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The Best is the Enemy of Good

April 22, 2005

"It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste time." -Henry Ford

The Jim Moran Institute is consulting with one entrepreneur who spent two days drafting one letter to make it “perfect." This same entrepreneur meticulously examines each and every bit of information that goes out to his customers.

Clearly, the most critical asset all business owners and managers must govern is their time. Use of your time is one those things that you have to continually evaluate to make sure you are utilizing it wisely.

Looking back at all of the businesses I have assisted, I notice that the most successful entrepreneurs never seem to have talked about a lack of time. I think the secret of these very successful entrepreneurs is that they realize their time is worth a lot of money. They constantly, perhaps unconsciously, make decisions about how to best use their time.

Voltaire once said, “The best is the enemy of the good." My interpretation of his statement is that perfection really is not a viable goal and actually detracts from the viability of the business. Another way to look at the cost of perfectionism is to ask yourself what your time is worth in dollars and sense.

It is very reasonable to put a cost on your time. Let’s say you feel your time is worth $100 or $200 an hour. After estimating this figure, you can quickly see if you are really doing those things that are beneficial to your business. I doubt that the entrepreneur who spent two days going over the letter (assuming his time is worth $150 and hour) would have thought that the letter was worth $2400. However, since he was not even aware of his true worth, he let the "best" get in the way of the very good.

Clearly, we all want to be as good as we possibly can and that is a commendable goal. In fact, I can still remember my mother telling me to be the best I could be. However, I now realize that advice has not always served me very well. The advice I should have been taught, was that there are tradeoffs that must be made and being very good is wonderful. By pricing your time in a realistic setting, you can make the necessary decisions so you do not allow the "best" to be the enemy of the good.

Now, make sure you are spending time in your business productively. Do only those tasks that have the highest payoff for your business.