Liberate yourself from being a perfectionist. In this episode, I'm going to address
how to get a project to near perfection in 90 days. I'm going to share a story with you.
Put on your seat belt. Get ready. I want to liberate you.
So, my name is Doug Andrew and I have been very blessed in my life to be able to write thus far
12 books. All of which have become bestsellers. And I have a confession to make. I used to be a
perfectionist. But I got liberated. And if you can relate to me that you don't want to do anything
unless all the ducks are lined up in a row, you want everything to be perfect. That's the way
I used to be. And I'm so grateful because I got liberated years ago. And I've been helping people
optimize their financial assets and minimize taxes for years. But also, I have a book that I just
released. It's called the 10 keys transformation. And in this book, I share in the introduction how
I got liberated from perfectionism. And I actually tell a story of how this helped me go through a
major breakthrough. So, get ready. If this is intriguing you whether you're a perfectionist or
not, I can show you how to get a project completed in 90 days or less to near perfection by doing
what I'm going to share. You may be intrigued. Okay, how did I get liberated and who did it?
Well, I have a coach, Dan Sullivan. He's coached over 6,000 of the world's top entrepreneurs.
And years ago, he taught a concept that oftentimes many people get caught in what he calls The Gap,
okay? No matter what we do as we go through life and we're trying to be a better business person
or a doctor, a dentist, or a chiropractor, a realtor, a cpa, a better father, mother,
husband, wife, or whatever. And as we progress, oft times, we get caught in a gap between where
we are now and where we still want to be because we've been taught, "Oh, come on. We're trying to
be perfect." I mean in the new testament Matthew chapter 5 verse 48, "Be therefore perfect." But
you know in Hebrew, it's "Be therefore becoming." Okay, it's more of a journey, not a destination.
And so, Dan would teach us, "Hey, don't get caught in the gap between where you are now and where you
still want to be." Take a moment to celebrate where you used to be. What what you used to
be like or what you were doing or how you spoke or played the piano or whatever it is. And look
where you are now. Come on, celebrate where you have come from and then you can look objectively
about where you want to go next, okay? So, that's called getting out of the gap. But here's what he
shared with me, because back in 1999, I had been working 10 years on my first book. It was titled
Missed Fortune because of the fortunes people miss out on because they simply don't know what they
don't know. And I had worked on this book for 10 years. You know what I finally did?
I forced myself to write for one chapter a page with a myth about money, okay? A common myth
and what the reality was and a strategy on how to overcome it. And then I put down some bullet
points on if I had somebody's undivided attention for 15 to 20 minutes to dispel this myth,
what would I say and what order would I say it? And then I would walk an 18-hole golf course in
the morning and I would simply dictate it. So, I got it all dictated when I finally decided to
do it that way. It got transcribed. It was 300 pages. And it sat on my credenza for 3 years
waiting for me to have time to perfect it. Oh, my heavens, I could kick myself. And here's how Dan
liberated me from waiting until it got perfect. Dan Sullivan walked up to a flip chart and he
drew a big rectangle and he put a line at about 20% down from the top and he said, "Doug.." And
he put 80% and the biggest part of that square. He said, "This is what I've learned because I used to
be a perfectionist. Whenever you have any project that is 80% there, record it, print it, say it,
send it, release it, do it!" I almost went into withdrawal. I was shaking. "You release it when
it's only 80% there?" He goes, "Yeah, people want the information. They don't care if it's perfect.
When it's 80% there, release it." He said, "You've been working on this book for 10 years.
Print it." "Okay". And he said, "This is what I'm going to recommend. You print 500 copies, get them
out to people, ask for their feedback. You will have 500 editors instead of the 12 at time warner
who is your publisher." "Okay, so what am I going to do?" "Well, you ask for their feedback and
you'll acknowledge them in the book. Or you give them a thank you note. You send them a final copy.
And they will be your editor. And they will report back on what's unclear and so forth.
And then when you get that feedback, you tweak the last 20% that was not perfect
to 80. And you print the second edition. And you send that out. And you'll get feedback. And
you will tweak that to 80%. And now you'll be 96% there by the second edition.
