I was caught off-guard the other day when, during a meeting with our VP/Design Director, Robbie Ainslie, I looked at an image proposal and said, “it’s good enough”.  His response was great.  He simply said, “Then it’s back to the drawing board until it’s no longer just good enough.”  

The pursuit of perfection has been something that has plagued mankind since recorded history.  Seth Godin has said that “perfect[ion] lets you stall, ask more questions…dumb it down…avoid doing anything that might fail.”  I made a commitment to myself, to my team, and to my clients that I would never settle for less.  Even personally, there came a pivotal time in my life when I decided to stop settling for being less-than and start striving to become the best version of myself. 

Being more than just good enough demands that we stop making apologies for setting our standards high. Having exceptional standards, as long as they are achievable, is noble and worthy of pursuit.  

If being good enough means that what you are producing is less than what you can produce, then being good enough is not good enough!  I make a point that whatever I produce for my clients is always indicative of their best foot forward. If it means we delay to get it right, then we wait, because the pursuit of good is just not good enough, it is our best in action!

When your entire team is on board with putting their best into action every day, then it becomes cultural and innate.  The stress and frustration come from the extra effort of bridging good enough to best.  When it is understood that good enough is never an acceptable threshold, ‘best’ becomes the norm and is accomplished with greater ease.

Weave in allowances for issues, blunders, failures, and missed opportunities but never, ever stop striving to go beyond good enough!