Does “good enough" get it done?

Does “good enough" get it done?

 Have you ever heard a sales manager say, “That’s good enough to get by” or a coach tell a team, “Your performance today just has to be good enough to win”? Somebody has probably made a similar statement to you at some point in your life.

Are you okay with someone describing your performance as “good enough”? I’m sure you’re expecting me to tell you that it’s never okay to settle for just being “good enough.” If so, you’re in for a surprise. 

The more business I do and the more conversations I have with business owners and sales/service people, the more I realize that “good enough" is just that… as long as it produces results. If your efforts get you where you want to go, how could anyone argue that there’s something wrong with being “good enough”? 

In my career in real estate, I used to tell myself before I went on a listing appointment, “Today I don't need to be the best listing agent in town. I just need to be the best I can be at this appointment. I have to be good enough to get that listing.” 

“I think my greatest victory was every time I walked out there I gave it everything I had. I left everything out there. That’s what I’m most proud of. I can’t go win Wimbledon anymore, so if what I’ve done in the past is not good enough, let it go.” - Jimmy Connors 

But should we accept just being good enough and give up on reaching higher? Absolutely not! We should keep trying to improve and not leave any of our God-given talent on the table. We should always expect more from ourselves than just being good enough. We should expect more from ourselves than our managers and customers require us to be. We should expect more from ourselves than our job description states. The good news is that WE CAN keep getting better! 

“Sometimes doing your best is not good enough. Sometimes you must do what is required.” - Winston S. Churchill 

If you go to a sales appointment with the mindset that you demand excellence from yourself and you end up not being your best but you still get the deal, then apparently you were good enough. 

I just finished watching the Alamo Bowl between Oregon and TCU. At halftime Oregon was leading 31 to 0. Both teams had a couple of their key players out of the game or not returning for the second half. TCU could have thrown in the towel at that point, but instead they decided to do what they had to do to get back in the game. They didn’t play outstandingly in the second half; however, their playing was good enough to make Alamo Bowl history when they came back to win the game in triple overtime 47 – 41. 

So does “good enough” get the job done? The answer is “Yes!” 

If not now, then when? And if not you, then who?