Good is the enemy of great.
Understand this and you’ll be very successful.
At first reading it sounds absurd. How can this be? Surely creativity is a progression. You go from ordinary to OK to good and then on to great. It’s a simple progression, right?
To some extent that’s true. But more often than not coming up with a great idea is a rollercoaster ride of thoughts with no logical progression. You lurch from the interesting to the absurd to the good then back again to the absurd.
Within this maelstrom of thoughts veering all over the place, it can be easy to settle on something that feels right. Something that seems to make sense of all the confusion. You’ll feel relief when you get to this point. You’ll think you’ve cracked it. You’ll feel good.
But then you have to take a step back from what feels really good and ask:
But is it great?
And that is the hardest thing to do.
Because you’re at good!
And your brain is saying surely this is great.
But your heart knows it isn’t.
So park that good idea and keep going. Trust in inspiration to come up with a great idea – that idea that’s going to put everything else in the shade.
Getting to good is hard enough, but given half the chance good will stop you from getting to great.
Whenever I show someone an idea and they say, Oh, that’s really good, I know I’ve got to tear it up, head back to the drawing board, and keep going.