I’m sure you’re surrounded by successful people who are not at all perfect. In fact, I’d bet on it.
So you may wonder why, without all of that perfection and occasional mistake-making, how they got to be where they are. If you’re not aware that successful people are not perfect then start taking notice because even the perception of success is, well, success.
The secret that successful people know is this:
Doing the work and getting it done, as imperfect as it is, creates success.
There’s a lot of quotes about success out there and I thought I’d share some that I’m familiar with and we can break it down a bit.
“Hustle beats talent when talent doesn’t hustle.” – Ross Simmonds
If you do things, you’ll make more money or be more successful than someone with a bunch of talent who does nothing and may keep all that talent built up on the inside or even to themselves. Telling people what you’re doing, sharing and showing the talent and how you’re doing it will equate to success, as imperfect or perfect as it can be. Simply said, you have to be willing to show up and do the work.
“What you lack in talent can be made up with desire, hustle and giving 110% all the time.” – Don Zimmer
There is truth to this everywhere. Just look at musicians that have over 10 top-ten hits on their albums. Sometimes it’s merely a matter of gathering up that talent and bringing it to the right place to get you started.
“The hustle brings the dollar. The experience brings the knowledge. The persistence brings success.” – Ross Simmonds
Ross is big about the hustle. He’s an internet marketer and digital influencer. He knows an understands the truth about what it feels like to have imposter syndrome. No one really knows what exactly they’re doing until they have had an opportunity to do it themselves and have gained experience doing it. You have to keep going even when you feel like a complete fraud. Successful people keep going while everyone else just gives up – or never begin.
Nobody Is Perfect
Just as hustling and showing up creates success, the opposite behavior of perfectionism will create either failure or a complete failure to launch your project. Perfectionism gets the best of what could have been successful entrepreneurs. Fear of success, surprisingly, is one of the biggest hold-backs.
No one is perfect. Even successful people. Everyone has flaws. You should still create. Remember that success comes with a big learning curve and if you keep going around the curve, you will become a success.
Theodore Roosevelt once said:
“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
Stop waiting for perfection or allowing perfection to keep you from putting in some effort. You’ll never know everything – someone will have mastered a topic more than you – and perfection does not exist in reality. You can deliver high-quality and accurate information to your audience as well as a good product, and you don’t have to be perfect. Isn’t that a beautiful thing?