avatarMuhammad Haris Khan

Summary

The author discusses the impact of perfectionism on their entrepreneurial journey, detailing the costs and the steps taken to manage it.

Abstract

The article delves into the author's struggle with perfectionism, particularly how it hindered their progress in entrepreneurship and writing on Medium. Initially, the author's high standards led to procrastination and abandonment of projects, resulting in minimal output. After recognizing the detrimental effects of extreme perfectionism, the author decided to challenge themselves to write daily, regardless of the perceived quality of their work. They also describe a method of distinguishing between 'Slight Perfection'—necessary attention to detail that benefits the work—and 'Extreme Perfection'—excessive focus on minor details that do not significantly impact the outcome. The author emphasizes the importance of reducing perfectionism to foster growth and productivity, suggesting that overthinking can prevent one from starting or completing projects.

Opinions

  • Perfectionism can be a significant barrier to entrepreneurial success, causing hesitation and abandonment of projects.
  • The author believes that perfectionism can be mitigated by challenging oneself to produce work consistently, even if it's not perfect.
  • There is a distinction between healthy and unhealthy levels of perfectionism, with the former being essential for quality and the latter being an obstacle to progress.
  • Overthinking and extreme perfectionism are detrimental to personal and professional growth.
  • The author advocates for a mindset shift where continuous improvement is favored over initial perfection, suggesting that growth occurs over time with experience.

This Is How Perfectionism Affected My Entrepreneurship

This is what my perfection cost me in my online journey

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

This story is about my hard journey of getting out of perfection which affected my entrepreneurship in many ways.

I was always a perfectionist, If you give me a task to complete, I will either complete it perfectly or leave it, but wouldn’t complete it if it’s not perfect. This thing affected me in many of my businesses or either stopped me from starting a business.

I started writing on Medium on July 2020 but wrote only 5 stories in a whole year till July 2021 and the only reason was my perfection, I used to write a story and then start thinking about its words, sentence structure, cover picture etc. I used to think that I cannot convey my message with these words or the readers wouldn’t understand my words.

I have also left many of my stories in between for so many months because that doesn’t satisfy my perfection, but now I have challenged myself to write everyday, If I publish or not I will write everyday.

Not even in writing, perfection affected me in many things. I have started freelancing, but it didn’t work because I spend my time learning things like ranking my Gig, making a perfect profile and uploading best pictures — I have also thought of making a YouTube channel and starting my POD (Print on demand) business but wasted my time learning and making things perfect.

But now, I have stopped overthinking. To be honest, you can’t finish your perfectionism completely, but you can reduce it.

What I have done to reduce my Perfection

I divided my perfection in two parts:

  • Slight Perfection
  • Extreme Perfection

Slight Perfection

It is perfection of those things which impacts your business, For example if you are a writer and your grammar is incorrect, then you should show perfection in that to fix it because people will not understand what you are talking about and you wouldn’t be able to convey your message. It’s good to show perfection in things like that, but don’t think too much about these too.

Extreme Perfection

It is perfection of those things which doesn’t impact your business, For example if you are a writer and you think about perfecting the cover photo of your article, perfecting the tags or thinking too much about your article like will people like it or read it. These are useless thoughts and you wouldn’t grow if you think like that instead you will always fail.

Final Thoughts

If you think too much, you are stopping yourself from doing something you want, you are not making it perfect, you are making it hard for you to start, So challenge yourself that you will never overthink about anything and make a belief that you will become more perfect with time and experience.

If you like my content, Follow Haris Khan for more and support so I can put more content on Medium.

You may also love to read:

Entrepreneurship
Self Improvement
Self
Education
Entrepreneur
Recommended from ReadMedium