Unsuccessful Men with Talent

As I mentioned in my previous post, "B work" - The Pareto Principle in Startups, in a startup environment it is often much better to complete a "B grade" project quickly then to take a lot of time and resources to complete a project perfectly. This is why Passionate Perfectionists can have such a hard time in a startup.

Calvin Coolidge stated, "Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent." Many people are so good at what they do that doing anything less than perfection is very hard for them. However, in my experience the desire to achieve perfection can often be the biggest mistake in a startup. Usually we have such limited time and resources, it's important to be able to make do with "B work".

If you are exceptional at what you do, don't let your passion for perfection get in the way of pushing out work that is good enough for that phase of your business. This is especially important if other people are waiting on the results of your work. Many experts agree that in a technology startup it is very important to just get a product out there as soon as possible and to not be afraid of selling something you know isn't perfect.

Don't be afraid of "B work"
In my experience, regardless of how much time you spend getting customer feedback and input on how a product should work ahead of time, there will always be advancements and changes needed that no one ever imagined until the product is actually being used. So, in actuality even if you think you have completed a perfect project to begin with this probably isn't the case anyway.

In a startup trust among coworkers is crucial, but it is developed in a different way than in a big company. In a small startup, trust is developed by always being accountable to complete your projects on time. Trust is created by being the type of person who your teammates don't have to wait on and who never holds up the process.

That is why, it is far better to be able to complete all of your projects on time than to complete everything perfectly. If you want and need to to have everything completely defined ahead of time and to have all the time and resources you need to always complete every project to perfection, you might be more comfortable at a big company. This will never happen in a small company.

No excuse for "D work"
Please don't think I'm okay with not doing your best, though. There is no excuse for doing sloppy work and not paying attention to details. I'm just saying to do your best but know when it's okay to call it done and move on. Focus on the most important thing to a new company; getting things done. Hit your deadlines, move the project forward, sell it, get customers feedback and work on making the next version better. This is the way to be successful in a startup.

Are you able to hit all of your deadlines? Does your desire for perfection ever stop you from getting things done? Or can you be okay with completing "B work" and moving on?

"B work" - The Pareto Principle in Startups

I recently finished reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. Let me start by saying I highly recommend this book. Just don't read it thinking you'll learn how to create a brand new business that allows you to live the lifestyle of your dreams with only 4 hours of work a week. Granted, that is the purpose of the book, but I don't think that is the reality for most people who read it. However, this book does offer a lot of valuable suggestions on how to be more productive.

If you have any desire to get more done, take advantage of some of the newest trends and technologies and properly prioritize the most important things in your business, this book is a must read! I plan on sharing some of my thoughts from this book in a number of different posts, but one of the best spots was when the author discusses how he implemented the Pareto Principle in his business.

If you don't know what the Pareto principle is, it is also known as the 80/20 rule. The author tells a story of how he used this principle to cut out the 80% of his customers who only brought in 20% of his revenue. This allowed him to focus more on the 20% who were responsible for most of his revenue, increasing revenue from them and giving him more time to find more customers just like them.

The Pareto Principle with Customers
If you are in a startup company with limited resources this will be a very valuable exercise. Honestly, though in a small company where everyone feels such ownership for things, this can be a difficult process to go through and might make for some uncomfortable conversations to start with. It's also really difficult to cut customers early on when every dollar counts. Though you may not be able to perfectly follow it today, there is value in starting the conversation now. By talking about this early, you might be able to learn some things from evaluating existing customers that will help you create more profitable situations in the future.

The Pareto Principle with Projects
Recently, I've noticed that most of our projects, whether they are implementation, operations, or web development projects seem to follow this rule. On a lot of projects we can complete 80% of the outlined requirements of a project in about 20% of the overall time allotted for it, but the final 20% usually takes the remaining 80% of the time.

This begs a very important question. How important is it to complete a project 100%, especially if the final 20% of the project will take 4 times longer than the first 80% did? I am a perfectionist, but I also hate to waste time so in these cases, I believe that in a startup, "B work" is good enough. So if after 20 hours of work, a project is 80% functional and it's going to take an additional 80 hours to get it to 100% perfection, it's just not worth it. Stick a fork in it now, cause it's done!

Time is often the only resource a startup has at its disposal and it's just way too precious to waste on perfection when "B work" will suffice. Granted, if the product doesn't work at all at 80%, then you'll have to adjust this, but find a way to make the 80% work for now and move on. If the remaining 20% is really that crucial, then it will keep coming up and you'll know you need to address it. However, you might be surprised how little that 20% mattered and it is far better to finish a task that is 80% perfect than to not finish because it will never be 100% perfect. I'll talk more about the value of completing imperfect projects later.

Let me know what you think. Does the 80/20 rule apply to your customers? Are you in a company where you can openly discuss this and get the buy-in to cut the 80% that is only responsible for 20% of your revenue? What about with your projects? Can you be okay with "B work"?