It took me almost 27 years to realize that humans are not meant to be perfect.

How can you define perfect? Nobody can. Nobody care. And, I learnt it in a hard way.

For all this time, I think :

1. I need to become a ‘perfect’ leader to set examples to my team.
2. I need to have ‘perfect’ english to write.
3. I need to be a ‘perfect’ person to be liked by other people.
4. I need to have a ‘perfect’ career.
5. I need to be a ‘perfect’ strategist to create some breakthrough ideas.
6. And many more ‘perfect’.

Did I get anything from trying to be perfect? Nothing. I lose more rather than gain more.

Pursuit of perfection makes me blind and deaf, and forget to enjoy all the life’s wonder that is happening around me.

I forgot to “stop and smell the roses”, enjoy my youth and cherished every moments.

I closed myself towards any opportunities that comes to my life, because I am afraid it’s not the perfect things that I want to aim for.

I spent lot of effort to make sure raindrops is not falling on my head, and I forgot that life also about dancing in the storm and singing in the rain.

I become a d*ck because my ego and ambition take me over.

I am lucky that I have buddies/friends/comrades that stay with me, and keep telling me that my life is still waiting up for me. Keep enjoying life, don’t rush everything, and cherish every moments.

It’s really hard to let my old habit go, and I am grateful that everyone around me (hopefully) have enough patient for me.

So, for those who strive to be “imperfect”, this is some advices that I still try to apply in my life.

Learn to “accept” and let go.

I realized ‘perfection’ is the result of my fear to embrace and welcome the unexpected. And I forgot, there are lot of imperfect things in my life that give me something better. I just need to let go, and give my best shoot in everything and let the universe play his game. Learning to accept and embrace the flaw of life gives you perfection that you want.

Balance your ego and ambition.

My friend told me that good things in life come in a form of beautiful glass ball. And, your happiness depends on how we hold the ball. If we hold it too tight, it will crush and hurt. But, If it’s too loose, it will fall down and break into pieces. What is the learning here? To keep enjoying life, find the balance between the ego, ambition and happiness.

Stop comparing yourself with others.

Life are meant to be hard. Walk in our own shoe, not the others. Stop to think how to satisfy people’s opinion. Just be who we are.

Seek the answers in others.

The truth is, no one has all the answers, including you. Make ourselves vulnurable, let others fill in the gap, trust them. If you are a leader, trust your people more, let them fill you. Extend your trust.

Cherish every moments.

Have fun, go out, smell the roses, wander, travel. Life is too short to be spend alone.

It’s hard to walk the talk when my “perfection” mode take me over. Sometimes, I even still fall at the same mistakes over and over again.

But, the what makes me survive is.. To know that its okay to make a mistakes, as long as I learn something from it.

And I feel, that’s the meaning of “perfect” that I am looking for.

Like Ralph Waldo Emerson said :

Life is a journey, not a destination.

You need a great stamina, perseverance, and durability to ensure you are able to reach the finish line before other people does.

There are no such thing called “short cut” to reach the finish line, because you need to experience all the hardship and face the challenge in the middle of the journey. Burn out, exhaustion, injury is just another story for people who had complete marathon competition in their life. Just like Kelly Clarkson said in her song — What doesn’t kill you make you stronger. It’s just another step on the stairs towards perfection in their running skill and career.

We also need a great stamina, perseverance, and durability to become successful and authentic in building our brand.

Business become more competitive and dynamic. Now the competition is not only come from big corporation, but also come from small and medium player that offer relatively cheaper products with the same quality with what the big guy offer to us.

Consumer also getting smarter and more selective in consuming or choosing a particular brand that they will use everyday. It’s really important for us to keep the promises to the consumer. Otherwise, they will not hesitate to tell and share their bad experiences to their friends that could lower down our credibility in their mind. And, keeping promises is not an easy task.

One thing that I believe don’t change is the change itself. We need to keep up with technology and innovation to ensure we are not left behind. If we are not adapting our brand or business with the current trend, maybe we will missing out the big chunk that maybe could make our brand leap faster.

There are a lot of things happening at the same time in the middle of the journey. We don’t know whether it will be a grace or disaster for our business.

We become confuse and disoriented by these things. We often lost our focus and we just complicated ourselves with a lot of things. In the end, we create a ‘short cut’ by reacting to all of these things without any clear strategy or direction. We hope the ‘short cut’ could bring our business back on track, or make us different. Some of it works, but sometimes, things become uncontrollable, even just make it worse.

KEY STRATEGY : FOCUS

I believe there’s only one thing that become the common trait between all of the champions in various industry, including sport, art, science, etc. It’s not merely about physical strength or intellectual.

It’s about focus.

Goal, ambition, and uniqueness is a common trait that you can find on anyone. But, there are less people that has the ability to focus on making their goal and ambition become reality. Ability to focus on their goal and idealism instead of following the crowd. Focus is one of the important aspect in brand building strategy.

We need to stay focus on our brand belief and vision instead of the external aspects. Let the idea speak about our brand, and we can stay in our own way to make our brand authentic.

Do not focus on how the world change, but focus on how our brand idea could change the world and impacting people’s life.

Technology are invented to resonate our brand idea towards different channel in more effective way. If you think digital is not fit with your idea, then don’t do digital. Focus your resources on channel that makes your brand idea focus and relevant.

Focus to consumer who appreciate and worth-pursuing target audiences that fit with our brand idea. We are here to grow with people who believed in our brand, not to pleased everyone.

Let’s focus on the plan to make our brand authentic, not to create a ‘short cut’ that may make our brand loss it relevance.

Idea is a Diamond. Idea stays forever in people’s heart. It resonates generation through generation. It give an added value. It always shining and bright wherever they are.

Like a diamond, many great things start from a single and tiny ideas, either its good or bad.

Orville & Wilbur Wright had a silly idea to makes people fly. Thomas Alfa Edison had an impossible idea to create a light at night. Even, Martin Luther King have an idea to create equality between White & Black Man.

And, we can see what is the impact of their ideas to the world now.

What’s the most resilient parasite? An idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules.

There are always an idea behind every successful brand that able to change and inspire the world in their own way.

Anyone can create cola Drink. But, only Coca Cola that have idea to create Happiness to people through their Cola taste and unique bottle shape.

Anyone can create computer devices. But, only Apple that have idea breaking the status quo by thinking differently from others using their Macbook and iMac.

Anyone can produce coffee. But, only Starbucks that have idea to provide a “3rd Place” to enjoy a cup of cappucino between your house and office.

The question is : Can we build a brand without an idea?

Here’s the answer : Brand are authentic because of its idea, not the products.

Human is not creature of logic. We are creature of emotions. Every decision we make is purely based on emotion, not a logic.

Yes, we are still looking for a good quality products with a reasonable price. We are also still looking for discount and promotion that offered by the store or brand.

But, our decision to buy is not based on those factors. We decide to buy a certain brand because they could inspire our life with their ideas.

Products is could be easily imitated. Ideas are authentic.

The authenticity of the Brand is measured by the idea. And, consumer will value it because they want the brand they choose could give them an authentic and different experiences compared to other brand.