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This article is the ninth of a fourteen-part series that explores the core tenets of Get Rich Slowly.
You want the best — for yourself, for your spouse, for your family. You want the best car, the best house and mortgage, the best job, the best mutual funds, and the best savings account. You want things to be perfect. We all do.
But perfection comes with a price.
Research has shown that those who are obsessed with perfection are more likely to have physical and mental problems than those who are open-minded and flexible. Perhaps worst of all, perfectionism costs time — and lots of it. To find the best option — whether it’s the best dishwasher or the best mortgage broker — can take days or weeks or months. (And sometimes it’s an impossible mission.)
The pursuit of perfection is an exercise in diminishing returns:
- Some initial research will teach you the basics.
- A little more research will help you separate the wheat from the chaff.
- More research yet will enable you to make an informed decision.
- Theoretically, if you had enough time, you might find the perfect option.
But each unit of time you spend in search of higher quality offers less reward than the unit of time before it. Here’s a graph of how time spent researching affects the quality of your decisions:
Quality is important. You should absolutely take time to research your investment and buying decisions. But remember that perfect is a moving target, one that’s almost impossible to hit. It’s usually better to shoot for “good enough” today than to aim for a perfect decision next week.
Procrastination is one common consequence of pursuing perfection: You can come up with all sorts of reasons to put off establishing an emergency fund, to put off cutting up your credit cards, to put off starting a retirement account. But most of the time, your best choice is to start now.
Who cares if you don’t find the best interest rate? Who cares if you don’t find the best mutual fund? You’ve found some good ones, right? Pick one. Get in the game. Just start. Starting plays a greater role in your success than any other factor.
When you spend so much time looking for the “best” choice that you never actually do anything, you’re sabotaging yourself. The perfect is the enemy of the good.
This is the ninth of a fourteen-part series that explores my financial philosophy. These are the core tenets of Get Rich Slowly. Other parts include:
- Tenet #1: Money is more about mind than it is about math
- Tenet #2: The road to wealth is paved with goals
- Tenet #3: To build wealth, you must spend less than you earn
- Tenet #4: Pay yourself first
- Tenet #5: Small amounts matter
- Tenet #6: Large amounts matter, too
- Tenet #7: Do what works for you
- Tenet #8: Slow and steady wins the race
- Tenet #9: The perfect is the enemy of the good
- Tenet #10: Failure is okay
- Tenet #11: Financial balance lets you enjoy tomorrow and today
- Tenet #12: Nobody cares more about your money than you do
- Tenet #13: Action beats inaction
- Tenet #14: It’s more important to be happy than to be rich
Look for a new installment in this series every Monday through the end of the year.
This article is about Choices, Psychology, Shopping Monday, 23rd November 2009 (by J.D. Roth)
Good advice to START NOW. I have a coworker who I am sure could be successful with a blog but she won’t even get started! I even started a blog for her but she can’t get past all the questions! It’s been two years so maybe she’ll never pursue it, but she’s the one that keeps bringing it up to me. I am a perfectionist in some areas and I do find that it holds me back (procrastination) because I don’t want to make any mistakes. I have learned that sometimes I just have to “get started” even if everything isn’t in place. Anyway, this is a great series! Thanks!
My advice, just do it. Just do something and get going. You want to get in physical shape go outside and start walking, walk a couple of blocks to start, work up to a few more, then after a few weeks walk 4 blocks and jo 1 block, keep going, after a while walk 2 blocks and jog 2 blocks, keep going, after a while you work up to jogging a mile.
Same thing for personal finances, do something, start with gathering all your bills, should be somewhat easy if you are paying your bills each month and figure out how much debt you have (interest rate, minimum payment, etc.) and write it down. Start tracking your spending, doesn’t have to be hard, just keep a little notebook and write down your spending. Once you figure out how much debt you have and where your money is going work on coming up with a budget, work on coming up with a debt snowball to pay off your debt, it will be a work in progress doesn’t need to be perfect, but keep going, maybe cut up your credit cards and switch to debit or cash. Keep going, call your service providers and ask for a discount, figure out where you can trim expenses (eating out is a pretty easy one) and put that money towards debt. Keep going, you can do it.
