It’s cold outside and you want to make a soup.

You get all the ingredients. You don’t need a recipe, you’ve got passion.

You salt your soup and let it simmer.

You scroll social media and while you’re doing it, you think of something else to add to the soup.

Doing so means it’ll need more salt. You add some more.

You wait a bit longer and think, “It’s not perfect yet, what if I add this?”

And you salt it again.

You’re really feeling motivated now. This is going to be the best soup I’ve ever made.

Just a few more ingredients and tweaks, and it’ll be there.

You add some finishing salt.

VOILA! A masterpiece sits before you.

You pour it into a bowl and taste.

It’s too fucking salty.

Perfection = salt

I’ve got a handful of students running successful businesses.

But they aren’t as happy as they could be.

Their main hiccup?

They want it to be perfect before the world sees it.

Their tortured minds are rattling around thoughts like:

• “It’s nowhere near ready.”

• “It’s not as good as {example}.”

• “Should I even do it if it’s not going to be good?”

• “What if this fails?”

Salt. And salt. And salt. And salt.

They’re running their own business. They’re badasses.

But they are still letting perfection run their lives.

You know this already

Take 20 seconds and answer this question:

“What in my life is truly perfect?”

…

…

I can give you my answer.

It’s a donut and iced latte on a 75-degree day.

But as perfect as that is. Is a donut better than hearing my son ask me about outer space?

Is an iced latte better than a deep conversation with my wife?

Is a 75-degree day better than getting feedback from a pro that’ll make me better?

No—to all three.

You know this already, but when it comes to things that matter, perfect doesn’t exist.

And chances are, what you care about most is far from perfect.

So why is your business being run by perfectionism?

Simple system = big wins

But you’re here to get over perfectionism.

You’re ready to tackle it head-on.

You might even give away a kidney to never worry about perfectionism again.

Keep your kidney. This system is wicked simple.

It’s called the 20% less rule.

It goes like this:

• Start your project

• Ask yourself how many hours you need to complete it

• Allocate 20% less than you think you need

• Work on it

• When it feels like it’s 80% of the way there—Launch it

• Finish it while it’s in public

• BONUS: Get a ton of feedback to speed up the quality

A lot of people call this a minimum viable product (MVP).

I call it 20% less because it pushes me to say, “Time to go.” even if I don’t think it’s stellar.

Why 20%?

Your mission as a business is to help those who know less than you or don’t have enough time to do it themselves.

But if you’re stuck waiting for something to be perfect, you’ll never be able to help those people.

Getting something “nearly there” helps people quickly and gives you a cheat code to a better offer by getting their direct feedback.

In the wild

My student is launching a new high-ticket product.

She’s been waiting til it feels right.

So I asked her, “How long do you think it’ll take to make it great?”

“10 hours,” she said.

“You only have 8,” I told her.

It’s psychology but we perform to our given constraints.

Taking 2 hours away will force her to buckle down and launch that sucker.

And she’ll be better for it.

So what’s your thing? What’s in the queue waiting to be perfected?

If it’s already 80% of the way there, launch it!

If you’re just starting, take away 20% of the time you think you need to do it. Then launch it!

Just launch it! (trademark pending)

See ya next week. ✌️

I'm using systems and resources to improve 1% every day.

I’ve been active on LinkedIn every day since March. In the beginning, I had no clue what to post. Luckily, my pal Steven has created an entire year’s worth of content frameworks. All you have to do is fill ‘em in.

Answer me this.

What’s your productivity system right now? I’m giving virtual hugs to anybody who shares.