If there is one thing that I am always reminded of as I go through life, it’s something that a co-worker told me when I was about 25. It’s the one piece of advice I would love for young people to consider.
I have no idea what we were talking about but my co-worker JD said, “you are 25. Trust me, you think you know everything but you don’t know shit.”
No not a real tree – a proverbial tree.
In the chance you haven’t heard this saying, it happens to be one of my favorites. It’s an old Chinese proverb. (Is there such a thing as a new Chinese proverb?)
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
If you are human, especially one near the age of 50, you tend to think of things you didn’t do when you were younger.
About 15 years ago, I stumbled across the term ‘Quantity Over Quality.’ At first, this went against everything I knew about work and life. What good is quantity if there is no quality? At the same time, I was talking to a friend about the concept and he said that in Alcohol Anonymous, they had a similar phrase – Progress Not Perfection.
Over the years, my use of the term has morphed into Progress Over Perfection.
It’s only a mistake if you don’t learn from it.