Would You Rather Be Perfect or Successful?

"What if you slow down?" My stomach sank a little. I felt all icky like I wasn't good enough because I wasn't perfect. I didn't get it 100% right the first time. Who does? But still, I have this weird expectation that I have to always to know what I'm talking about, to defend myself without stumbling on my words, to have my shit together and always hit the right note. Is that what it means to be a perfectionist? I HATE when I feel someone is reading my writing over my shoulder. Actually, the minute someone walks towards me I usually slam my computer or notebook shut. I've overcome my fear of playing music in front of friends but now I'm working on another challenge...writing music in front of friends. It's scary because what if I hit a wrong note, come up with an ugly melody, go too fast or too slow, to high or too low? Eek it's not perfect yet, please don't listen. When I started writing "How Do You Do You", I was singing the lyrics super fast because I love the feeling of rap-like lyrics rolling off my tongue. But when I practiced my new song in front of Davey, James and this other random guys who was hanging out with us one night, they all say, "What if you sang slower?" I felt that nasty feeling of "crap I didn't nail it on attempt #1 but then I tried it and BOOM, the whole song changed immediately and we all loved it. My feeling of suckiness faded away instantly, I hit the record button my phone. Here's the live recording of this moment as I heard their feedback, applied it immediately and we watched the song developed before us. Remember, "Perfect is the enemy of good."  What is your goal? Would you rather work alone and appear perfect to your friends but create mediocre work? Or would you rather create incredible work and enjoy the beauty of teamwork, even if it means you have to be vulnerable in front of your friends? Nobody gets to the top alone. Even the biggest super stars have incredible musicians standing beside them on stage, managers & assistants backstage, teachers back home and families in the front row. If you're like me, you want to work alone because you want all the control and all the credit, but you have to swallow some humble pie and realize that alone, you are almost worthless. Reach out to all the talent around you and be the magnet that pulls everything and everyone together. Be like the sun, a powerful gravitational force that attracts all the planets to form a solar system. "Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much." (Helen Keller) // Chamonix