Posted by: Daniel Levis
July 25, 2007
Issue #186

Anything Worth Doing,
Is Worth Doing Poorly!
-Zig Ziglar

In this issue:

• Why perfectionism may be your worst enemy …
• How making a mess and then cleaning it up later can make you a whole lot richer …
• How faking it while you’re making it can turn regular "ho hum" customers into fiercely loyal product evangelists for life …
• And more!

Dear Business Builder,

When I was 13 years old I had a summer job working in my uncle’s plastics factory. My job was to spread sawdust all over the floor around the injection molding machines to clean up the oil that dripped out of them all day long.

There were about 10 machines as I recall, and most of them were attended by really large Italian women with moustaches whose job it was to package the plastic cups that came tumbling off the conveyor belts.

One of the machines however had a nubile young nymph in tight jeans in its charge and I was determined to make that one in particular, spotless. That’s where the trouble began …

I looked up to my boss, who was in his early twenties. I pretty much wanted to be like him when I grew up. So the dressing down he gave me the following day was memorable.

Years later, I still remember this young man’s words when I walked into the makeshift office on the plant floor. "Anything worth doing, is worth doing well!" he began. It seems my enthusiasm for oil absorption around one machine at the expense of the others was a problem. The words stung …

Being an impressionable young kid, the experience had an impact. And from that point forward, I was very careful about doing things right the first time. It became a habit with me.

Years later, I discovered it to be a very limiting one.

Why perfectionism
may be your worst enemy  …

It’s not that there’s anything wrong with doing things well. I’m a big believer in that. It’s trying to do things well the first time that gets you in trouble.

Shall I give you an example?

Let’s suppose you’re a copywriter. Have you ever found yourself locked, hopelessly inefficient at moving your copy forward? You write a few words, and then go back and correct them because you think they’re no good. It’s called writer’s block, and it comes from this idea that any job worth doing is worth doing well.

The irony is you’ll write far better if you give yourself permission to write crap! And then come back and fix it up later.

Perfectionism is a huge block for people in business as well. It prevents them from seizing opportunities in which they could excel … it stymies them once they do take the plunge … and squashes their productivity at every turn.

As soon as you let go of the need to be perfect, wonderful things happen.

How making a mess
and then cleaning it up later
can make you a whole lot richer …

What is perfectionism anyway? It’s a lack of confidence isn’t it? It’s just a “clever” way of dealing with your fear of failure.

Who among us can bear the thought of creating a product or a promotion that bombs? And so we go to the nth degree to dot every "i" and cross every "t", and fume and fuss about every little thing … and guess what?

We never get around to the part that counts. Making sales, and getting customers. I know of people who’ve been in “planning mode” for years in the info-marketing biz.

And it’s a crying shame, because the reality is this: No matter how long you plan and research, and prepare, you’ll never get it right.

Far better to just slap something together, and patch it up as you go. That’s the way I’ve always done it. Do things go wrong?

You bet! But so what? As long as you’re working with a good idea, and people believe you’re committed to delivering on its promise, they’re more than ready to forgive you when things mess up. In fact, if you admit your mistakes, and make an effort to make things right, they’ll love you all the more.

Case in point …

How faking it while you’re making it
can turn regular "ho hum" customers
into fiercely loyal product evangelists for life …

This week at Bootstrap Money Makers something horrible happened!

For the first time since the series began, instead of dialing into the replay call that happens each Thursday evening to make sure everything was OK, I decided to knock off and do some shopping with my wife.

When I got back, all hell had broken loose. My in-box was flooded with complaints. What happened to the replay?

Obviously at some point in the ten minutes it took me to scribble out a plan for this series it didn’t occur to me to research which company I should use to manage the teleconferences. And as a result, the company I chose is way off its game. They forgot to replay the call! Actually this isn’t the first time they’ve let me down …

Once, just as one of the live calls was set to start, my guest couldn’t dial into the call. You have no idea how embarrassing it was calling out “JP, are you there” over and over again with hundreds of people waiting on the line for the call to begin. The seven minutes it took for JP to finally make it into the call seemed like 7 hours.

I felt awkward and uncomfortable.

OK, so a seven minute delay isn’t the end of the world, but what do you do when hundreds of people show up for a call and you don’t?

Now here’s where it gets interesting. I could have just said, sorry, I screwed up. After all, these calls are free for anyone to attend.

