Don't Let Perfectionism Slow You Down

A perfectionist rarely gets things done. Commit and move on. Chances are your "perfect product" won't be perfect 5 years from now.

Doug and I scored a TV series that interviews various creative entrepreneurs. One of the creative artists is named Jake Parker. He is an inspirational and talented artist who really has his head on straight (he drew the picture for this post!). One thing that was a big takeaway from me was to get away from being a perfectionist. I always try and make everything perfect. Perfect mix, perfect vocal, perfect drums, etc. But the truth is, I look back at things that made me pull my hair out and realize it wasn't worth all the stress. And in almost every single case, I think to myself now "oh man... If I did that now it would be 100 times better." Which proves a point that he made in the show. He said something along the lines of  (not a direct quote, but summary) “If you spend all your time and energy trying to make something perfect, you’ll delay its release, and even if you do release it, a few years later you’ll look at it and not be completely satisfied because you know now you could do better.”

Don't get me wrong, I am a HUGE believer in always doing your best and striving to get the best product possible. But there comes a point where it's just not worth it. There are so many people that have written me saying they haven't released music or started putting themselves out there to charge people for mixing music because "they're not perfect" or "not good enough" yet. That's bull! How are you going to push yourself further if you don't have anything pulling at you?

Another thing he said that I loved was, "people overestimate what they can accomplish in a day and underestimate what they can accomplish in a year." Little by little you can reach your goals. You just have to stick to them. Don't think you're going to become a big time mixer overnight. Patience. Small steps. Little by little you'll get there.