Sign Your Work With Excellence

If you've ever had an idea, an earth-shattering, ground-breaking, disruptively novel idea that inspired and motivated you to go beyond just "Ideation" to "Implementation" you'll undoubtedly know that nothing ever seems as good or as perfect as when it was still an idea.

Imagine if that wasn't a problem: The thing in your mind perfectly made a reality. The bit of writing perfectly captures your sentiment and purpose. The drawing, flawless. That bit of code, executing without issue. Perfect inventions, perfectly innovated to perfectly adapt around an ever changing world.

Never needing improvement or intervention. Never a "why doesn't this work like planned?" Never struggling with execution. Never a question of skill, only a question of the idea itself. 

The 'Imagine' we know is not the 'Imagine' John Lennon imagined. There must have been parts of the 'Mona Lisa' that DaVinci agonized over, and grew frustrated that he couldn't get exactly how he wanted.

In the Theory of Forms, Plato stated that perfection only lives in the realm of thought. The physical world, being imperfect, can only contain imperfect copies of the perfect thought.

It's strange for people to proudly proclaim to be perfectionists. Perfection is procrastination in disguise. If Lennon was a perfectionist, we'd be without 'Imagine'. If DaVinci were a perfectionist we'd be without the 'Mona Lisa'.

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Someone I love taught me to deliver work with 'excellence' not perfection. You can't deliver perfection - and excellence is how you respond to that impossibility. Excellence is delivering work with the knowledge that you can't account for everything, and that any attempt to do so just delays delivery. Perfection doesn't give room for failure or unknowns. Excellence anticipates unknowns without having to know them. Excellence is: "This is the best we can do for now. Let's see where it falls short so we can make it better." Excellence is the commitment to make things better.

Excellence is the uniquely imperfect fingerprint with which you sign your work.

SYWWE: Sign your work with excellence.

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