Perfection is overrated. Whoever said “Practice makes perfect” missed the point. To assume you’re perfect is to assume you can’t get any better. Which is why being perfect is a dangerous thing to be.

Consider the following. If you’re batting 100% you can’t get any better. But in order to maintain that perfect batting average you have to keep doing what got you there in the first place, which is more practice. But if you’re perfect you don’t need to practice any harder.

That is the major flaw of perfection.

When you think you’ve attained perfection, it’s easier to get arrogant and stop practicing as hard. And if you’re not motivated to practice harder than you used to, you’re going to get stale. If you’re not getting better, you’re standing still. If you’re standing still, you’re getting worse.

Which is why you should never assume you’re perfect at anything.

Keep focusing on getting better instead of getting perfect. You don’t want to be perfect. What you want, is to be in a constant state of getting better.

Stop trying to be perfect and always try to get better.

Check out these awesome illustrations. I love this stuff.

Neuarmy has a plethora of other great things to look at, too. Like this Photoshop humor:

Or this organic type:

Sweet, huh? Keep on rocking, Ryan.

While Dan Benjamin interviewed Jason Fried on The Pipeline, they touched upon the subject of customers. Jason said something that seemed obvious to me now, but wasn’t always so clear.

It’s very important to understand who your customer is, and the answer is not that it’s everybody. I think if you think your customer is everybody, you’ve got some problems.

— Jason Fried

In a way, I see this as a matter of constraints. Constraints are a critical factor in making a successful product. They are always present. Defining your potential customer base is no exception.

Let’s sell water—everybody needs it!

Consider something that everybody needs: water. Everybody needs water, but not everybody is willing to pay for water. It’s sometimes easy to get into the mindset that everyone is a potential customer when you confuse needs for wants. Just because people need it, doesn’t mean they’ll want to buy it.

Take the time to figure out who needs your product and then constrain that audience further by asking “who is willing to pay for it?” Those are your potential customers. Focus your energy on appealing to them.

You don’t have to ignore the seemingly unwilling customers, but get a core customer base first instead of spreading your focus too thin, too early.