Notes – Taking Chances And Chasing Interests

Your interests reveal what you really want to do with your life. It's best to follow them relentlessly, but with one nuance: don't gun for perfection.

Perfectionism comes in two flavors: healthy and unhealthy perfectionism.

I do hope you only have to taste the second one.

Sometimes, you might find your interests in the most unlikely places. I remember this one guy who worked with me in insurance. Whenever you met him, you knew he loved to perform in front of people and help them reach their goals. Not the traditional profile of an employee of an insurance corporation.

But he made it work, and he did so phenomenally. His work didn't have anything to do with insurance. Instead, he orchestrated workshops and employee coaching. His background in psychology served him immensely. Combine that with his talent of holding a room, and he was golden.

But most people (me included) fall into the trap of not seeing these chances. We don't see – or don't want to see them – because they don't seem good enough. But what we mean by "good" is actually "perfection". The problem with perfect chances is that they're extremely rare. We can design a system to maximize our surface area of luck, but this still leaves us with a probability of less than 100% that the desired outcome will happen.

Chances come and go, but because of our search for perfection, we let them pass. So we wait, wait, and wait some more.

This doesn't mean going for every opportunity that comes our way. But instead of perfection, settle for "good enough". Ironically, taking imperfect chances is the only way to reach perfect outcomes. The more you do, the more volume you create, the greater your surface area of luck.

Perfection can serve as a great catalyst if it means we push the quality of our work and creations to the utmost limit, but it mustn't become a prison of inaction.