JD, I love this concept. I know that when I started my retirement planning I kept trying to decide which was best Roth IRA or the traditional IRA. The result was that I delayed several months. Either one would have been better, but since I was too busy looking for the perfect solution I neglected to do the best option.
2 Sam:
Nike got it right some 30 years ago. You can’t hate the motto - simple, true and powerful.
J.D.,
Glad to see one of my favorite mantras “Never let perfect ruin good.” Is part of your book and plans for improving your financial life. It’s kind of like waiting for the “perfect market” to begin investing and savings.
A great business book that is right in line with this section is Ready, Fire, Aim. If you haven’t read it, I suggest buying a copy today.
I will say that another downside to chasing perfection is the fear of failure and of making mistakes. When I make a mistake I always ask myself two questions: 1) what can I do to make sure I don’t make this same mistake again? and 2) What can I learn from this to make myself better in the future?
If you’re not making any mistakes, you are not venturing out enough.
You know, when you said Perfect is the enemy of good, that made sense to me. Chasing Perfect, which we can’t catch anyway, uses up our “good” time.
John DeFlumeri Jr
I love that saying. It applies so well to handling finances - AND to finding a vocation. Great analysis and graph of the impact on time spent- you can find slightly better options with more research (and angst!) but the returns on search diminish quickly.
It’s the old saying, when is the best time to plant a shade tree, two answers, 20 years ago and now.
You could spend 30 years trying to find the best retirement investment, or you could have started 30 years ago with a good one, and be retired.
Great concepts here JD. I find myself having to not spend hours researching things, tweaking things, and overall just draining my energy and time. I think I’ll move towards relaxing a bit soon.
~ James
This couldn’t have been more timely. My dream is to work for Pixar (I’m shooting for the stars) but I need to seriously improve as an artist before I go back to college next year to pursue this dream. I am a perfectionist, and so I continually procrastinate because I’m scared of making crap art, or crap sketches, or crap anything! I realized last night that I’m not going to progress without making mistakes, and that I certainly won’t progress if I don’t sit down and learn to draw better. I’ve been getting up in the morning at 10:30/11:00 AM for months because I work until 12:30/1:00 AM, but this morning, I woke up to the alarm clock (which I placed in the opposite corner of the room) at 8 AM, checked my RSS feeds (to get my mind off going back to bed), and found this article. It’s perfect for a new beginning such as this morning! Thank you! Now, time to get drawing!!
Terrific topic. I think perfection is an excuse to procrastinate. So many things don’t get done if one is constantly needing it to be perfect. Perfect only happens once you’ve accepted ‘good enough’.
but sometimes perfectionists help. Its a good thing that most surgeons are perfectionists because if they were as sloppy as the rest of us, the death rates would be very high. Think also of the number of problems we would have if computer programmers were did not pay attention to detail to the maniacal levels they do today?? Perfectionism is not something that you adopt, it is something inherent and thank God for them(even though they can get a little annoying)
The cost of time is especially important for investing. I actually made a post that looked at it titled Should I Wait or Act Now? It turns out waiting for the “perfect” plan is a worse option, even if takes several years of refining your initial plan.
-Rick Francis
JD,
Is that Graph based on anything? Research/Book etc? Not being critical just curious.
thanks!
@bon (#16)
The graph isn’t based on anything other than my own impressions. I actually based it on the money vs. happiness research. (More money brings more happiness, but there are diminishing returns.) Basically, I just constructed a diminishing returns graph using arbitrary numbers to get the shape I wanted. Not meant to be scientific, which is why there are no values indicated!
Although, now that I think about it, I do have a book on perfectionism downstairs. I wish I’d thought of this yesterday. I forgot I had it. I’ll bet it has some data I could have used…
As a recovering perfectionist, this post is most timely. I was a master procastrinator and am still paying the price for years of wanting everything perfect or waiting for the “perfect” time to do something. Life is too short and too uncertain not to move forward. Like Ramsey’s Baby Steps on financial freedom, it takes small but steady efforts to start to pull yourself out of the perfectionist quagmire.
