A couple weeks ago, I was workshopping an idea with a dear friend of mine for what I've now come to call my Powerhouse Sales Sessions. We were jamming on the phone, late on a Sunday, and she asked me when I was going to put this idea into motion. I hedged, not sure how long it would take me to come up with the full idea, a working model, and enough interested people to make it work.
"Mid-December," I said. "I think I can pull this together in eight weeks or so."
I wasn't happy with that answer, because it seemed too long, but I wanted to get this right—to make it perfect. After I got off the phone, I went to talk to Brian on the couch. He was reading about Jack Kirby, one of the greatest comic-book artists of all time, and he wanted to share a quote with me by Kirby. (Here's where the universe gets sneaky, folks.) The quote is a long one—you can read it in its entirety here—but the part that stuck out to me was this:
Damn perfection. You don’t have to be perfect. You are never going to do a Sistine Chapel, unless someone ties you to a ceiling. Damn perfection. - Jack Kirby
Okay then. Here I was, trying to create the perfect roundtable/deep work group session/opportunity to help more people at once and instead of just charging ahead, as is my wont, I was being precious about it. I was hedging, and dithering. And then I went back and re-read the quote again, and another part jumped out to me:
All a man has in this field is pressure. And I think the pressure supplies a stimulation. You have your own stresses, that will supply your own stimulation. If you want to do it, you’ll do it. And you’ll do it anyway you can. - Jack Kirby
Kirby was talking about comic book creation, which is fairly different from sales strategy consulting, but the process of creation is the same, no matter what your field. So, now I knew—I had to stop being precious and I had to supply my own stimulation in the form of pressure. That I'm good at. So the next morning, I got up, designed the first Powerhouse Sales Session and scheduled it for October 21st.
I know it won't be the Sistine Chapel, but then again, I'm not tied to a ceiling. Damn perfection. I'm doing it anyway I can.
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