We’re not perfect; we don’t want to be (and if you’re honest, you don’t believe in absolute perfection either).
The truth is nobody is perfect. Look in the mirror. You know it.
We have an increasing obsession with pristine, manicured, curated, and idealized ‘realities’ that project us in the most perfect light—a bar and an ideal that isn’t even achievable. Whether it’s on social or your professional networks or in your conversations with friends, family, colleagues, or customers, it’s all filtered. It’s varying degrees of BS.
Nobody’s perfect. We make mistakes. It’s human to do so, yet we try to hide it and touch it up like some kind of ‘Photoshop’ filter for our lives. Why?
We have fallen victim to this suffocating, self-imposed measure ourselves and we’re done with it. We want to open up a conversation and look at the reality of it all…
We’re not perfect and we don’t want to be.
We do want to be a company of individuals that is always learning, always moving forward and looking to how we can be better every day. We do want to put a spotlight on what it is to continually improve and the emotional labour and work that goes into truly owning up to our mistakes and coming out better because of them. We do want to be transparent as a team and showcase our successes and our failures.
If success is rooted in our failures—and it is—then we should have no problem talking about the failures we experience and the times we have come up short. In fact, our successes and brilliance are only because of the times we failed and weren’t ‘perfect’. We should be just as eager and open to share our misses as we are to share our home runs. They are sequentially connected.
Recently, we received our first sub-par public review. It was only average. Not stellar and perfect like we are used to, but average. It shook us and it scared us. Honestly, it made us upset.
But, the problem isn’t the review or the 3.5/5 stars—although stars are awesome. The problem is that we thought we had nailed it. We thought things were great. We thought the patron was happy…and we thought we were in line for another 5-star review.
There are two sides to each story and experience, and that doesn’t mean that one or either is ‘wrong’. It’s just the vantage point and belief that each side carries.
How we act and what we do can be ‘wrong’ though. What we choose to learn from this can define something much greater than any ‘star’ ever could.
We aren’t proud of our failures but we certainly shouldn’t be ashamed of them.
And so, if reviews are meant to show what it's like to deal with a company, then from now on, we will show what it’s like to deal with our company. No matter who it is, no matter what their experience, no matter what they want to say—great or meh—everyone is going to be asked to leave a review. Not just the best; not just the ones we want you to see. Every. Single. One.
We have nothing to hide and everything to learn and show. We want to stand naked (proverbially, of course) in front of the world and say, “This is pb+j. Come and get it, beautiful people!”.
Nobody’s perfect. And there’s freedom in that.
We are rarely ever measured on one interaction or one data point, but rather by consistency over time. What are we like averaged over time through lots of different circumstances and interactions? That answer is the more accurate picture of what we are like.
The same is true in business. There are some imperfect occurrences, sure, but over time and overwhelmingly by volume, we show our true, weird, and brilliant colours.
And after all of this, we’re pretty sure you’re not actually looking for somebody ‘perfect’. If you were, it means you’re looking for a team that doesn’t make mistakes; without mistakes, there is no learning, no curiosity, no creativity, and most importantly no humanity…and we bet you want all of those things in a partner.
We’re done pretending to be perfect. We’ve let that go.
We’re simply focused on being better instead.
Tom + Kyle
+++
If you want to get to know a bit more about what we believe and what we’re all about, say hello.
If you’re interested in being better on the daily, check out what Commerce Chefs is cooking up.