous.

I know of a world-class bicyclist who was a professional. He was a good time-trialer and what he used to do… is in a 40 k (25 miles) time trial; it’s called the race of truth, because you’re not in a pack it’s just you and the wind.

People are let loose every minute so you can’t draft behind someone it’s just you and the road. Bernard Hinault who won the Tour de France five times, Greg LeMond who won the Tour de France six times and Lance Armstrong who won the Tour de France seven times is just an inhuman accomplishment.

What this one gentleman used to do was something ordinary that he did consistently, which produced extraordinary results. He was a national class time trialer. There were other people who were much better with more talent, but he did one thing consistently that changed the way he time-trialed and gave him more rest on each leg.

Bicycling as with any sport is about recovery. He would pedal one to five revolutions and every five he would give one leg a break, so he would just rest one leg. He repeated this as he cycled and give the other leg a break, so each five revolutions one leg would get a break.

What happened as a result of doing this ordinary thing consistently for 40 kilometers? He had five minutes recovery. In fact, no exertion on each leg, because he gave each leg a break for one revolution every five revolutions and as a result he recovered faster than others cycling.

He also went faster and further. Remember that story, because ordinary things consistently done produce extraordinary results. It could be winning a race, making more money or being a world-class parent.

Let me tell you about another thing consistently done. Reading with kids between the ages of seven and twelve for five minutes a day can make a difference. Playing catch with your child for five minutes a day can produce extraordinary results if you do it every day.

Some parents wait for the perfect moment to do it for an hour, which is doing it perfectly, but doing it sloppily for 300 seconds/five minutes and still doing it over 365 days is a lot of time. So doing things imperfectly over time produces extraordinary results. That’s progress not perfection.

If you look at any 12-step recovery program whether it’s AA or any drug addiction 12-step program, the reason they work so well is because they just want you to get started. Go to a meeting. I’m not in a recovery program, but by going to meetings, that can get someone sober.

That’s an ordinary thing done consistently every day. I have friends that have been sober for 25 years and they’ve been to a meeting every single day in AA. If it can save your life to do an ordinary thing consistently can’t it change the way you do business?

What Edward Deming did was he said, I Plan I Act and I Study the Results. That’s like problem-action-result. He plans, so he’s doing progress. He acts he’s doing progress. He’s studying so he’s doing progress. He’s not waiting for the perfect moment otherwise he’d be like the wolf in sheeps clothing.

Buckminster Fuller, one of the richest men who ever lived on earth used to Test, Fail and Learn. That was his three-step process. Deming was the one who’s well known in Japan and the U.S. for the quality improvement era after World War II.

Buckminster Fuller was known for many achievements and Einstein said, when they crossed paths at a university on the East Coast said you’re the only man who understands my theory of relativity. Bucky said test, fail, learn so failure was inherent to his process.

Test something that’s making progress, it’s not perfection; test. Fail, that’s not perfection that’s progress and then learn that’s where the perfection comes in. For Demming it was study; plan, act, study. Test, fail, learn that was Bucky Fuller.

That’s what progress not perfection means. Not at Strategic Coach that’s run by Dan Sullivan he’s known to have said, ‘Go for progress not perfection’. The greatest entrepreneurs, which are the people he coaches are people who go for the progress not for perfection.

You can die striving for perfection, but you can live having progress.