Perfectionism as a Founder: Instead of striving for "perfect" strive for "excellence"
As a Founder, you’re going to ride the rollercoaster of mistakes and successes. Wanting the best for yourself and your company is great, and wanting to achieve and gain as many successes along the way is a good motivator.
But there is a huge difference between striving for excellence and perfect all of the time. Striving for excellence is defined as pursuing high levels of quality and ensuring good standards, but perfectionism is the internal motivation of achieving ‘perfect’ every single time.
Perfectionism often occurs as a result of a core belief that you are flawed.
Now, let’s break that down. What sets perfectionism apart is where it stems from, as a perfectionist it’s likely you have a core belief within you that makes you feel flawed or inadequate.
A core belief is often a subconscious thought or ideal that motivates a lot of your behaviour. Maybe there’s been times in your founder journey where you’ve missed the mark, where you’ve been told that you haven’t got what it takes, or maybe this is a core belief that’s rooted in your upbringing.
Without feelings of inadequacy internally, there is no motivator to continuously push yourself away from it; this means that if you don’t have some element of feeling inadequate, it’s unlikely you will be motivated to achieve, succeed, and break down those barriers. There’s oftentimes a fear that motivates most of our behaviours as human beings.
Perfectionism is in you, in society, and it’s in the way you treat others too
Aside from being a personality trait, perfectionism is all around us in society and culture, it’s hard to avoid. We as humans, love it when people are good at things and perform well. Because of this, the social element of perfectionistic expectations are on the rise, we are not only expecting ourselves to be perfect, but we’re also expecting other people around us to be perfect too. Without realising it, you might be setting unrealistic expectations on people around you and in your life, ones that they just aren’t going to obtain. Bear this in mind as you move forward in your journey, and how you place expectations
The cycle of perfectionism, and our brain’s “truth-seeking mechanism”
Our brain is a master at filling in the blanks when we don’t have a complete picture. When our brain is provided with stimuli that is incomplete (let’s say a jigsaw puzzle that you haven’t finished) your brain is able to mock-up a mental image of what it should look like in the end.
However, as great as this is, it also causes us some issues too. When we don’t have a complete picture, we automatically fill in the blanks with information that isn’t necessarily correct. This is a key feature of entrepreneurship, founders are always making decisions with incomplete information.
Our brains are always scanning our environments for more ‘nuggets of information’ we can collect and store that help us build up the incomplete picture. But that means, every time you do something imperfectly and miss the mark, your brain is going to use that information, and use it as ‘evidence’ of why you aren’t good enough.
For example, you get a piece of constructive criticism on some work, but because our brain loves the negatives, it gets stored under the “reasons why I suck” folder in your brain, adding to this never ending photo album of “fails”. Even though it isn’t true. This is just because you have that core belief of being imperfect, your brain is collecting more information to support the argument. As a result, we spiral.
But surely striving for perfect is a good thing, right?
Wrong. Studies have shown that yes, perfectionism can allow students in school to perform better and obtain better grades, but it does the opposite when it comes to the workplace. Perfectionism aids the performance outcomes for formulaic tasks (tasks where there is a direct right or wrong) but often in a Founder’s work, there is a lot of decision making where there isn’t a direct right or wrong, it’s more a matter of choice and opinion and subjectivity. Therefore perfectionism in this case can hold you back and bring you down, because you’re trying to obtain that ‘perfect’... but does perfect even exist? answer that honestly just does not exist.
There’s a saying in the start-up world… ‘if you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, then you’ve launched too late!’
How do we dismantle it?
Here’s a few tips to managing perfectionism:
Set yourself an end point.
Often as a perfectionist you’ll be working on something and never know when to leave well-enough alone. You’ll keep editing, primping, re-writing, in an attempt to reach ‘perfect status’. Let’s say you're working on your pitch deck, set yourself an end target, maybe that’s an internal deadline, maybe you set aside X amount of hours to work on it, whatever that looks like for you, set aside a cut-off point. After that point, there’s no more editing, you stick with it. Overtime, getting into this habit you’ll start to dismantle striving for that non-existent perfection, you’ll strive for excellence, and know to stop when you reach it.
