Cost vs Return: Why Making Something Perfectly is Not Helpful
We work (expend time and effort) to either provide a service or create a product for others. Ultimately if the resources we spend to create that service, produces returns equal to that which we spent, then our actions are sustainable. This is really good if we enjoy what we do (even though financially breaking even isn't very comfortable). If we profit from our endeavor, even better! It means we can do more of what we love and allocate more assets to future development of the product. There's a relationship therefore between how much time we spend and the cost of the final product.
Lets say we spend lots of time making something perfect (when less time would have been sufficient). Then ultimately the cost goes up significantly. So now, your service has a conflict of interest. It may be valuable but prospective customers are reconsidering due to cost.
If the service is not very affordable, whether it generates capital is dependent on demand and existing competition. If you have strong competitors who make an equal value product for lower cost then you will be eliminated. On the other hand, if you have no direct competitors, there is more flexibility in having high cost and final capital flow comes down to the demand. In any case, it's not preferable to raise costs with respect to unchanging value.
So at work it's really important to think in terms of "is the task I'm doing valuable". Doing something perfectly for the sake of doing it perfectly is not something the meshes well in a business environment. From this point of view, it's easy to see why deadlines are so important. After a certain point of time/resources investment, the work you're doing is actually charity.
This doesn't mean the work should be poorly done or sloppy (because it makes it less likely to succeed). It just means the product or service doesn't need to be ideal(perfect) and needs to be able to do its job well enough to the extent that it provides value to the people who buy it.
Key Take Away: Spending too much time on a specific task, damages the value of your work. Your work doesn't need to perfect it just needs to be valuable.
Lets say we spend lots of time making something perfect (when less time would have been sufficient). Then ultimately the cost goes up significantly. So now, your service has a conflict of interest. It may be valuable but prospective customers are reconsidering due to cost.
If the service is not very affordable, whether it generates capital is dependent on demand and existing competition. If you have strong competitors who make an equal value product for lower cost then you will be eliminated. On the other hand, if you have no direct competitors, there is more flexibility in having high cost and final capital flow comes down to the demand. In any case, it's not preferable to raise costs with respect to unchanging value.
So at work it's really important to think in terms of "is the task I'm doing valuable". Doing something perfectly for the sake of doing it perfectly is not something the meshes well in a business environment. From this point of view, it's easy to see why deadlines are so important. After a certain point of time/resources investment, the work you're doing is actually charity.
This doesn't mean the work should be poorly done or sloppy (because it makes it less likely to succeed). It just means the product or service doesn't need to be ideal(perfect) and needs to be able to do its job well enough to the extent that it provides value to the people who buy it.
Key Take Away: Spending too much time on a specific task, damages the value of your work. Your work doesn't need to perfect it just needs to be valuable.
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