Debbie Fields Is Wrong

I once heard Debbie Fields, when talking about success, state 'Good enough, never is.'

The idea here of course is that it's not good to settle for 'good enough', and that's not the way to success. I respectfully disagree and I'd like to ask Ms. Fields, 'Debbie, at what point did you decide to start selling your cookies?'


We all know that 'perfection' by definition is unattainable. Therefore anything less than perfect can always be improved. And in the case of a cookie, one person's perfect will be different than another person's. Therefore if you were trying to create the perfect cookie, you would be chasing an unattainable goal.


This leads to my premise that at some point Debbie had to actually utter those words, whether out loud or in her head, 'This is good enough.' Had she not done so, she would still be working on her recipe in her kitchen.


So from a success standpoint, and making the most of your ideas, be sure to get 'out there' even before your product or idea is perfect.


General Colin Powell said he makes decisions after getting 80% of the facts. If you wait for 100%, you'll never make a decision.


Avoid the paralysis of analysis, and just do it. You can perfect it as you go. It's o.k. to have something be a work in progress. A nearly perfect idea making you money is better than a perfect idea sitting in your desk drawer.

Politically Correct

In this country we all have the right to our opinion. That, however, does not make all our opinions right.


While I have no problem with people being sensitive to each other's situations, we may want to examine the extent to which so many seem to go just to make sure we don't offend.


It seems as if so many people are letting others get away with doing the wrong thing, simply because they are afraid to stand up for what is right and wrong.


We all see things on a daily basis that we know are wrong, yet we fail to speak out simply so we don't offend the other person.


Well the truth is, we can't be all things to all people. I don't advocate going out of our way to be sure we offend, but if we don't offend someone, we really aren't doing much with our lives.


If we take a look back in history, even the greatest people we can think of had someone opposed to them. It is the people who live a life of quiet, that also lead a life of quiet desperation.


Stand up for what you believe. You will offend somebody, but it's better than being a nobody.


Stand for something. Be passionate about what you do. These two things often lead to great success!

President Bush's Oprah Appearance

Again, not to get political, but this just happens to be a good example.


I just saw former President Bush's appearance on Oprah yesterday. While I'm not a big daytime (nor night time) tv watcher, I couldn't help but pay attention as I was eating dinner.

One of the things that struck me was how good of a person he really seems to be, largely because of what I often refer to as someone's 'character'. Character as I describe it is when someone has conviction in what they are doing, and does what they believe in, and does what they say they will, never allowing popular opinion to blow you off course, no matter what others may think.


It was obvious during the interview, and by looking at his presidency, that he is a man of character. He could have done a lot of things differently and been more popular, yet he stuck to what he believed in the face of adversity, and public criticism.

As a result his popularity diminished, but you can tell he feels good about holding his ground about his core values and what he believes.


I'd much rather follow a man who tells you what he believes and lets you know where he is going, and does what he says, even if it is opposite of what I believe, than a man who is only in it for popularity. Popularity holds no substance, is fleeting, and eventually means nothing.


By contrast, if you look at the current administration, who campaigned on getting the troops out of Iraq, closing Guantanamo Bay, and has done neither. Sure it was popular and useful to get elected, but how does it look now, knowing the person making those promises didn't keep them? 


I'm not making a political example here, it's just a good, current example of the difference in character. I know we can find other poor examples of both political parties and I'm not saying one is better than the other. I'm just getting to the important point that it is much better to be unpopular and have great character, than it is to be popular and have a poor character.


In the long run, you will eventually be judged, based on your character.