The Myth We All Bought Into
Let’s be honest for a second. Remember that glossy magazine cover image? The CEO who also volunteers at the soup kitchen, runs marathons before dawn, and somehow has perfectly behaved, high-achieving children? We see that image, and we immediately start the silent, frantic internal audit. Why am I not doing that?
I’ve spent two decades in boardrooms and, frankly, just as long trying to navigate school drop-offs. And here’s the hard truth I’ve finally accepted: The pursuit of ‘Perfect’ is the fastest route to burnout and mediocrity. It’s a poison disguised as ambition.
The 90% Trap in Corporate Culture
In business, especially when we talk about building a winning corporate culture, we often mistake intensity for impact. We try to make every meeting groundbreaking, every presentation award-winning, and every piece of internal communication a masterpiece of prose. It’s exhausting.
Think about your last major project. How much energy did you spend perfecting that final 10%—the formatting, the extra proofread, the marginal polish—that yielded maybe 1% better results? That 10% effort could have been spent kickstarting the *next* big idea.
I call this the ‘Good Enough Threshold’. For most deliverables, ‘Good Enough’ means 85-90% quality. It’s competent, it’s effective, and crucially, it’s *done*. If you only aim for 90% on five things instead of 100% on one thing, you multiply your output dramatically.
When I coach sales teams, I see this fear in action. They polish the pitch deck until it gleams, rather than just picking up the phone and making the tenth call. The tenth call, even if slightly rougher around the edges, closes the deal. Done trumps perfect, every single time.
Parenting: Trading Intensity for Presence
This isn’t just a business philosophy; it’s a survival tactic at home. Trying to be the ‘Perfect Parent’ means you end up being a scattered, stressed-out shadow of yourself most of the time.
When my daughter was little, I obsessed over creating Pinterest-worthy birthday parties. They were beautiful disasters. The kids were sticky, the theme was confusing, and I spent the entire time trying to manage the aesthetic rather than enjoying the chaos.
Now? We order pizza, we use last year’s decorations, and I actually sit on the floor and play the ridiculous board game they picked. It’s functionally ‘Good Enough’ for the kids—they feel loved and seen. For me, it means I have the mental bandwidth left over to actually focus on my work the next day without a stress headache.
Presence beats performance, always. Your team (and your family) doesn’t need you to be flawless; they need you to be reliably engaged when you are present.
How to Embrace the 90% Rule
So, how do we consciously downgrade our standards just enough to free up our energy?
- Identify True Criticality: Ask yourself: Where does 100% actually matter? Is it patient care? Safety compliance? Usually, it’s less than 10% of your tasks. Everything else gets the 90% treatment.
- Time-Box Perfectionism: If you feel the urge to tweak something, set a timer for five minutes. When the timer goes off, you ship it. You are done.
- Redefine Success with Your Team: Make ‘Done and Delivered’ a high-value metric in your corporate culture. Celebrate the completion of projects, not just the elegance of the final draft.
- Stop Comparing Your Behind-the-Scenes: That colleague who seems flawless? I guarantee you, their living room looks like a laundry bomb went off. We are all managing hidden trade-offs.
We are human beings, not robots designed for maximum efficiency scores. When you give yourself permission to be 90% effective—consistently—you become faster, happier, and ironically, you leave room for the truly exceptional moments to shine through. Let the small stuff be good enough. That’s where real sustainable success lives.
