Perfection is the enemy of progress. . . and profitability

I don’t know where I first heard the saying, “Perfection is the enemy of progress”, but it always sounded somewhat strange to me until I really took the time to see what the cliche meant.  To me, it says that we all want progress, but if we wait until the time is perfect to move in that direction we will never move. . . . because the time will never be perfect.

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I thought of the saying last week when the United States and Great Britain announced a preliminary deal on trade and tariffs.  When you look at the deal, neither side got every thing that they wanted — the United States got neither Great Britain’s weakening of standards on food imports nor did the United States get a finalized deal on how Great Britain’s digital services taxes will be levied on some of our large technology companies.

And, Great Britain did not get the tariff on automobiles brought into the United States dropped to its pre-Trump level of 2.5 % and had to settle at 10% — down from the Trump tariff number of 27.5% on automobiles but not down as far as they would have liked.

Those are just a couple of examples. . . but, if the countries had waited to hammer out those examples, it was probably likely that no deal at all would have been struck by now.  Therefore, I would argue “not perfection, but progress”.  And, as I’ve thought of my life experiences — you just don’t get any progress if you wait for perfection. . . . . I wish somebody would tell both political parties that. . .

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

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Over my entrepreneurial career I’ve also taken the slogan and changed it somewhat to say, “Perfection is the enemy of profitability”.  And, that is something I always had in the back of my mind when the thought process turned to change or enhancement of my funeral business.

For instance, if I waited for the interest rate to be “perfect” in my view I probably would never have added on or built new facilities.  If I waited to have the “perfect” staff situation I probably would have missed out on several great employees whom I hired when the “timing wasn’t perfect”, but the employee was.

There is a lot of decisions that one must make when they are operating a small business such as a funeral home.  Today’s article is just a reminder that the timing may never be “perfect” when you have to make some of these decisions.  However, that is okay. . . . the good business operator will fit that decision into the circumstances before him at the time and mold the decision into the fabric of the business operations.

So, if you are looking to buy, sell, expand, hire, or make any other business decision just know that the time will probably never be “perfect” to do so. . . . . and waiting for that “perfect” time will probably be your enemy.

Related — Here is an article on the USA-Great Britain tariff agreement as it was first announced.

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