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Perfectionism is the belief that perfection can and should be attained. In an extreme form, perfectionism is a belief that work and products that are anything less than perfect are completely unacceptable. That later of which is actually what they call in psychology, a maladaptive belief, and often causes problems in day to day functioning. Many business owners in the world today can be described, and are often self-described, perfectionists.
The epidemiology for internet based business owners is not different. Perfectionism can be a driving force for success, but in the fast paced world internet businesses, it is truly a double-edged sword.
It can serve to push forward the business, or it can serve to destroy it. The internet based business owner must learn how to weld this weapon well to succeed. The purpose of this article is to encourage all internet based business owners to avoid these maladaptive behaviors and to spend their time in taking action rather than thinking about it.
Internet based business owners spend countless hours putting together information products for consumers all over the world.
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“ Ok, let me say I’m extremely satisfy with the result while it was a last minute thing. I really enjoy the effort put in. ”
These good range from E-books, and reports, to software and services. They are often required to produce a large amount of information and services in a short amount of time. A major hitch in this system arises when the business owner buys into the concept that all products and services must be perfect before released or before another service or product can be started.
If one would take a look at some of the most successful businesses in the world today, they would quickly see that this is not the way that they do business.
Successful, money making businesses release their products before they are “perfect,” because they know that the product will progress along the line towards perfection at a much quicker pace if consumers are involved in the process. Think of it this way, how many minds are better at perfecting a product, one or two, or one or two hundred? By overcoming this concept of perfectionism, internet based business owners can actually increase their profits and decrease their time commitment, while at the same time producing a better product.
The temptation for many internet based business owners is to try to get everything right on the first try. This simply defies logic for many reasons. The first of which is that it totally negates the major underlying learning theories. That is, people learn from repetition and from making mistakes. It’s called the law of approximations. Products improve as the approach, or approximate perfection. Just as one rewards children for even the approximations of good behavior, so does the consumer reward the business owner when they approximate correctly.
Consumers are forgiving and want to be involved in the producing of a product that they will enjoy. It’s call buy-in. Consumers buy-in to a product when they are allowed to provide feedback. When consumers feel apart of the process, that translates into profit for the business owner! That brings up the next reason; perfection is in the eye of the beholder. This will be examined more in detail in the preceding paragraphs, suffice it to say here that a producer cannot know what a perfect product is until she has received feedback from the consumer.
The goal is this: to release products in a timely manner as to receive constant feedback from consumers. This will allow for the producer to then get a better picture of what the consumer thinks is perfect, and to adjust accordingly. If product hit the mainstream only seldom, there is little feedback that can then be put back into the production system. It is the old theory of priming the pump. One used to have to put a little water in the well pump to get it to pump out water in return.
The same principle works in the internet based information product world. It is ideal to release a product, get some feedback, rework the product and release again. Or even learn from the feedback received from one product to aid in the production of another product. Literally, the more perfect an internet based business owner tries to be with an initial product, the more likely it is not to be a perfect product.
The following paragraphs will serve to illuminate some of the common perfectionists traps that internet based business owners typically fall prey to. It is not always easy to recognize them, especially in oneself. But the following paragraphs seek to help one look inside himself to find the traps that maybe hindering success. They will also seek to give some alternatives and ways to deal with the perfectionist’s traps.
The common traps that will be examined are: When being a perfectionist is bad; perfection is in the eye of the consumer; Momentum: The success maker; The quicksand of perfectionism; and A Win/Win situation. If one wants their internet business to thrive, he must avoid these traps at all cost. By avoiding them, the internet based business owner will not only become a better person, but also the owner of a more successful business!
Often times being a perfectionist is thought about in positive terms. They do things right the first time and do not have to do them again. This might be a good mantra for carpenters (measure twice, cut once) and mechanics (who wants a mechanic who truly works solely on trial and error?), but it is not a great way to run an internet based business. There are four key ways in which being a perfectionist can prevent an internet based business owner from becoming successful: too much time is spent in planning and not action, little or no feedback is received from the consumers, success is not allowed to build upon success and perfection can be a relative term.
Planning is important. It is foolish to set out to build a home or a business or even a product without a plan. The problem arises when the plan becomes the purpose. The plan is not the purpose, the product, or the home or the business is the purpose. It is very much like the old adage that one can not see the forest because of the trees.
If a business owner gets to in depth and detailed in the planning process, focus is lost on the overall mission of providing a product that the consumer will enjoy. Too much time spent in the planning process can also deter from the taking action part of the process. The goal is to get the product out to the public; too much time spent on trying to make the product perfect will often irritate the public who is waiting for it, thus having the opposite effect that one would hope for.
Another fall back about being a perfectionist is that it often limits the amount of consumer feedback that is received. It can also taint the way in which such feedback is received by the owner as well. One can not stress enough how important it is to get feedback from the consumers to whom one is selling. Trying to produce a product without consumer feedback is like trying to hike through the Rockies without a map or compass. One is just going to end up lost, and possibly eaten by a bear. Consumer feedback is the compass that guides an owner to provided and later one producing a more perfect product. Tied along in this is that the more time one spends in perfecting a product, the more personal interest is put into it. That can be a good thing, but as often as not; it can also be a bad thing. Too much personal interest can cause constructive criticism and feedback to be rejected.