I still shun mediocrity as much as humanly possible, but not everything has to be perfect. Life is much more pleasant these days.
@kenyantykoon
Striving for perfection is a good thing, but I can tell you from first hand experience that computer programming is very far from it! Yes, you have to try to be maniacal, but you also have to accept you aren’t going to find every problem. You couldn’t hope to without a perfect OS, perfect libraries, and insane development practices. There are some situations where that level of reliability is needed- like medical devices or the space shuttle’s software…But would you be willing to pay $10,000 for a bug free copy of windows? There is a huge cost for perfection, most people don’t need it and wouldn’t pay for it either!
-Rick Francis
There is an excellent book called “Art and Fear”, which really helped open my eyes to a problem I’ve fought for most of my life. The book deals most specifically with creative pursuits and how fear often gets in the way of doing one’s best work.
Its lessons are readily applicable to anything else, including our financial health. Thanks for the post, very timely and absolutely spot on.
I need to read this at the start of my day, every day!
The graph should be logarithmic.
I think that this rule would be better with “best” in place of “perfect”. A “perfect” interest rate is 0. You’re shopping for the best one available, not a perfect one. It would actually be easier to shop for “perfect” items, because you’d never have to shop for them again. Once you bought one, you’d be done for life — the initial investment may be worth it. But shopping for “best” items — you still have to go out and redo the whole process every time some new products in that category come out.
The logarithmic graph would reflect that better, too. It wouldn’t flatten out at the top, it’d get increasingly flatter, but because no product is perfect, you could always put in some more time and find something slightly better, but there’s still a point of diminishing returns.
“The best is beyond the point of diminishing returns” <– My improved version of this rule. But maybe my rule is ‘perfect’, and your rule is ‘good’, J.D., which makes them enemies, I guess.
Another thing that’s noteworthy: Sometimes it’s easy to find the best, so you might as well. Want the fastest car for sale under $25,000? This is easy to find, you don’t have to settle on second best in this category.
“The perfect is the enemy of the good”–this is one of the most brilliant and proactive sayings ever. If you don’t mind, I’ve been quoting it, and plan to do so liberally in the future.
People forget that much of life is making it up as we go along. We can make all of the plans we want, and then life goes the other way. The perfectionist can’t get out of his own way to accomblish anything, no matter how brilliant he may be.
What’s that other brilliant saying, “the best laid plans of men and mice go awry”? Fits nicely.
Great post, J.D.! You’ve touched on what my dad likes to call “paralysis by analysis” — a person can spend so much time looking for “the best” X, Y, or Z, that they never wind up doing whatever it is that they set out to do in the first place. I love the title of the book that somebody else referred to, “Ready, Fire, Aim!” Sometimes you just have to pull the trigger!
Yes, I think the “getting started” is key. Even if you’re a perfectionist and want to research the best retirement fund options–start putting some money away first, then do your research and you can roll over into a new account.
Applies to other areas as well…if one of your goals in life is to write a novel, just start writing without worrying about whether it’s perfect…you can go back and revise it after you have the basic story written.
I am a new found proponent of the ready, fire, aim approach.
I used to kill myself for perfection and, as a result, produced and created very little.
7 months ago, I started my blog in one day and have been up and running ever since. It’s been anything but perfect, but it got me going and it gets closer and closer to my vision with each post.
Warning for the ready, fire, aim approach: You MUST eventually aim. If all you do is fire, you won’t hit the target often…if you even know what the target is.
Hey J.D.,
Perfection is something to be aimed for - good enough is to actually start doing.
Perfection is what we should strive for in order to always improve, but we need to actually start doing something first.
We can aim for that first step. The 80-20 one: the most essential actions that will get us 80% results but only take 20% of our time. We aim for the stars, like with any goal, but that’s only after something is up and running.
