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Forget About Perfection, Focus on Progress
by Kirk Lowe

“Individuals who continue to hold themselves accountable to any standard of perfection are the least able to cope with change, because they continually focus on deficiency and failure. Those who focus on progress, on the other hand, are best able to take advantage of opportunities as they arise because they have gained the confidence that comes from acknowledging their accomplishments.” – Dan Sullivan, The Great Crossover, 2000.

Have you ever held up a marketing idea or a prospecting letter simply because you’re looking for the perfect solution, the perfect letter? What about referral campaigns, has the search for the perfect, most comfortable approach delayed your progress? Don’t worry if the answer is yes, it happens to all of us.

Let’s see if we can put perfection and progress into perspective for financial advisors pursuing success. Recently, I read Dan Sullivan’s book, The Great Crossover. It was a gratifying experience. I learned a few things, but mostly I got reinforcement that progress, not perfection, is the road to success. It’s hard to progress when you’re focused on perfection.

Progress is defined as movement towards a goal, development or growth and steady improvement. I like the idea of ‘steady improvement’. But I’d like to suggest that progress is the implementation and ongoing improvement, of a marketing strategy for instance. I’ve added implementation because it’s the basis for measuring improvement. Without implementation you really can’t improve.

My point is simply this: define a marketing strategy, put the pieces in place to implement the strategy, implement, and then improve it as you go. I’ve long been of the mind that average marketing is better than no marketing. Don’t get caught up in finding the ‘best’ solutions, focus on progress.

I’d really like to get into the details, but progress is more important and I’ve got so much more to accomplish today.