Success has to be allowed to breed success. Fear of failure has to be challenged and in the end overcome so that success can take it place. Once success has taken seed, then in continues to grow in and of itself. It is like the first time someone rides a roller coaster. They are often scared to death, but when the ride is over, they find new strength they never thought they had. The next ride might be a step- up and fear may still be sensed, but once the ride is over, new strength is found once again! This could go on ad infinitum. The point is that success snow balls, but it cannot get started if a product is not allowed to start rolling.
Being a perfectionist is bad when being perfect is relative. And in the world of internet-based businesses, it is. What might be a perfect product to an owner and her staff may not be a perfect product to the consumers. One has to take the chance and go out where the rubber meets the road to find out what perfect really is in their world. A product must be allowed to grow into perfection; much like a person goes through pain and effort to build muscles. How can one attain what one cannot define? And how can a business define perfect without letting the consumers be a part of the refining process? The obvious answers to these questions are in the negative. The goal of perfection may also be a maladaptive goal as well. Remember, the ultimate goal is to be successful, not to be perfect. And often times striving to perfection weighs one down in the journey to success.
All that to say that a business owner must learn to take a chance. Being a perfectionist may help in other arenas of life, but in the internet based business world, it can cripple a business. In other words, a perfectionist’s attitude may very well suffocate success. That being said, once the ball gets rolling, once the perfectionists beliefs are laid aside, success has the room and air necessary to survive, grow and thrive.
Prior planning does prevent poor performance, but obsessive planning will result in no performance at all. It is not hard, but it requires the letting go of some maladaptive behaviors that are often well engrained. The results, however, will more than compensate for any displeasure in giving up perfectionism.
This trap has been eluded to several times already throughout the article, but now it will be developed more fully. The basic premise is that one does not know if a product is truly “perfect” until it is available on the market so that consumers can provide feedback. Once again, the idea is that perfection in regards to a product or service is extremely relative. Without releasing a product to the public, one is left in his uncertainty about how good or “perfect” the product is.
In actuality, a person can spend many more hours working on a product that would have already been considered “perfect” in the eyes of the consumers. Thus, time and money were wasted. An internet based business owner has no chance of getting ahead and ultimately becoming a success playing this “perfection” game. Do not despair: there is hope for the perfectionist! There are several basic mental process that one can go through to get the product out there without it having to be “perfect.”
The first is that the business owner must lose the fear of failure. That does not mean they she has to be fearless. A person without fear is not successful, they are stupid. However, a person who learns to control her fears and move past them becomes a very successful and dangerous person in the world of internet based businesses. No one
likes to be criticized or critiqued. Critiques are often taken as attacks on personal value and character. They are not. They are comments and suggestions about the product and have nothing to do with a person’s intrinsic value. If they are taken as such, both the owner and the product are in major trouble. So, one must first learn to differentiate oneself and one’s ideas from their value as a person. They are very different things and when this is realized, one begins to lose the fear of failure and the fear of peer evaluation.
Another mental process that can help one over the hump of releasing “imperfect” products and services is to simply think positive. There is a lot of power in positive thinking. Catastrophizing only causes more fear and anxiety. One must learn to look at her product in a positive light and have faith in their own abilities to produce a quality product. It is the negative thinking and judgmentalism that drives perfectionism.
By always seeing their product or service in a negative light, the perfectionist business owner will be extremely hesitant to release any product out for evaluation. These only lead down the spiral of imperfection and failure. By thinking positively about a product or service and having confidence in it, one is more likely to release it without wasting time fretting and worrying over it. It will also allow the public to provide more feedback and thus lead down the road to a better product and ultimately to success.
A third way to overcome the fear of letting a product out before it is “perfect” is to just do it. There is no way to know if a product is truly perfect until it is release and feedback from consumers is received. Holding the product back and thinking, and rewriting, and redesigning only serve to put the product behind on its journey to “perfection.”
The owner cannot know that is “perfect” without input from consumers. It is like looking into a foggy mirror. An internet based business owner may have an idea as to what the product should be or how it should look, but it is not until the consumer blows some fresh air onto the mirror that an owner can truly see how the product should be. This means that the owner must simply let go and put it on the market. Just do it. That is the best way to find out what a good product should look like.
There are many other ways to address this problem, and the important thing is that each business owner find what works for him or her.
Some can conquer their fear of failure and more ahead calmly, allowing the market to decide what a perfect product looks like. Other can use the power of positive thinking to adjust the way they view feedback and thus increase the likely hood of them releasing a product or service onto the market sooner. Others may need to just “suck it up” and “just do it.” This can also be a very effective way of increasing productivity and eliminating the need for being “perfect”.
The point is that one will never know if a product or service is perfect until the consumer tells them so! That cannot be found out with the product or service taking up space on some hard drive somewhere. Have faith and take the first step out. One can not go forward without taking a step and one can not be successful without getting products out on the market. It is that simple. With a little positive thinking, some tough skin, and a just do it attitude, success is just around the corner.
Overcoming the Perfectionist Dilemma in Internet-Based Businesses. (2024, Jan 25). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/overcoming-the-perfectionist-dilemma-in-internet-based-businesses-essay
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