6 days ago4 min read

GOOD ENOUGH BEATS GREAT

❝Done is better than perfect.❞ -Sheryl Sandberg

The Olympics are fun to watch. The Olympics are when a group of people who have spent their whole lives perfecting one sport get together to see who's the best at that particular sport. It's crazy to watch, but even crazier when you put what the Olympians are doing in the proper context.

Olympians run a marathon in just over two hours. That's like running over 12 miles per hour for two full hours! For more context, most treadmills max out at 10 miles per hour!

It's not just distance running. Olympians can run over 23 miles per hour, completing the 100-meter dash in less than 10 seconds!

Shot putters can throw something that weighs as much as a heavy bowling ball all the way past the pins!

High jumpers can jump over a soccer net!

Pole vaulters can jump over two basketball hoops stacked on top of each other!

These athletes are elite, to say the least! It's tempting to watch the Olympics and think to ourselves that we ought to become elite in something.

Yet, there's another way. These athletes are great at one thing: their sport. That's it.

Instead of being elite in any one thing, you can be good, even great, at a lot of different things. You can be a pretty good writer, a pretty good speaker, a pretty good listener, a pretty good reader, and pretty good at technology. I might argue that being pretty good in all these different areas makes you elite as a whole!

In other words, you can be good enough at a lot of different things!

Said another way, waiting to make decisions until you have all the information doesn't help you make better decisions. It makes it more difficult to make a change. Good enough beats perfect.

PARETO PRINCIPLE

A principle that's helpful to implement in your daily life is called the Pareto principle. I like to call it the 80/20 rule. It basically says that 80% of outcomes come from 20% of inputs. You'll see this apply in so many places.

80% of language comes from 20% of the words.

80% of a sport or dance comes from 20% of the moves.

80% of a company's revenue comes from 20% of the customers.

80% of knowledge in a subject can be gained from 20% of the concepts.

It's everywhere. It's kind of like a graph that looks like this.

The first part of the graph is steep, giving you a big bang for the proverbial buck. It's why you can learn a few chords on a guitar and play so many songs or learn one rhythm on the drums and be able to play most pop songs.

With a little effort, you get a lot of benefit.

The final 20%, though, is where Olympians live. It takes more time, money, and energy to climb this part of the curve. Economists call this diminishing returns - or the returns diminish (get smaller) over time.

It's quite difficult to capture the remaining 20%. The bang for the buck significantly shrinks.

At this stage of the curve, imagine isolating the benefit you get from the effort it takes.

drawing of too much effort for little benefit

This makes it easier to ask yourself whether or not it's worth it.

And there's no right or wrong answer here; sometimes you need to become elite - like Olympians, top musicians, or entrepreneurs.

But it does make it clear that it takes a lot more effort to get to the elite level.

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GOOD ENOUGH IS BETTER THAN GREAT

This raises the question of whether it is worth it to become elite. A related question is: is it worth it to make sure you make a perfect decision?

In positive psychology, people who strive to be the best, make the best possible decisions, and get the best outcome are called maximizers. In contrast, someone who goes with a choice that's good enough, is less concerned about perfect, and is more focused on their minimum criteria, is called a satisficer.

Researchers find that, although maximizers may end up having made a "better" choice, it took them a lot longer, and they are less happy with the result (because of the paradox of choice - how will they know it was the "best" decision?).

I propose that good enough is better than great. This is both in terms of your skills (become elite at something) and your decision-making (perfect vs. good enough).

drawing of good enough is better than great

Because something happens when you go with good enough. You free up time, money, and effort that can be used on something else.

When you 80/20 your life, you can make pretty good decisions quickly. You can learn a lot of things pretty well with minimal effort. Or you can spend that extra time with your family, friends, or hobbies.

Becoming elite in any one area takes a lot of time, money, and energy. Making the best possible decision takes a lot of time, money, and energy.

Focusing on good enough will free you up to make more decisions and learn more things, and in doing so, you'll become elite in your own way.

You get one life; live intentionally.

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