Waiting until everything’s perfect before starting means we’ll never get out of the starting gate. Like you mentioned, perfection is elusive: it’s not something that can be achieved, but rather something to work towards. The never-ending goal means we’ll always improve at whatever it is we’re doing.
Utilize perfection to always improve in the things that matter for you. But work towards good enough first to actually get started at it and generate results.
Nice reminder to not get caught up in perfection but actually go out and DO IT - without action there is no results and no perfection to strive for.
Best,
Oleg
Awesome advice, J.D. I know this is something my husband and I have been taking on board over the past few years. At first it was a bit of an adjustment to make. But I think as we’ve grown older, it’s been much easier to identify that our time has value too.
Such a good piece of advice. As people mentioned, it is closely related to the concept of “starting to take action now”.
Trying to be perfect in everything will leave you unhappy, because it can’t be achieved. It will also leave you exhausted because of the time and energy required to achieve “perfection”.
Gotta love those tenets, J.D. Great post!
This post reminds me of a section in the book “Renaissance Soul” by Margaret Lobenstein.
She talks about perfectionism, and suggests a “percent perfection” approach. Here’s the basic idea:
When you’re faced with a situation and your perfectionism rears it’s head, try asking yourself — “what percent perfect do I need in this situation?” Sometimes, the answer is 80%, sometimes 30%.
The exact number isn’t what matters, it’s the mind trick that counts. It allows you to view perfection as a sliding scale, which is much more attainable than perfection (which, let’s face it, is generally unattainable by nature!)
Here’s an article by Lobenstine where she explains it in her own words (much more eloquently than I): http://talentdevelop.com/articlelive/articles/870/1/A-Fresh-Look-at-Perfectionism/Page1.html
Ever since I read that phrase, “the perfect is the enemy of the good,” I have been using it as a personal mantra. I have found over the years that perfectionism has its place - at work, in school, for certain projects - but I’ve recently noticed how crippling it can be in more casual situations. I’ve wasted many an hour (and tank of gas) driving between stores looking for just the right item at the best possible price. Even now, having realized the fallacy in this way of thinking, I often experience significant doubt and buyer’s remorse when I make a casual purchase without comparison shopping (I’m referring to small purchases here, not large ticket items). I think I need to internalize what Jessica (# 28) said, “our time has value, too” and let go of the anxiety of searching for “perfect”.
This is a great post, and it served as a needed reminder as I procrastinated on something at work. Rather than waiting until my plans are “perfectly” in line, I really need to just get going.
After all, I’m not perfect anyway. Just ask my wife.
This post could not be more perfectly timed. I have a pile of gifts that need to be wrapped and mailed soon and I’m procrastinating. I know I got really good deals. I know I like to see the stuff before I purchase it. I know I hate shopping with crowds and superpromotions. What’s my problem? I want the perfect gift. Thanks for the post. I can move on now.
Unlike many, perfection isn’t why I procrastinate…. Heh. I just do not want to do whatever it is I’m supposed to do. (Oh, that’s mostly homework these days. Which I’ve given up on making perfect for the sake of sanity and simply make an A or B.)
I’ve really gotten good at it since I started racing. I’m not exactly great, but working on it a bit at a time each time I get out there and do it. The toughest part was getting out there in the first place!
Then again, you’d have to be careful not to get too complacent… No, perfection isn’t obtainable, but one shouldn’t always settle for mediocrity either. There’s a balance somewhere in there between the good and the perfect. At least I’d like to think so.
Not only is the perfect the enemy of the good, it’s the enemy of getting anything worthwhile done at all. Take writing, for example. I doubt there’s a writer alive who believes that a piece us perfect. At some point you have to just get it out there. Much better to have some read a less-than-perfect article that gets the point across than to have them read a technically perfect phrase that doesn’t inspire or motivate.
Thanks for adding the visual graph, J.D. Even though you admit it is not based on scientific data, just seeing the relative difference between “good enough” and “perfection” really helped bring the printed words to life for me. I’ve taped the graph to my wall so that every time I am overcome with a case of perfectionism, I can glance at it and ask myself if the extra time and energy is really worth the slight increase in output. I expect that “no” will be my most common response.
