The greatest stories start with imperfection. Something goes wrong -- usually in a dramatic fashion -- followed by a roller coaster of ups and downs until the recovery and eventual happy or hilarious ending. Perfect stories, where everything goes smoothly, aren't stories at all.
They're a lecture. Imperfection, in the dictionary, means a flaw, and words related to imperfection are weakness, inadequacy, defect, and deform. Perfection in the dictionary means completeness, supreme excellence.
It's not hard to see which one prefers to strive for. But if you look at the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi you get a different view of what imperfection is . Wabi-sabi teaches the rules of nature are always changing, and therefore are never complete.
In short, nothing stays the same. An imperfect business is not one with bad service or bad products, but one built with the wabi-sabi -inspired mindset that everything is impermanent, imperfect, and incomplete. That nothing is fixed, immovable, or unchangeable -- or that it should be.
Imperfection is not a compromise, but an ongoing opportunity . There is often a negative perception of imperfection and resistance to a continuous improvement mindset and behaviors . People love it when things are "done.
" You've had that proverbial high when something gets off the checklist. But the environment companies operate in is constantly changing. New competitors, changing consumer interests and needs, new hires, new technologies, economic fluctuations .
