The Beauty Of Getting It Wrong
Thursday, August 5th, 2010 by admin | Posted in Business, Entrepreneur, Small Business | CommentsNothing wonderful starts off perfectly.
In spite of all the planning and strategizing, you put a toe in the water or swan dive off a board and instantly you are in the game, bound to get it wrong before you get it right.
It is the determination to plan everything to a “T” that leaves romances devoid of romance and businesses fussing with planning mania while the prize in the marketplace is seized by the risk takers who know that instead of getting it right from the start, they are far better off reverse engineering from wrong to right.
This fixation on finding a “no mistakes” zone is the principal focus of that truly stifling entity known as a committee. They plan dozens of meetings, strategize for hundreds of hours, create stacks of Power Point decks, and still these vaunted committees never get anything right. Look at Congress. Take a glance at the UN. Peek inside GM.
You’ll see an army of suits fearful of their lives at the very prospect of getting it wrong. When, in fact, that is their absolute and irreversible destiny.
Why is this? A number of factors:
1.) The need to get it right from the start leads to a form of paralysis that virtually assures the endeavor will never begin and will be too inelastic to adapt to the changes that will be demanded by life.
2.) The over planners of the world who have to be “100 percent certain” fail to relish in the joy of discovery. They miss out on the absolute delight of the unknown.
3.) Only by getting it wrong, and staying up all night figuring out how to reverse engineer it, can you actually get it right. Big time right.
4.) There is an immense joy in working through the impossible to a highly successful reality. The wonks, the straight liners, the pragmatic lovers, they never experience the high that comes from this divine experience.
Jump in. The water’s fine. Once you do, you’ll never look back.
Warm Regards,
Mark Stevens
CEO
MSCO | The Art and Science of Growing Businesses
www.MSCO.com
www.YourMarketingSucks.com
Email This Post
August 9th, 2010 at 10:02 am
It’s an important point you’re making.
It’s not always an easy balancing act – making sure you launch and endeavor with enough compressive planning versus going overboard and succumbing to “paralysis by analysis.”
If you haven’t already, check out John Cleese’s video on the topic, “The Importance of Mistakes.” It is hilarious and on target. I saw him give this talk live many years ago.
A preview of the video is available online here: mms://netstreamingsolutions.com/Video Arts/P_JC2_02.wmv
Carl Potts
August 10th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
True! I guess that is what all successful
entrepreneurs do eg Mr Screw it let’s do it!
One day I want to be just like you Steve. You
Are my role model.