Don't let 100% hold you back

The products we love today, aren't what they were yesterday.

The first portable MP3 player I purchased for my daughter in 1998 was a Rio 600 (which could hold about 9 songs).

Then in 2001 Apple came along with their 5Gb iPod (which only worked on a Mac). I’m sure that Mr Perfection wasn’t totally enamoured with the device (although I was). But the next one was way better. And over the years they improved. And now they're great!

At one time – a long time ago – Toshiba made really great laptops. Their strategy was “live prototyping”. They’d put products into the market accepting the idea that some would not be hits but that the next one, based on real in-market experience, would be better than the previous one.

Toshiba has subsequently stopped making computers - maybe they thought that their dodgy energy business would make them more money.

In a small business time will always win. There will be that occasion when you have no more time and simply need to move.

Time inevitably competes against perfection.

While whatever you do has to be fit for purpose, initially it will most probably not be perfect. Because while you're in the design stage you'll learn things. And while you're in manufacturing you'll learn more. And when people use your product you'll learn even more.

In your heart and head, when you launch, you know that your product or service is not 100%.

But that's OK; you started. And that 100% is in your future (just not now).