Then you get feedback and you tweak the last 4% to 80%. And the third edition will be 99.2%
perfect. And by the fourth edition, you'll be near perfect in 90 days." I said, "Hmmm..." So, I
did it. You want to hear the story? Now, before I share this true story, if this is intriguing you,
be sure and share. Subscribe. I post an in-depth answer to a financial question almost on a daily
basis or life-changing concepts like this one. And then stay to the end because I want to gift
you a copy of my most recent best-selling book, okay? So, what happened is back at the turn of
the century, I'd been working on the book and I got it 80% there. And I thought, "Okay". I had a
speaking opportunity at a convention in Nashville, Tennessee. And I decided, "I am going to take 500
books to that address." Well, we got it 80% there and I was sitting with my graphic artist and the
printer was going to pick it up. They were going to print 500 copies over the weekend and deliver
them fully bound on Monday. We're sitting there waiting. They were going to be there by 5 o'clock,
it was 15 to 5 and all of a sudden I thought, "Well, okay. It's only 80% there." And I went,
"Wait a minute. We didn't have a cover. Do you know that Time Warner takes 3 months to design
a cover for a book? We didn't have a cover. Now, that's less than 80% there, right? So, I said,
"Okay, let me get a photograph and some bullet points with my bio. Why don't you get a picture
off the internet. So, a pot of gold or something." And so, she did that and in less than 15 minutes.
We had a cover, okay? And we released the files and the publisher went out and printed off 500
copies. I went to Nashville, Tennessee. I sold 420 books in one hour after my address. And I said,
"Please give me feedback." Within 30 days, I had feedback from hundreds of readers telling me,
"Golly, this was great. Could you clarify this? Could you give me an example? Illustrate this with
a story or whatever." I tweaked it. That last 20%, I tweaked to 80%. And the second edition,
I printed 2500 copies. Sent them out. I got feedback from those and the third edition that
I needed to print 5,000 copies. In 60 days, I was able to get feedback and I tweaked it to 99.2%.
Now, the fourth edition went out right after 90 days. And that's the one that got the attention
of Jillian Manus who was my literary agent that introduced me to the number one business book
publisher in the world, Time Warner. And they loved the book and commissioned me to write
another one. If I had waited around until it was perfect, it would still be sitting on my
credenza today 20 years later. So, what's the message? Listen, if my wife, Sherry and I...
And we've been married 48 years. If we clear back 48 years ago decided that we needed to
wait until we could afford to have children, we'd still be childless today. We had 6 children and
we always were able to afford them because you just adapt and do that. But if our mindset was,
"We're going to wait until we can afford them..." If I called the chief of police and I said, "You
know what? I want to go to an NBA game tonight down at the basketball arena but I don't want
to leave my house because I live about 30 minutes away until you tell me all the lights are green",
he would think I was some kind of a nut. How many times do we do that in life? We wait till all the
lights are green? All the ducks are lined up in a row. You know what?If I just get in the car
and I start going even if the first light is red, it turns green, and the next one; the next one,
I will get to the ball game on time 99.9 of the time if I just get in motion. And start
towards my goal or my destination instead of waiting till everything is perfect.
So, this is for you. I hope that you're beginning to feel a little bit liberated.
When you have any project you're working on and it's 80% there, print it, send it,
record it. Do it, get feedback. Tweak the next and release it and you'll be up to 96%. The third try
you'll be up to 99.2. And by the fourth edition, the fourth recording, the fourth time you do it,
you will be almost perfect. And why worry about the rest? Because my children revealed to me,
"Dad, you're not perfect anyway." Oh, I'll never forget the day they revealed that to me.
No. We're not perfect. But that's the way that you can overcome perfectionism if that's a
roadblock to you achieving anything. So, if this is resonating with you, my most recent
book that has just been released is called the 10 Keys Transformation. It's a 200-page book,
it's in color. It's in digital and also in audio. And this will help you exponentially elevate your
career, your profits, your customer engagement in 60 months or less while simplifying your life. And
this concept is right at the beginning. And so, I would love to gift you a free copy if you go to
free10KeysBook.com and you contribute a nominal amount towards the processing.
I want you to be empowered with this book. And if you like the audio version, there's an option
there also for you to listen and learn. Here's to your brighter future without having to be perfect.