Up Market

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• The Paradigm of Excellence vs. Perfection
• Top 10: UpMarket Articles May 20-26, 2012
• Creative Problem Solving with Metaphor

The Paradigm of Excellence vs. Perfection Posted: 28 May 2012 08:00 AM PDT Themes pervade business. They especially pervade startups where we so often seek a constant, on any level, in the midst of chaos.  But one theme has been nudging me lately – the paradigm of excellence versus perfection. Excellence versus perfection is the difference between organizing your home, but skipping the dusting.  It's the difference between putting away your clothes, but not folding them. As kids, we'd ask always "why?"  Fair question. And really, who cares if you don't dust or choose not to fold your clothes? The difference is short-term versus long-term perspective. In the short-term, it makes sense to put clothes in a drawer before someone comes over in 15 minutes for dinner and to delay meticulously folding them.  But consider you do that over and over, never taking time to fold them. What happens? First. You start to have a hard time finding your favorite sweater. Second. You start buying things to replace the "I can't find it", "I don't have any clothes" feeling you get when your clothes become too disarranged. Third. You start spending more time, more money on essentially covering over the fact that your clothes just need to get folded and arranged in a way that will help you navigate your options. The same applies to startups.  Many shy away from the word perfection, as if it denotes a level of skill and scale that can never be achieved.  It also often equates to more time – time researching, time planning, time executing. And time is something for which no startup ever feels there is a luxury of. Reality Check > Absolute perfection rarely exists. No matter how much you prepare something a word may be misspelled, a link goes out incorrectly in a blog, or something is shipped before it's fully completed.  It just happens. We're human. But a fear of perfection (to disappoint if not achieved) is to subtly give up. We're so afraid of not achieving perfection, or unwilling to take the extra effort to try, that we end up with a continuous flow of mediocre solutions. And mediocrity eventually leads to unfulfilling work, dusty rising stars and missed opportunities. So whether you're a marketer, a business owner or arguably all of those wrapped in one….don't give up on perfection. Simply shift your definition of it. To give up on trying for perfection is to give up on standing out above everyone else who produces average work. Please visit Get Scrappy to learn more about startup marketing best practices or to  receive a free 15-min consultation.  Photo Credit: silentinferno.tumblr.com

Top 10: UpMarket Articles May 20-26, 2012 Posted: 28 May 2012 05:00 AM PDT Psychology, mirror neurons, design, collaboration among your field’s “rockstars” and a big question you need to answer for yourself — that’s a pretty wide swath of subjects, and all made Upmarket’s Top 10 most-viewed pieces of the past week. You can keep up with all the great content from Upmarket in a variety of ways, too, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and email updates. It’s so easy to have our best content delivered straight to your inbox — just head to our homepage and enter your email in the box under “Get updates (it’s free).” 1. Sales Psychology: Why People Won’€™t Pay Your Rates When someone says “€œthat’€™s too expensive”€, they’€™re verbally acknowledging an unconscious comparison. They’€™re measuring your price against something else, and you don’€™t even know what that something else is. 2. What Would You Do If It Were Impossible to Fail? A question posed at Toastmasters meeting leads to amazing transformations. 3. Requests for Success or How to Get What You Want Learn how to make a clear request — not a demand — to make your feelings known and to get things done. 4. 6 Excellent Lessons On Building Your Rocking Life & Business: The Story Of Marie Forleo Marie was interviewed by Tony Robbins for his New Money Masters DVD training program, and was invited by Sir Richard Branson to teach at his Branson Center for Entrepreneurship in South Africa. Cool, right? Now check out her journey to get here, and the lessons you can take away from it. 5. Turns Out You Don't Need A Blog You don’t need a blog. But you do need a comprehensive online presence and marketing system informed by blogging practices, such as delivering fresh relevant content to potential clients. 6. Five Ways to Get Rockstars to Collaborate A book project provides the opportunity to lift the veil on how to engage and collaborate with the Rockstars of your world. 7. Neuro-biz-ology: Re-energize a Room People reflect what they see or hear, at least a bit, through the work of mirror neurons in the brain. That means if you want to change the tone of a room, you need to project the emotion and attitude you want the room to take on, regardless of what everyone else is doing. 8. Creating Your Ideal Job You possess an inborn talent that allows you to do something in a way that no one else can. When you find this talent and apply it to an area of opportunity or need within an organization, you can create a job for yourself that will reward you with immense satisfaction and fulfillment. 9. The True Value of Networking Networking doesn’™t have to be a disaster. It also doesn’€™t have to be painful. It might even be fun. 10. Peel the Onion to Design Your Brand Peeling back the onion and getting to the heart of your business first will make all your design and marketing decisions easier later.

Creative Problem Solving with Metaphor Posted: 28 May 2012 02:00 AM PDT Is your creativity and strategy a casualty of putting too much attention on the constant bombardment of neverending bits of disconnected information? Does disjointed, reactive execution of your to-do list set you up for failure? Are you putting too much emphasis on putting out fires? What's another way of looking for solutions in the midst of disruptive change? How about giving yourself uninterrupted time and space to imagine a challenge you are working on through a metaphoric lens? For example, a client I am working with might struggle with being more strategic in his approach vs. being reactive and micromanaging one problem after another to the point of exhaustion. Asking him to prioritize his activity by metaphorically wearing a master gardener's hat rather than fireman or first responder hat helps him to discern priorities and gives a metaphoric framework for thinking about choices that are less reactive and more focused on strategic solution. If your attention is on "what conditions need to be in place for optimal growth" vs. the adrenaline rush of putting out one fire after the next, what changes?  Let's play. What is the wisdom of master gardener? • Pay attention to what season you are in. Each season has its own rhythm. • Find ways to enrich soil & fertilize: water can't make up for lack of soil nutrients • Water just enough (don't drown) • Weed: don't waste water on wrong plants • Prune: not even water will bring back dead branches Can you take this master gardener wisdom and metaphorically look at where you are placing priority on your calendar and task list?  How are you enriching the soil? Where are you wasting water? Where do you need to prune? Have you scheduled adequate time to act as the master gardener? Are you approaching your challenge more as fireman…or master gardener? Which role would is better suited for finding your solutions? Using metaphor is a terrific tool to shift perspective and focus with a fresh lens that gets above the annoying details that get us stuck. Use this one or create your own! Photo Credit: Gwen Kinsey

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