What is Procrastination costing you?

I hear from physicians frequently about their ideas for a new business or desires to make changes to their practices, and I can almost touch their excitement and fever as they share their thoughts. And yet very few make it to the starting line.

Why is that?

A pet theory of mine is that, as physicians going through training and then entering the real world of practice, we are "bred" to be perfect ... infallible. 

So our active Inner Critics forge iron-clad alliances with the external perceived threats of malpractice lawsuits, patients who demand "to be fixed", and the friends and family that generally hold us in high regard, and we fall prey to the idea that everything we do must be perfect. No room for risking failure.

So when it comes time to start a new venture, or make significant changes in our practices, we freeze ... transfixed by the idea that our knowledge and execution may not be perfect! And that would be catastrophic. Or so we believe.

This month's Entrepreneurial MD Newsletter article takes issue with Perfection, by challenging the old notion of "If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing well" (I clearly recall my parents and teachers instilling this into me) .

Instead, I vote for "If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing poorly ... at first!"

What's your vote?