Information Sells

Why are we astonished by every day perfection?

Naomi Dunford has a post on IttyBiz today called Talking About The Nice.

Naomi exhorts her readers to market a product by emphasizing the good points, rather than obsessing over how to hide the weaknesses. Certainly, that’s a fine idea. But it also made me think of how infrequently we identify our own good points – our talents, achievements, accomplishments – while we obsess over every mistake and failing.

Here’s a story from my email today:

Every quarter, I teach a one day workshop on self-publishing. One of my former students has her book all ready to be published. It is written. It is formatted. It is layed out very professionally. The book has an attractive cover. And, best of all, the book is aimed at a very profitable niche.

So what’s the problem?

The author cannot get alternating odd and even page headers to work.

She’s about ready to give up entirely because she is so frustrated. She feels like she is failing. All over a minor, technical detail that will have zero impact on her readers.

Listen up, folks!

99% of projects fail because people never finish them.

Hell, most people never even start. To write a book and then do all the additional work of the editor and the designer is a great accomplishment.

To see any project through to the end is an achievement.

Don’t look for excuses to berate yourself.

Take the opportunity to pat yourself on the back. Celebrate all the perfect things you’ve already done.

Photo by Kjunstorm Released under Creative Commons License

Similar Posts:

• The Return of the SEO School Ninjas
• The Number 1 Secret Of All Successful People
• Is Your Blog Reader Friendly?

Tags: confidence, self doubt