Why not You?
Carlota
March 22, 2012
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If nothing else, if I could get all my clients/humans everywhere to understand that perfection is one of the biggest time-wasters… I’d be (somewhat) satisfied. And I say this as a former anorexic, so I know all about how damaging the search for perfection can really be. I’m thinking about perfection—and how boring it is—because so frequently I find clients use the ideal of perfection, and conversely, their lack thereof, to stop themselves from starting important things. These are the same clients who look at me and say something like, “I mean, maybe if I knew as much as you do about business….” And then, inwardly, I sort of grimly chuckle because, once again: I was a history major in college, who then moved to Russia, fell into TV news, did very well, left to go to law school, graduated with enough debt to buy a third-rate African dictator a decent McMansion, and finally started this business because people kept asking me for my advice and then referring me to their friends… and, oh yes: the cats won’t work. My point being, to quote Homer Simpson, “I was told there’d be no math.” I knew from nothing about business. History? I can talk to you for days about Stalin’s purges, or the Siege of Lenningrad, for example…but business? Um, not so much.
But I figured if so many other idiots people could give completely retarded advice coach…well, I actually had good ideas, and realistic solutions to problems so…why not me? What was the worst that could happen? I’d make a mistake? And, nu? So what? I’ve worked for Nancy Grace, for f**k’s sake. I’ve attended planning meetings with Nancy Grace. (That right there is guaranteed to let me skip a few reincarnations and achieve Nirvana at least 15 minutes early.)
I wasn’t hooked on perfection when I started this business. I was hooked on helping people. I was hooked on doing something useful and important and valuable. I thought, “Well, why not me?” And to that end, I’m attaching a link to an amazing excerpt from Carole King’s forthcoming autobiography. Whatever you feel about her music, read the excerpt to savor her stunning confidence, at 18(!!) in herself and her talent. And the next time you start assuming you can’t do something, anything, that actually you, probably better than anyone else on the planet can do…maybe you’ll think of teenaged Carole King shrugging and thinking, “Why not me?”