Perfection vs. Success

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I agree. But what do you do with that perfect thing, then? Matter of fact: Everyone can, when devoting enough time and effort to it, get to that point of getting it perfect. And then you’ll be left with the same thing.

So, in order not only to make something perfect, but to make it successful, you’ll have to take things one step further.

I believe that it’s most important to get it to the “nothing left to take away” point. More so, I think it’s crucial to know what the very core is of the thing you’re trying to do (be it a new technology, a new product or whatever else that has to compete). It’s complicate to understand a patchwork of things, but it’s easy to outline the major benefits of just that core.

Now start to expand, on the very basis of that. Add features people will like. Add features people don’t expect. Do no surveys. If you ask people what they want and then fulfil those wishes you’ll never, ever deliver something above your target audience’s expectations.

Observe people and think for yourselves. What would be useful? What is there to add that no one has ever thought about? What is there to add that no one thinks is possible? Add these features.

In my opinion, this is what apple does on their products. They are reduced to the very core, and then extended with new features no one specifically asked for. Time Machine, Spotlight, OSX at all. Apple might not always get all the things people want done by the time they release something new, but they seem to get it right in terms of “what people didn’t expect”, or thought of being impossible.

The more you look at successful products that way, the more likely you’ll find something that by far doesn’t do everything it could, and competing products can do, but you’ll find those unique, visionary features that no one expected.