Obviously no marketer in their right mind would do that, because it would put a huge dent in attendance at future conferences. The only sensible thing to do is reschedule the call. So I did. Most people would probably have left it at that.

But I got to thinking. How can I turn this to my advantage? And I decided to shelve the rest of my plans for the evening and go to work.

Instead of just rescheduling the call, I decided to immediately post the call to my website, and make it freely available to everyone on my list, whether they’d paid to receive it or not.

And I spent the next couple of hours doing just that: Work I wouldn’t normally do myself. About midnight I shot off an e-mail apologizing for the screw-up and notifying my list that the recording was now freely available for the next 48 hours.

The next morning, when I woke up, you’ll never guess what I found in my in-box. Dozens of love letters telling me what a class act I am … and how most marketers wouldn’t have gone to the trouble … and on and on.

Why am I telling you this? Well there’s a very important marketing lesson here. You see, there’s something about human psychology that places a higher value on a person who screws up, and then goes the extra mile to make amends, than someone who’s perfect from the beginning.

It bonds you to your customers in a way perfection never can. I don’t know what it is. Perhaps it makes you seem real. Perhaps it’s an opportunity to prove that you care. Perhaps it’s an opportunity to demonstrate your character, I’m not sure. But I can tell you this: it’s a golden opportunity to bond with your prospects and customers.

Heck in this particular situation it even made me money. Within 48 hours of posting the call to my website, almost 1,000 people downloaded the call, and many of them took advantage of the special offer that Marc Goldman and I announced at the end of it, netting me thousands of dollars I wouldn’t have otherwise made.

In fact, this was the most successful call yet!

You see, the more you screw up, the more money you’ll make. Here’s another memory from my childhood …

My grandfather always used to tell me the story of Babe Ruth, who held the record for most home runs for decades. He used to remind me that Babe Ruth also held the record for most strikeouts. And I always remembered that.

The secret to success is to swing for the fences, and take multiple concurrent actions. Round up a big bunch of worthwhile projects, roll them up the highest hill you can find, push them over the crest, and run like hell to catch them on the other side.

Sure a few of them will get away from you. There will be all kinds of things you didn’t count on that will bite you in the butt. Deadlines will collide. You’ll feel like your hair is on fire, and you’re way out of your comfort zone. Great! That’s how you know you’re doing it right.

Living dangerously puts you way ahead of the “do nothing” pack.

Until next time, Good Selling!

Daniel Levis
Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE

P.S. Can you relate to this? For 5 years and in 7 different businesses, Michael had great ideas … butcould never turn those ideas into money. He struggled each month to pay the bills and stay above water, while his family and friends were convinced he would never "grow up" and get a job in the "real world".

After watching other entrepreneurs build million-dollar businesses using ideas Michael had but couldn’t make work … he began a decade-long quest to discover exactly what it takes to quickly take an idea and transform it into a highly-profitable, enjoyable and fast-growth business.

Today, he works behind the scenes with some of the biggest names in information marketing … commands $7700 per day for consulting … and is known as the "go-to-guy" when it comes to engineering big paydays using the latest direct response technology.

What would this remarkably resourceful entrepreneur do today if he had to do it all over again … if his assets were stripped … his lists and products destroyed … and his notoriety erased? You’ll find out on this call. It’s FREE to attend! Register NOW!

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Related posts

• Are ALL the Top Copywriters Using this Technique or is it Just Me?
• The Insanity Chronicles – Part Two
• Lincoln Was Wrong:
• How I Bagged $5 Million In Internet Sales In 5 Short Weeks
• Face Your Fears

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No Comments »

1. Comment by C.S.Radhakrishnan — July 25, 2007 @ 10:53 am

   It is only those who dare and do something that make mistakes. The scare babies who give the excuse of perfection for their lack of performance never improved this world. Thanks, Daniel, for restating the golden truth!

2. Comment by Bob — July 25, 2007 @ 12:26 pm

   Hi,
   Could you please add your Bootstrap teleseminar series to the Archives? I\’m sure many of your readers who missed the calls will benefit from it.
   Regards,
   Bob

3. Comment by Nita — August 2, 2007 @ 4:03 am

   hi Daniel,
   you\’re so right.I\’m not really a perfectonist, but always have problems starting.now i\’ve decided to just plunge in and get started. that\’s what really counts.
   sincerely,
   nita

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