Bob McIntosh’s new book, “Get Out Of Your Own Way! Break The Perfectionist Mindset And Unleash The Floodgates Of Prosperity For Your Business,” might be the most important book for entrepreneurs this year. One of the hardest life lessons for self-driven individuals to learn is that being excellent and being perfect are two very different things, and Bob McIntosh’s book makes clear how keeping that difference in mind can help you focus on making more money and growing your business.
Entrepreneurs can easily fall into the “perfection trap” and work so hard on perfecting things that didn’t need to be perfected that they waste time and energy on what is ultimately a moving target to begin with: while perfection is subjective (and defined by you), excellence is a more collective goal, and will make all the difference in whether you are doing the most you can with your service for others. Something can be excellent while not being perfect: as an example, most industry leaders would consider the iPhone excellent, but few would call it perfect – including Apple, which is constantly upgrading their operating system and services for better operation.
Bob McIntosh’s book goes into ten different ways to stop looking for your own concepts of what perfection is while striving for excellence in your interaction with others and the book details them accordingly. While it’s worth reading the whole book, here are some core values you can use for your business:
- Identify your core values. By focusing on your overall goals and values, you will not get bogged down on minutiae that will impede hearing what your customers are saying. Unless you have a clear focus on what matters first and foremost to your company, you’ll never be able to strive for excellence. Identify what your goals are to work on them.
- Truly listen. One of the easiest perfection traps to fall into is to stop listening. Too often, companies will destroy their customer bases by not taking their clients seriously enough. Not listening to your clients means you are focusing too much on internal goals rather than service, forgetting the main goal of what you’re aiming for to begin with.
- Learn something new every day. Taking the time to see what you’re accomplishing and how your services are being used can tell you a lot about how your business can move towards a path of excellence. Perfection traps always lead to stagnation.
- Teach others what you have learned. Take the knowledge that you gain and pass it on: whether you’re imparting what you’ve learned to your employees or relating to customers, taking the knowledge you gain from your experience will help you learn even more about what your clients want and how to make them happy.
- Practice Gratitude. Oft-forgotten today is that modern commerce has largely been digitized, but younger generations are demanding genuine human experience in companies that they love and take seriously. This is vital to the reality of modern business today. Gratitude brings back the human element in customer relations, and it helps you appreciate the value of what you have in your business.
Moving towards excellence overall as a regular target will help break the perfectionist mindset while creating better customer relationships. The world will simply never be completely customized to perfection for everyone. Once you’re focused on excellence, many customers will see what you offer as “perfect”. Because in the end – as Bob McIntosh explains – your success will come from your commitment to excellence, and that excellence will give your work real financial value. Leave the question of what is perfect to your customers: focus on excellence, and your customers will thank you.
To connect with Bob, find out more about his book, and take the complimentary Perfectionist Mindset quiz, visit: http://bobmcintoshbook.com.