Q:

Dear Ammar,

…I want to tell you something: sometimes one gets bored from reading all those ideals that you write about, because we still live on earth you know, and sometimes I feel down reading about all these great things which sound like impossible to perfect. One more thing: I would love to believe that you believe and do what you write in your articles….

Regards,

Majdi M

Dear Majdi,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and for your candidness.  I agree with everything you said; we still live on earth, the last time I checked.  And yes, trying to be perfect and error free will inevitably wear a person down. 

Here is a little secret for you: no one is perfect, and everything mentioned on best business practices, by me or others, is not merely black or white.  It is not like someone “either has it or not”; measured only in zeros and ones just like a computer.  There is a whole range in between, and there is also the time and environmental factors that affect our judgment and behavior.  There is no one living on earth, as far as I know, who always does what is right.  That actually goes against human nature.  Otherwise, humans would turn into machines, and even machines err. 

The beauty of humanity is in its vulnerability to making mistakes.  we learn from errors more than anything else.  The important thing is to positively analyze them and benefit from them.  Trying to be perfect is actually very dangerous to one’s career and psyche.  When trying to be perfect at work, a person becomes afraid of making mistakes, which leads to shying away from doing anything meaningful.  See a worthy endeavor carries with it a risk of falling very hard on someone’s you know what.  This in itself is worse than failure because it leads people to do their work in futile mediocrity. 

Contrary to common belief, successful people are not successful because they do not make mistakes or are perfect.  In real life, people who are so keen on being perfect are either flat out boring or have delusions of greatness. Successful business people that we read about do make mistakes, and sometimes major ones.  But they are at piece with the fact that they will inevitably make a blunder.  Still, they immerse themselves intensely into their work, putting all they have got into doing a remarkable job.  When they fail, and everybody does once in a while, they get up and jump at it again; keeping in mind the lessons they learned from their previous falls.  They refuse to give up because of failure and know how to positively deal with the situation. 

Sometimes being a consultant and trainer causes pressures related to doing what one says so as not to be a hypocrite.  However, even consultants, me included, admit that they themselves have learned much more from their failures than from successes. 

The most important thing is to try one’s best.  No one can do more than that.  Neither anyone should demand or expect more from self or others.  Some will not be content with that, and that is their problem, not yours.  

One last note, trying your best should not be used as an excuse for complacency.  It actually loses its meaning when it is not truly practiced.  Trying one’s best means doing everything possible and using all available resources to do what is right.  Only then can a person claim to have done one’s best.  But to sit idle and do nothing, or to do what one knows is wrong, then just making the statement would be meaningless and untruthful.

Whenever one does his best, truthfully, then that person will be at piece, at least with himself and that is really what counts. 

Good luck, stay on earth, and do your best.

Ammar

Important note: [In his email, Majdi also wrote praise and kind compliments, which I removed to focus on this specific question.  Thank you Majdi for all the kind words and the great question.