Perfection Is Boring…

… and emollient.

Two days before the US presidential election, I find it appropriate to share with you a quote from George Bernard Shaw that I particularly like: “If there was nothing wrong in the world there wouldn’t be anything for us to do.”

George Bernard Shaw – (CC) degem

This maxim applies to the “most powerful man on the planet”, who will have a lot on his plate given the current state of the world, as well as to every manager.

Indeed, what would be the point of going to work every morning if it was not to solve problems and have a chance to contribute to the improvement of a situation whatsoever? As I often say in the office, “fortunately all is not perfect, otherwise it would be uninteresting.”

And this is one of the paradoxes of being a manager (and, incidentally, of being a human being): We look for perfection but we are annoyed to reach perfection because it means that we no longer have any value and, most importantly, any ambition to satisfy.