The Quest for Perfection

“Perfect” seems to be a theme in this family business. As a writer, and also someone who spent decades in the advertising/marketing field, I know that perfect does not exist. Not in nature and even less in humanity. I’ve looked back on ads I’ve done in my past. Ads that actually made the grade and were contenders for high awards. And I seem to always think “oh, I could have done better.”

Hindsight, as we all know, is always 20-20. Foresight is for dreamers. Reality is where we sit, critical judges of what “should have been,” whilst imagining what could be.

I’m surrounded by beautiful dreamers. Innovators. Creators. Their heads filling and spilling with ideas and plans and imagination. Always thinking — what could be better? What should be best? It’s both a heady experience, and a headache.

Sometimes we need to fully embrace the Wabi Sabi of life. The delight and beauty in the imperfect. Because “perfection,” while perfect, can be the robber baron of the unique and wonderful.

I worked for years as the head copywriter of an ad agency. One day the “big boss” called me in to his office, to point out that my ad copy “was not in complete sentences.” To say I was gobsmacked is an understatement. That he, the head of the entire ad department, did not know that “ad copy” meant making the biggest impression in the smallest amount of space. And that, nine times out of ten, meant creative phrases, not grammatically perfect sentences.

As the only person in the company with any degree of expertise in marketing/advertising/branding, and also the only one with a writing background (thank you Professor Phillips, my university journalism mentor) I sometimes have to step outside my comfort zone. Creating the product user manual was just that - a huge leap into technical writing. A leap I did not take on joyfully.

So now I wait. I birthed it painfully and, when completed, put it out into the world - aka for the rest of the clan to read, correct, and bombard me with the all-elusive “perfect.” Is it good? Yes. Is it perfect? No. But I’m okay with that. Because perfect is not in my wheelhouse. I leave that to the others. And because sometimes grammatically perfect sentences just bore the heck out of me.