2. Cognitive reframing (see it from a different angle)
“If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original.” - Ken Robinson
Did you know..
Bubble wrap was invented by mistake? It started out as an attempt at a new style of wallpaper that failed tremendously.
Post-it notes? Accident. Dr. Spencer Silver set out to create an ultra-strong adhesive glue, ended up creating the one of the weakest, and used it to create the sticky tabs we know today.
Chocolate chip cookies? Improvisation gone right. When Ruth Wakefield ran out of the melting chocolate she typically relied on, she adopted Nestle chocolate which kept its shape in the oven and developed into delicious choc-chip cookies.
Why are we saying all this? These are just a few of the many examples of a failure actually being a success. Don’t be afraid of failure because you really don’t know what you’ll discover on the other side.
So…
Perfectionism is very common, and if it's something you are experiencing just know that it’s something you can take control of and ensure it is serving you rather than holding you back. Instead of striving for perfect, strive for excellence. Who knows? In your pursuit you might end up being redirected and discover something new.
Written by: Dani Olliffe, Psychological Well-being Associate
Further information:
This blog was inspired by Breaking Up with Perfectionism, a podcast episode by WorkLife
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3ohEu8zArUuGk2hT5aoIuW?si=cd40b7798e2f48cc
Perfectionism: Psychology Today https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/basics/perfectionism
https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fapl0000324
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200715-why-no-one-wants-to-work-with-a-perfectionist
Perfectionism as a Founder: Instead of striving for "perfect" strive for "excellence"
As a Founder, you’re going to ride the rollercoaster of mistakes and successes. Wanting the best for yourself and your company is great, and wanting to achieve and gain as many successes along the way is a good motivator.
But there is a huge difference between striving for excellence and perfect all of the time. Striving for excellence is defined as pursuing high levels of quality and ensuring good standards, but perfectionism is the internal motivation of achieving ‘perfect’ every single time.
Perfectionism often occurs as a result of a core belief that you are flawed.
Now, let’s break that down. What sets perfectionism apart is where it stems from, as a perfectionist it’s likely you have a core belief within you that makes you feel flawed or inadequate.
A core belief is often a subconscious thought or ideal that motivates a lot of your behaviour. Maybe there’s been times in your founder journey where you’ve missed the mark, where you’ve been told that you haven’t got what it takes, or maybe this is a core belief that’s rooted in your upbringing.
Without feelings of inadequacy internally, there is no motivator to continuously push yourself away from it; this means that if you don’t have some element of feeling inadequate, it’s unlikely you will be motivated to achieve, succeed, and break down those barriers. There’s oftentimes a fear that motivates most of our behaviours as human beings.
Perfectionism is in you, in society, and it’s in the way you treat others too
Aside from being a personality trait, perfectionism is all around us in society and culture, it’s hard to avoid. We as humans, love it when people are good at things and perform well. Because of this, the social element of perfectionistic expectations are on the rise, we are not only expecting ourselves to be perfect, but we’re also expecting other people around us to be perfect too. Without realising it, you might be setting unrealistic expectations on people around you and in your life, ones that they just aren’t going to obtain. Bear this in mind as you move forward in your journey, and how you place expectations
The cycle of perfectionism, and our brain’s “truth-seeking mechanism”
Our brain is a master at filling in the blanks when we don’t have a complete picture. When our brain is provided with stimuli that is incomplete (let’s say a jigsaw puzzle that you haven’t finished) your brain is able to mock-up a mental image of what it should look like in the end.
However, as great as this is, it also causes us some issues too. When we don’t have a complete picture, we automatically fill in the blanks with information that isn’t necessarily correct. This is a key feature of entrepreneurship, founders are always making decisions with incomplete information.
Our brains are always scanning our environments for more ‘nuggets of information’ we can collect and store that help us build up the incomplete picture. But that means, every time you do something imperfectly and miss the mark, your brain is going to use that information, and use it as ‘evidence’ of why you aren’t good enough.
For example, you get a piece of constructive criticism on some work, but because our brain loves the negatives, it gets stored under the “reasons why I suck” folder in your brain, adding to this never ending photo album of “fails”. Even though it isn’t true. This is just because you have that core belief of being imperfect, your brain is collecting more information to support the argument. As a result, we spiral.