This reminds me of my husband, who drives me absolutely crazy with his quest for ultimate information.
For him, the decision making process going something like this: decide you need a new item (this can be anything from an appliance to a car to a variety of fish for his fish tank). Research items like crazy for about a week. Drive your wife crazy with the same discussion of which item is best, and the pros and cons for each. Wife suggesting to husband, with increasing levels of irritation, that she wants to buy item X (or that she couldn’t care less), but whatever. Continue to want to discuss long past the point that discussion was productive. Continue to research. Make a pained decision & choose an item to buy. Spend the next two weeks CONTINUING TO RESEARCH all of the reasons that the ultimate item purchased was, or was not, the “best” choice. Wife files for divorce (not really, but I have had to leave the room to make the pain stop).
I, of course, am the polar opposite type of decision maker. I review the options, research until I feel some minimum level of competence (which in his mind is wholly inadequate), make a decision, and move on to the next decision without looking back. We love each other, but sometimes drive each other crazy (he always says “are you sure THAT’S the one you want?”).
Definitely agree with you, J.D. Pursuing perfection maniacally hasn’t really ever been a big problem of mine (at least money-wise), but I can definitely see how lots of people do it. It is exhausting - I have done it before. I think I’ve found a good balance, however.
On items that do cost a lot of money, or something that I will be locked in for a long time (like when I signed my apartment’s 1-yr lease I made damn sure I wanted to), I do spend more time researching, but I think I am pretty good at being satisfied with my decisions. It’s kind of like picking your mate - you don’t kiss every single man in the world before you marry one
I try to measure opportunity costs. For example, I don’t own a car, and I usually can get most places I want either by public transportation, walking, or getting a ride w. my mom and/or friends (on occasion). The grocery store that I can walk to is typically a bit more expensive than some of the bigger ones that are harder for me to get to. Once I factor in the extra time (waiting for the bus, sitting on the bus, etc.), the cost of transport (not too expensive, but at least $5 more than walking), the pain in the butt it is to haul heavy groceries very far, and so on, it to me is worth it to just go to the store that is a 5 minute walk from my place. Anytime I really do need to go to a different grocery store, I usually just tag along w. my mom when she drives. I also work part-time from home, so all that time it takes to save a few bucks on groceries can be better spent making $15/hour sitting on my couch.
I suppose for some people it’s hard to figure out what actually is ‘good enough’. Sure, there will be some missed bargains and some ‘oh damn, if I only waited!’, but overall, ‘good enough’ really is good enough.
And yeah, as far as not getting something (in general) started because you want it to be perfect, I do that too, but I’ve been trying to overcome it!
Who originally said “the perfect is the enemy of the good?” Was it Voltaire? Whoever it was, it’s a great quote. And my life is so much better since I’ve loosened up on the perfection thing. I also agree with comment #20 - the book “Art and Fear” has some terrific stuff on perfection and procrastination. And one of the best things I ever heard about perfection, contrary to what people think, is that it stems from an elevated sense of ourselves. In order to release it, we have to get over ourselves a bit. I wrote a couple of posts about it last April.
I read an interesting article a few months ago about how economic projections are just starting to take into account that consumer’s aren’t perfectly informed. Mostly because we CAN’T, but we often make decisions that don’t make *sense* because we can’t know everything about the economy, or even our own financial situation/immediate future at any given moment, perfectly.
I think most people don’t ever wan’t to make a bad decision, but a lot of people get caught up wanting to make it right the first time, Just like several other comments, you gotta get in the car before you can drive anywhere. Life is messy, and nowhere close to perfect so you can’t think you will be perfect or things will go perfectly, besides there is always somebody better and somebody worse than you so I just try to be happy where I am and work towards where I want expecting good not perfect results.
JD - Agreed. This is why I don’t mind paying $30 bucks a year for Consumer Reports. I would drive myself insane if I read every review on Amazon.
Great approach to perfection. Perfection is something we strive for, not achieve. Nobody ever has been perfect.
