My daughter used to walk with her back against the wall.
Because she didn’t want to mess up my vacuum lines. 😔
Over the years it’s become a joke, but at the time I thought the “structure” of perfect carpet lines meant I was doing something right.
It took me years – and a lump in my throat every time I think about it – to see it for what it was.
Perfectionism. And the costs were high.
Truth: Perfectionism Isn’t a Strength. It’s a Strategy for Staying Safe.
It’s was never about the “thing” I was perfecting. It was about control. And underneath control? My fear.
I was good at the things I practiced. The vacuum lines. The hospital corners from my army cadet days. The alphabetized soup cans. The fridge stocked and rotated like a grocery store.
I was excellent at those things.
And I avoided — with Olympic-level skill — the things I wasn’t good at yet.
In business, that meant marketing and strategy got all of me. Because I excelled at it and it didn’t feel like a job.
But bookkeeping? I avoided it. Books made my eyes bleed because – numbers on a page. No hierarchy. No fancy fonts – no color. So I’d do everything else first. And the books would sit there, staring at me while I was trying to sleep.
Sales? Avoided it even harder. Because asking (for anything) is hard. What if I they said no?
So instead, I’d spend hours perfecting things customers never saw. Tweaking a proposal. Re-reading my website. Fussing over design.
I spent a lot of time and energy – almost ready.
The Hidden Cost
Here’s what “almost ready” actually cost me.
Not just time – it’s the customers I never got in front of. The contracts I never signed. The relationships I never started.
I’ve laid awake at night running through my to-do list like a broken record. The things I didn’t finish. The calls I didn’t make. The proposals I didn’t send because they weren’t quite right yet.
That guilt? It’s heavy. And it compounds.
The more I chased perfect, the more I delayed the only thing that actually moved the needle — getting in front of real people.
The Shift That Changed My OS
Over time — and a lot of missed opportunities — I learned the secret.
The secret isn’t doing things perfectly. It’s questioning why I was doing them at all.
I had to ask myself: Who is this for?
If the answer wasn’t “a customer” or “a prospect” or “someone who needs what I offer” — I realized I was hiding.
I had to redefine what “good enough” meant. I had to learn to be perfect about showing up and more relaxed about results.
What I Learned From Getting It Wrong (Twice)
I’ve burned out twice in my 25 year career.
And both times, perfectionism had it’s hand in it. Because perfectionism is exhausting. It’s a standard that moved every time I got close.
Here’s what I’ve learned on the other side:
Done beats perfect every time. Not because quality doesn’t matter. It does. But a 90% proposal in front of a client beats a 100% proposal sitting in my drafts folder.
Grace is a business strategy. Every time I did something wrong, I had two choices — spiral or learn. The spiral cost me days. The learning cost me nothing.
Customers give you the data perfectionism never will. When I started showing up — making the calls, sending the emails, booking the discovery sessions — the guesswork stopped. Real people told me what worked. In real time. No amount of polish behind closed doors gives you that.
The Carpet Lines Were Never About the Carpet
When I picture my daughter walking with her back against the wall, I don’t see a clean hallway anymore.
I see a little girl trying not to get things wrong. And I recognize her.
She was me. For years.
Perfectionism told me that if I just got it right enough, it would be safe to be seen.
The truth is — you have to be seen first. And then you figure out what right looks like.
So if you’re sitting on a half-finished proposal, a website that’s “almost ready,” a service you haven’t launched yet — this is your sign.
Stop perfecting it. Start showing it.
The customer you’re supposed to help is waiting. And they don’t need perfect. They need you.
Ready to stop hiding behind “almost ready” and finally get in front of the right clients? Let’s talk about what’s holding you back.
