Better Done Than Perfect

The road to nowhere is paved with perfection.

Dennis Hodges

May 10, 2025

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At some point in the process, you have to kill the engineers and begin making product.

My brother-in-law was a research chemist his entire career. When he was developing a formulation, he’d take it down to a 0.00001 purity because, well, he was a chemist. That’s what they do.

That phrase was taped on a wall in his laboratory to remind him that, while he might be inclined to take the formulation to that level, for commercial purposes the purity might only need to be 0.01.

At some point, his work was done and it was time for the commercial team to take it into production.

This concept applies beyond chemistry or engineering. It’s for anyone who creates anything: entrepreneurs, artists, writers, developers, designers, consultants, content creators, marketers, founders.

At some point in your process, you’ve got to stop refining, polishing, tweaking, debating, reworking, reorganizing, and rethinking - and start shipping.

Because if it’s never done, it’s never useful. If it’s never released, it never learns. If it never ships, it never sells.

The Curse of “Almost Ready”

We love the idea of potential. That almost-ready stage is warm and safe. It’s full of promise. In your mind, it could still be a masterpiece.

There’s still time to make it better. Still time to tighten that line, fix that feature, choose the better font, rewrite that paragraph, swap out the hero image.

But “almost ready” is a seductive trap.

I’ve watched people (me included) spend months - sometimes years - circling the runway.

They’ve got the plan.

They’ve got the vision.

They’ve even got the prototype, the landing page, the outline, the logo, the branding guide, the beta list.

What they don’t have is a launched product.

Or feedback.

Or growth.

Or revenue.

Because they never hit publish.

They never shipped the product.

Better Done Than Perfect

I’m not saying you should be sloppy or thoughtless. But perfect is a myth. And chasing it is the fastest way to stall momentum and kill ideas.

Here’s what’s real: done.

Done gets feedback.

Done gets tested.

Done can be improved.

Done can be iterated.

Done can pay the bills.

“Better done than perfect” isn’t laziness or settling. It’s courage.

It’s the decision to move forward before you feel 100% ready. It’s the willingness to be seen before the final coat of polish. It’s the discipline of forward motion.

Iteration Is the Real Superpower

The first version of anything is rarely the best version. But it’s necessary.

If you never ship Version 1, you’ll never get to Version 2. What version of OS are we on today? It ain’t v1.0 at this point in time. But it was once.

The iPhone you’re using wasn’t the first iPhone.

Instagram started as a bourbon-tracking app.

Canva’s original pitch was a high school yearbook design tool.

Even Michelangelo sketched - and scrapped - before he ever picked up a chisel.

Everything extraordinary started as something ordinary. Version 1 is supposed to be clunky, awkward, undercooked. It’s a prototype, not a finished product.

The magic isn’t in getting it perfect the first time. It’s in getting it out there so you can make it better.

“Shipping” Means More Than Just Launching

When I say “ship product,” I’m not just talking about physical goods or tech releases. It’s my term for putting things out there. Getting them launched.

Ship your blog post.

Ship your workshop.

Ship your course.

Ship your Etsy listing, your photography service, your beta test, your app, your online store, your talk.

Ship your thing.

Get it out of your head and into the world.

Put a version of it in front of real people - not just your inner circle of cheerleaders or critics, but actual users, readers, customers. Let it breathe. Let it stumble. Let it live.

You will learn more from one messy launch than from a year of hypothetical strategizing.

Fear Wears a Lab Coat

Here’s the thing: a lot of our perfectionism isn’t about standards - it’s about fear.

And fear is sneaky. It dresses up as diligence. It tells you you’re “just being careful,” or “making sure it’s right,” or “not ready yet.”

Sometimes fear even pretends to be research.

But fear in a lab coat is still fear.

Fear of being judged. Fear of being wrong. Fear of being average. Fear of wasting time. Fear of embarrassment. Fear of success. (Yes, that one’s real too.)

But here’s the antidote: do it anyway. Fear doesn’t go away before the leap. It goes away after the motion.

You don’t beat fear with more polishing. You beat it by shipping.

A few years ago, I wrote a book called “11½ Ways to Ignite Your Creativity”. I had a vision and a goal.

(I wrote in another post how I have a book I’ve been working on for more than 25 years. This isn’t that book.)

For this book, I was focused. I had a goal to get it written and get it shipped. And I did.

The feeling of having completed something was amazing, even though I was nervous about how it might be accepted. OK, it didn’t make the New York Times bestseller list, but I know it’s helped many people get unstuck and I’m really happy it did.

I’m not telling you this to brag, I just want to encourage you set aside your fear and ship your product. It’s hard to convey how good it feels to put down your tools or close your laptop, say “I’m done”, and put it out there.

Kill the Engineers, Respect the Process

Just to be clear, I love engineers. I love builders and thinkers and people who care deeply about how things work.

The phrase “kill the engineers” is the antidote for the inner voice that says, “We just need one more week.”

It’s not about abandoning quality - it’s about ending the endless loop.

Engineers optimize. Tinkerers tinker. Creators create.

And at some point, builders have to ship. Creators have to launch. Innovators have to release.

Otherwise, all you’ve built is a beautiful idea trapped in a folder.

What Are You Not Shipping?

Right now, you probably have something in progress that’s 85% ready.

Something you’ve been “working on” for a while now.

Something that keeps getting nudged forward - an hour here, a tweak there.

Something that might already be good enough to ship. But you’re holding it hostage to the hope that the next tweak will make it flawless.

Here’s your nudge: Let. It. Go.

Hit publish. Send the email. Launch the site. Offer the service. Book the event. Record the video. List the product.

Ship it.

Then listen. Learn. Iterate.

Start Ugly, Ship Early, Improve Often

In the startup world, they say, “If you’re not embarrassed by your first product, you launched too late.”

That might be a little extreme but the principle holds.

You’ll grow faster by learning in public than you ever will behind the curtain. You don’t have to be proud of your first version forever. You just have to be proud enough to release it.

And if you keep showing up, keep learning, keep building?

Your version 3 will blow version 1 out of the water.

But you can’t get to 3 without shipping 1.