If I eliminated all the imperfections in my life, I would erase myself completely. I am a colossal combination of imperfections. In fact, I am almost perfectly imperfect.
Overcoming our shortcomings, our character flaws, and our imperfections is what defines us. They may be the spice in the recipe that is life.
I preach to startup persons: “Do not make perfect the enemy of good enough.” Perfectionism is a curse.
I also like to say: “Most of the success in life is created by being 80% right, but done on time.” There is no reward for being the third person with a good idea.
All of this is contained within a wrapper of a life of continuous learning. I force myself to learn.
I learned to fly an airplane at age 50 and I am currently learning watercolor painting (which requires drawing).
I think the complexity and order of watercolors appeals to my engineering orderly mind. Here are the mixed colors possible from my “student” palette of basic colors. It is quite complex and, yet, orderly.
[If you were an art student in college, like My Perfect Daughter the co-founder and design genius of Weezie Towels, do not laugh. It can be cruel.]
This is my very first original painting — a sea trout of the kind that lives in the coastal waters surrounding Savannah. It is recognizable as a fish and that is a grand victory.
Yes, dear reader, there is.
1. Do not be dismayed that you are a grand cocktail of imperfections. You are defined by your strengths and weaknesses.
2. While I always counsel high standards, do not make perfect the enemy of good enough.
3. Use education to embrace your shortcomings. Do not ignore them, but do not fixate on them.
4. Never, ever stop learning. The mechanism of learning is a learning in and of itself.
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. Call someone with whom you have not spoken in a long time and inject a ray of sunshine into our desperately dark world.
Pray for peace.