But surely striving for perfect is a good thing, right?
Wrong. Studies have shown that yes, perfectionism can allow students in school to perform better and obtain better grades, but it does the opposite when it comes to the workplace. Perfectionism aids the performance outcomes for formulaic tasks (tasks where there is a direct right or wrong) but often in a Founder’s work, there is a lot of decision making where there isn’t a direct right or wrong, it’s more a matter of choice and opinion and subjectivity. Therefore perfectionism in this case can hold you back and bring you down, because you’re trying to obtain that ‘perfect’... but does perfect even exist? answer that honestly just does not exist.
There’s a saying in the start-up world… ‘if you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, then you’ve launched too late!’
How do we dismantle it?
Here’s a few tips to managing perfectionism:
Set yourself an end point.
Often as a perfectionist you’ll be working on something and never know when to leave well-enough alone. You’ll keep editing, primping, re-writing, in an attempt to reach ‘perfect status’. Let’s say you're working on your pitch deck, set yourself an end target, maybe that’s an internal deadline, maybe you set aside X amount of hours to work on it, whatever that looks like for you, set aside a cut-off point. After that point, there’s no more editing, you stick with it. Overtime, getting into this habit you’ll start to dismantle striving for that non-existent perfection, you’ll strive for excellence, and know to stop when you reach it.
2. Cognitive reframing (see it from a different angle)
“If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original.” - Ken Robinson
Did you know..
Bubble wrap was invented by mistake? It started out as an attempt at a new style of wallpaper that failed tremendously.
Post-it notes? Accident. Dr. Spencer Silver set out to create an ultra-strong adhesive glue, ended up creating the one of the weakest, and used it to create the sticky tabs we know today.
Chocolate chip cookies? Improvisation gone right. When Ruth Wakefield ran out of the melting chocolate she typically relied on, she adopted Nestle chocolate which kept its shape in the oven and developed into delicious choc-chip cookies.
Why are we saying all this? These are just a few of the many examples of a failure actually being a success. Don’t be afraid of failure because you really don’t know what you’ll discover on the other side.
So…
Perfectionism is very common, and if it's something you are experiencing just know that it’s something you can take control of and ensure it is serving you rather than holding you back. Instead of striving for perfect, strive for excellence. Who knows? In your pursuit you might end up being redirected and discover something new.
Written by: Dani Olliffe, Psychological Well-being Associate
Further information:
This blog was inspired by Breaking Up with Perfectionism, a podcast episode by WorkLife
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3ohEu8zArUuGk2hT5aoIuW?si=cd40b7798e2f48cc
Perfectionism: Psychology Today https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/basics/perfectionism
https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fapl0000324
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200715-why-no-one-wants-to-work-with-a-perfectionist
Perfectionism as a Founder: Instead of striving for "perfect" strive for "excellence"
As a Founder, you’re going to ride the rollercoaster of mistakes and successes. Wanting the best for yourself and your company is great, and wanting to achieve and gain as many successes along the way is a good motivator.
But there is a huge difference between striving for excellence and perfect all of the time. Striving for excellence is defined as pursuing high levels of quality and ensuring good standards, but perfectionism is the internal motivation of achieving ‘perfect’ every single time.
Perfectionism often occurs as a result of a core belief that you are flawed.
Now, let’s break that down. What sets perfectionism apart is where it stems from, as a perfectionist it’s likely you have a core belief within you that makes you feel flawed or inadequate.
A core belief is often a subconscious thought or ideal that motivates a lot of your behaviour. Maybe there’s been times in your founder journey where you’ve missed the mark, where you’ve been told that you haven’t got what it takes, or maybe this is a core belief that’s rooted in your upbringing.
Without feelings of inadequacy internally, there is no motivator to continuously push yourself away from it; this means that if you don’t have some element of feeling inadequate, it’s unlikely you will be motivated to achieve, succeed, and break down those barriers. There’s oftentimes a fear that motivates most of our behaviours as human beings.
