Fortune favors the finished

In any creative or technical endeavor, there’s a temptation to chase perfection.

Every line of code, every design choice, every sentence you write demands the impossible standard of flawless execution. It feels noble, sometimes even necessary. After all, mistakes are visible, and imperfection is uncomfortable.

But perfection has a hidden cost. It slows you down. It saps energy. It keeps projects in perpetual “almost done” limbo. Most people don’t notice the effect at first. The first few hours spent polishing a draft feels productive and important, and yet over time, the effort spent perfecting small details accumulates into an invisible drag. A drain on focus, momentum, and creativity.

The alternative is deceptively simple: embracing "good enough." This doesn’t mean sloppy work or careless effort. It means finishing, shipping, testing, and iterating, rather than endlessly chasing the shadow of flawlessness.

It means recognizing that value is created not by perfection itself, but through progress.

The truth is, perfection is rarely necessary to create value.

In software, a feature that works for 90% of users today can be improved tomorrow, but a feature that never ships because it isn’t “perfect” is worthless. In writing, a blog post that communicates the core idea clearly reaches readers immediately, while a draft that sits in a folder waiting for flawless phrasing reaches no one. This principle applies across domains.

Iteration beats perfection because real-world feedback exposes what actually matters. Often enough, in ways no internal polish can anticipate. Embracing “good enough” doesn’t excuse laziness however. It prioritizes impact over ego, and learning from the real world over endlessly chasing perfection will always win in the long term.

The truth is, the projects that grow, the ideas that spread, and the skills that sharpen all start with a willingness to act before everything is flawless. Fortune favors the bold—not the perfect. Every time I remind myself of that, I ship a little faster, risk a little more, and learn a little sooner.