Seeking perfection reminds me of avoiding taking risks, avoiding doing things until the moment is right. But just like you mentioned, things in life will never be perfect, they will never be exactly the way YOU want them to be.
Leave things outside of your control to be. Focus on yourself and focus on taking actions. Actions will lead to results, thinking on it’s own will never yield results.
Avoiding perfection frees up time for other more important things in life. It clears up your vision and provides you with direction.
Essentially it comes down to knowing yourself and knowing when to stop after giving your best. There is a difference between good and great. I think we should always strive for great, but leave out perfect out of sight. Nobody was or ever will be perfect. Adapt and survive.
Best,
Tomas
Once I could admit to myself that no one is perfect and change my goal from getting things exactly perfect to getting things done well then it was a very freeing experience and allowed me to actually start to get some sleep at nights
“”the perfect is the enemy of the good”. That exactly explains my ex boss. He could never make a decision. I was offered a $7.50-10.00/hour raise to return but that was not worth the aggravation.
I think this is a good approach but not appropriate in all circumstances. For instance when it comes to personal finance it is much better to just get started without too much thought. The sooner you start paying off debt or open a savings account the better. Which debt you tackle first (or how) or which account you choose etc can always be changed later. The point is that between starting with good and working out what best or perfect is you will be deriving some lasting benefit from starting with the ‘good’ option.
However, this is not always the case. I was recently shopping for a new handbag. They are one thing that I spend quite a lot of money on. If I had off settled on the first one that was ‘good enough’ a few weeks or months later I would have regretted the purchase and wanted to buy a new one. Instead I spent that time researching the perfect bag. I finally found it and am thrilled so searching for perfect paid off.
On the otherhand my husband us currently booking a hotel in NYC as part of an upcoming 8 week trip. He has agonized over picking the perfect one. At the end of the day we will be there one night, even if it is disasterous it won’t ruin our whole trip. On the whole I am sure whatever he picks will be fine. He will never pick the perfect one because unless we try every single hotel in manhattan we have no idea whether we could have done better or not- so why bother?
The oursuit of perfection is a frivolous one. I strive to get the “better than most” choice. Knowing that is enough for me.
Great thought! We have to get in the game and learn on the fly. You do need some foundational knowledge about decisions but perfection is a moving target and you’re better off doing something and then work that learning curve. Great stuff!
@Tighe
I know a past co-worker that works at Pixar and what you said pretty much matches what we all go through to get to the “perfect gig”. He worked his way up from a small company in the MidWest, then to New York, down to Texas at a fx shop and finally into Pixar.
You (and I and everyone starting out in a new field like art) have like 100,000 crappy pieces of art in us.
You just have to create the art, find out the mistakes, learn from them, find your voice, and keep going. Eventually after an extended period of time (some say 10,000 hours or 10 years) you get to really master the craft and
preparation + opportunity = success.
Good luck!
If it’s true that the perfect is the enemy of the good (enough), then the good enough is the enemy of the perfect. Sometimes we settle for good enough when we don’t have to, and we sacrifice perfection.
Yeah, I agree. Just get started already! Getting that marginal perfection is not the best use of your time.
While an obsession with perfecting every tiny detail can undermine your career (to say nothing of your sanity), setting your sights too low can have the same effect.
Mediocrity is the standard of the workplace. Few people will notice that you do anything perfectly (except, possibly, to resent you for it). They will notice that it takes you forever to get things done, though. You’re better off to do a good job without sweating perfection. If you fail to keep your own standards up, you’ll eventually fall short of your personal goals, and you’ll find yourself performing at the same lackluster pace as the rest of the herd.
In addition to purchasing, I think this advice is good for all decision making, especially the part about starting now at good enough vs next week at perfect.
For the longest time I put off starting a blog because I wanted to design it myself, and I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to design. Finally, after at least a year, I decided the best course of action was to launch a blog now with some basic default theme and work on designing a custom theme later. It’s been two months now and I’m still very happy with this decision.
This article could not come around any better than now. I was procrastinating all day today and I was not able to get anything done because i was chasing perfection. now i can rest better knowing I will get it done.