Perfectionism is in you, in society, and it’s in the way you treat others too
Aside from being a personality trait, perfectionism is all around us in society and culture, it’s hard to avoid. We as humans, love it when people are good at things and perform well. Because of this, the social element of perfectionistic expectations are on the rise, we are not only expecting ourselves to be perfect, but we’re also expecting other people around us to be perfect too. Without realising it, you might be setting unrealistic expectations on people around you and in your life, ones that they just aren’t going to obtain. Bear this in mind as you move forward in your journey, and how you place expectations
The cycle of perfectionism, and our brain’s “truth-seeking mechanism”
Our brain is a master at filling in the blanks when we don’t have a complete picture. When our brain is provided with stimuli that is incomplete (let’s say a jigsaw puzzle that you haven’t finished) your brain is able to mock-up a mental image of what it should look like in the end.
However, as great as this is, it also causes us some issues too. When we don’t have a complete picture, we automatically fill in the blanks with information that isn’t necessarily correct. This is a key feature of entrepreneurship, founders are always making decisions with incomplete information.
Our brains are always scanning our environments for more ‘nuggets of information’ we can collect and store that help us build up the incomplete picture. But that means, every time you do something imperfectly and miss the mark, your brain is going to use that information, and use it as ‘evidence’ of why you aren’t good enough.
For example, you get a piece of constructive criticism on some work, but because our brain loves the negatives, it gets stored under the “reasons why I suck” folder in your brain, adding to this never ending photo album of “fails”. Even though it isn’t true. This is just because you have that core belief of being imperfect, your brain is collecting more information to support the argument. As a result, we spiral.
But surely striving for perfect is a good thing, right?
Wrong. Studies have shown that yes, perfectionism can allow students in school to perform better and obtain better grades, but it does the opposite when it comes to the workplace. Perfectionism aids the performance outcomes for formulaic tasks (tasks where there is a direct right or wrong) but often in a Founder’s work, there is a lot of decision making where there isn’t a direct right or wrong, it’s more a matter of choice and opinion and subjectivity. Therefore perfectionism in this case can hold you back and bring you down, because you’re trying to obtain that ‘perfect’... but does perfect even exist? answer that honestly just does not exist.
There’s a saying in the start-up world… ‘if you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, then you’ve launched too late!’
How do we dismantle it?
Here’s a few tips to managing perfectionism:
Set yourself an end point.
Often as a perfectionist you’ll be working on something and never know when to leave well-enough alone. You’ll keep editing, primping, re-writing, in an attempt to reach ‘perfect status’. Let’s say you're working on your pitch deck, set yourself an end target, maybe that’s an internal deadline, maybe you set aside X amount of hours to work on it, whatever that looks like for you, set aside a cut-off point. After that point, there’s no more editing, you stick with it. Overtime, getting into this habit you’ll start to dismantle striving for that non-existent perfection, you’ll strive for excellence, and know to stop when you reach it.
2. Cognitive reframing (see it from a different angle)
“If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original.” - Ken Robinson
Did you know..
Bubble wrap was invented by mistake? It started out as an attempt at a new style of wallpaper that failed tremendously.
Post-it notes? Accident. Dr. Spencer Silver set out to create an ultra-strong adhesive glue, ended up creating the one of the weakest, and used it to create the sticky tabs we know today.
Chocolate chip cookies? Improvisation gone right. When Ruth Wakefield ran out of the melting chocolate she typically relied on, she adopted Nestle chocolate which kept its shape in the oven and developed into delicious choc-chip cookies.
Why are we saying all this? These are just a few of the many examples of a failure actually being a success. Don’t be afraid of failure because you really don’t know what you’ll discover on the other side.
So…
Perfectionism is very common, and if it's something you are experiencing just know that it’s something you can take control of and ensure it is serving you rather than holding you back. Instead of striving for perfect, strive for excellence. Who knows? In your pursuit you might end up being redirected and discover something new.
Written by: Dani Olliffe, Psychological Well-being Associate
Further information:
This blog was inspired by Breaking Up with Perfectionism, a podcast episode by WorkLife
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3ohEu8zArUuGk2hT5aoIuW?si=cd40b7798e2f48cc
Perfectionism: Psychology Today https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/basics/perfectionism
https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fapl0000324
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200715-why-no-one-wants-to-work-with-a-perfectionist