Surfing vs. coal mining
When the unexpected happens in surfing, that's why you went.
When it happens in a coal mine, it's a matter of life and death.
Perspective changes based on how you define your work. That unplanned outcome or sudden emergency—are you looking at with the optimism and possibility of a surfer, or the dread of a miner?
Beginning is underrated
Merely beginning.
With inadequate preparation, because you will never be fully prepared.
With imperfect odds of success, because the odds are never perfect.
Begin. With the humility of someone who's not sure, and the excitement of someone who knows that it's possible.
Listening clearly
It's entirely possible that people aren't listening closely to you any more.
There's so much noise, so much clutter... hoping that customers, prospects, vendors and co-workers will stop what they're doing and listen closely and carefully enough to figure out what you mean is a recipe for frustration.
Perhaps there's an alternative. Maybe, instead of insisting that people listen more closely, you could speak more clearly.
That's what great design and great copy do. They speak clearly so that people don't have to listen so hard.
Hope and reality
Sometimes, we don't sell what we've got, we sell what could be.
Book publishers, for example, buy non-fiction book proposals ($10 million for Bruce Springsteen's autobiography) not the finished book. The finished book almost never matches what they were hoping for, but the hoping is fun.
Venture capitalists, at least in the early stages of a company, buy hope as well. The numbers that might be, that could be, not the numbers you have now.
Understanding this, it's possible to draw a curve of hope and reality, over time. You need to be on a course toward the reality you seek, but bringing on partners is most effective when hope is ascending, not after reality sets in.
The gap
There's a gap between where you are and where you want to be.
Many gaps, in fact, but imagine just one of them.
That gap--is it fuel? Are you using it like a vacuum, to pull you along, to inspire you to find new methods, to dance with the fear?
Or is it more like a moat, a forbidding space between you and the future?
Freedom, fairness and equality
Freedom doesn't mean no responsibility. In fact, it requires extra responsibility. Freedom is the ability to make a choice, and responsibility is required once you make that choice.
Fairness isn't a handout. Fairness is the willingness to offer dignity to others. The dignity of being seen and heard, and having a chance to make a contribution.
And equality doesn't mean equal. Equality doesn't guarantee me a starting position on the Knicks. Equality means equality of access, the opportunity to do my best without being disqualified for irrelevant reasons.
Perfect vs. important
Is there a conflict?
Does holding something back as you polish it make it more likely that you'll create something important?
I don't think so. There's no apparent correlation.
Instead, what we see is that, all things being equal, polished is better than rushed, but the most important factor is whether or not you've actually done the work to make something remarkable/generous/challenging/useful/artful.
More time spent on that is always better than more time polishing.