“Done is better than perfect.”
You’ve heard this motto before, and it’s true for many different areas of life. But for me, this philosophy applies most to making money online.
I’d know— I’ve made $1.5 million online through writing and building an online business.
I don’t say that to brag; I say it because I wasn’t exactly on a great life path. And if I was able to find success by making this mindset shift, you absolutely can, too.
In this post, I’ll show you how to stop perfectionism in its tracks so you can build the life, business, or career you want.
My story: Once upon a time, my life sucked
I was a college dropout working a dead-end factory job for $10 an hour. I drank and smoked weed every single day. I was depressed.
Even though I had no cash, I couldn’t handle the factory job and I lasted all of six weeks before I quit.
But because I did, in fact, need to eat food and have a roof over my head, I came to my senses and applied for a clerk role at a video store.
For some reason, the manager was impressed when I came in to fill out the application and asked me if I wanted to train underneath her to run the store.
I said yes.
Before that, I’d been fired from every single job I ever had, so I took it as a sign to turn my life around.
I started brushing up on self-improvement content because I wanted to learn leadership skills to get good at my job. (I picked up the habit of reading self-help books years ago when I worked for another company.)
I remembered how good it felt to learn, so I dove back into it. I read books, watched YouTube videos, and took paid courses.
It worked.
I was performing well at work, got in great shape, and simply had a much more positive outlook on life.
I started writing posts on Facebook about the things I was learning. A friend took notice. He asked me to write an article for his website, so I wrote a post and instantly fell in love with writing. I’ve been writing every single day since.
“Done is better than perfect” helped me make 7 figures
I’ve worked with writers and online business owners for nearly a decade.
The ones that fail always have the same problem: perfectionism.
They procrastinate and never post any content because they’re afraid of looking bad. They care too much about what other people think.
Had they prioritized getting things done over perfection, they’d have successful businesses by now.
After I wrote a post for my friend’s website, I wrote another one, and another one, and another one.
I wasn’t just writing something new every single day. I was publishing something new every day.
Putting my work out into the world was the fastest way to improve my skills because the feedback I got (in the form of views) motivated me to write more.
I got a feel for what readers like and don’t like, which helped me refine my writing. Practicing in a vacuum doesn’t work because you don’t get that feedback. Ironically, the perfectionist’s attempts to improve their work by polishing in private has the opposite of the intended effect.
After a while, I realized I could write for other websites. I started pitching every website imaginable to publish my work on their platform. I didn’t write the perfect pitch, mind you, I just sent out pitches en masse.
I built relationships with editors on multiple sites including Medium, which helped my career take off. Medium pays writers for the amount of views and engagement they get. I got popular on the platform because I created such a large volume of work that I was able to make $10,000 a month, for 17 months straight, earning a total of $460,000 on the site.
I also did other things that helped me build a business, like creating an email list for people who read my articles. I have used that email list to promote three books, which have sold $100,000 in royalties, and launch online courses that have done $700,000 in sales.
I know writers who have procrastinated on starting their email newsletters for years because they wanted to get them just right. While they waited, I executed.
You can take action, too.
If you’re ready to go after your goals, prioritize speed over perfection, and reap the rewards, I’m sharing my best tips on how to do exactly that.
5 rules to live by to get things done (and get results)
1. Take imperfect action
Coaches of sports teams have a saying:
It’s okay to make mistakes. Just do them at full speed.
They’d rather see the player fly around the field with energy and passion to make a play instead of being hesitant and constantly second-guessing themselves. Mistakes can be fixed, but you can’t succeed without consistent effort.
People put too much pressure on themselves to have an amazing day and do an amazing job every single day. Some days will be better than others. Sometimes your work will be good. Sometimes it will suck.
But, as Myron Golden says:
The work always works.
Sometimes it works for you. You succeed. Other times, it works on you.
You may make a mistake, encounter a roadblock, or flat-out fail, but you’ll be closer to the goal because you’ll have figured out what doesn’t work so you can avoid it next time.
2. Quantity leads to quality
You get good by putting in the reps.
If you want to get good at writing, write poorly until you write well.
When you repeat something, you get better at it, period.
