Never procrastinate — just ask Sly

Done is better than perfect. Perfect is the enemy of good enough. And so the sayings go on.

And there’s been a lot of Sylvester Stallone in the media this year, partly because of a new film out.

What do the two have in common? Very little, in all probability, apart from this story.

A good friend and sometimes partner in work was having trouble getting something done. (He won’t mind me relating this story but I’ll keep it anonymous.) In his case the problem was setting live a new corporate website, a project for which he is ably equipped and had done 95 per cent of the ground work.

To illustrate the whole ‘Done is better than perfect’ saying, I decided to tell the story of Sylvester Stallone. In the mid-1970s, as a largely unknown and penniless actor and would-be film director he knew he just had to write Rocky, which would go on to be his big breakthrough (Best Film Oscar in the US bicentennial year and all the rest).

To get the job done he bought some food and drink, locked himself in a dingy room with a lamp and typewriter, painted the windows black and told himself he wasn’t leaving until it was written.

The rest is history.

The bigger point to the story is that sometimes you just have to do it. No asking someone else. No more faffing around. Do it.

What did my friend say?

“So you’re saying I should get Sylvester Stallone to do my website?”

Now I can’t honestly tell you if Sly’s available for any website relaunch projects. But I think the ‘just do it’ message, to borrow from somewhere else, shines through.

This story was originally published on tphallett.com in 2013.

*photo credit: alessandro silipo via photopin cc