The perfectionist doesn’t understand this. They think that waiting improves their skills. They say “quality over quantity” which is just an excuse for not doing the work. It’s a way to hide.
Your first 100 blog posts will mostly suck.
Your first 100 podcasts will mostly suck too.
Your first 100 talks will not be perfect.
Your first 100 videos will be nightmares…
The truth is no matter how smart you are.
WE ALL SUCK IN THE BEGINNING.
Most people give up right away.
A few people stick around until they get it right.
—Cammi Pham
It’s okay to suck. You suck less by doing the reps. Those low-quality reps are the ones you need to get good. Unfortunately, none of us can’t skip this part of the process. Remember, done is better than perfect, so get those ugly reps out of the way.
3. Your goal shouldn’t be to “get good”
Most people never get good at what they do because they make “getting good” the goal. In the beginning, the goal isn’t to get good. It’s just to do the thing. Get it done so you have proof that you can do it.
“The War of Art” by Stephen Pressfield is one of my favorite books of all time.
It’s all about overcoming your self-doubt and following your dreams. Pressfield wrote popular novels like “The Legend of Bagger Vance,” which was made into a movie starring Will Smith. But he never would’ve published those books had he not written his first book.
And he put off writing his first book for years. He wanted to get it right, so he’d get stuck in perfectionism and didn’t finish his manuscript until he changed his goal.
Eventually, he realized he just wanted to finish the book.
He no longer cared if it was good. He only wanted to prove to himself that he could write a book. Once he got the monkey off his back, he started writing future hits.
The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying. Why is this important? Because when we sit down day after day and keep grinding, something mysterious starts to happen. A process is set in motion by which, inevitably and infallibly, heaven comes to our aid. Unseen forces enlist in our cause; serendipity reinforces our purpose.
—Steven Pressfield
4. Perfectionism isn’t real
Odds are, you aren’t one of the one in a million people who is a true perfectionist.
I’m thinking of someone like Tom Brady, who maniacally watches 8 hours of film each day, or Simone Biles, who practiced a quadruple-whatchamacallit-twist every single day since the age of 3.
They’re the true perfectionists.
You’re hiding. The examples I mentioned above have one thing in common. They both played on the field, got on the big stage, and performed in front of a crowd. They did this because they knew there was no way to achieve true perfection without putting their skills to the test.
Until you put your skills to the test in the real world, your practice doesn’t count.
Your drafts don’t count unless you publish them.
Your business plan doesn’t count unless you pitch clients.
Your prototype idea doesn’t count until you build it.
The first step is admitting you’re afraid. The second step is acting in spite of your fear and doing “the thing” anyway.
5. Nobody cares, nobody is watching
The best way to embrace a “done is better than perfect” mentality is by realizing your biggest fear is imaginary.
You’re afraid to take imperfect action because you’re afraid of looking dumb. You’re afraid of looking dumb because you think people are watching. You think people are watching because you’re overly preoccupied with yourself.
Well, since everyone else is just as preoccupied with themselves as you are with yourself, they’re not even paying attention to you. They’re stuck in their own neurotic little heads just like you are. The spotlight is not on you, my friend. You can do whatever you want.
Done is better than perfect: Your sign to finally take action
Look, I get it. You want everything to be just right before you put yourself out there. But here’s the cold hard truth: That’s BS.
Action separates the winners from the losers. Winners do. Losers continue polishing their plans.
I went from a broke, depressed college dropout to making seven figures, not by waiting for the perfect moment, but by just…doing it.
I wrote articles every single day. Were they all masterpieces? Hell no. But you know what? They got better. And more importantly, they got published.
Your first attempts are going to suck. Your early work will make you cringe.
But guess what?
That’s the price of entry. That’s how you get good. I put my work out there for the world to see. I pitched every website I could think of. I built an email list. I launched courses.
And yeah, sometimes it was messy. Sometimes it wasn’t perfect. But it got done.
Stop hiding behind perfectionism. It’s just fear in a fancy suit.
Want to be a writer? Write.
Want to start a business? Start it.
Want to learn a new skill? Practice it.
Just. Do. It.
Because done is better than perfect. Always.
