Ruined by 100%

Waiting to be judged. (Taken in Napier, New Zealand in the late 1930s. Photo from National Library NZ)

I interviewed a young, ambitious woman for a job. She was trying to dazzle me by taking over and asking the questions herself.

“So tell me,” she said, “What are the qualities that make someone successful in this position?”

I admired her boldness and conscientiousness, but she was not going to be a good fit. As a small business owner with strong leadership ability but poor management skills, I needed someone who was not going to need me to tell her how to be successful. And I did not need someone who was going to try to dazzle me.

Bosses are not very sympathetic characters, so my story may not land with you. But hear me out. When you’re dating, you aren’t necessarily seeking the prettiest, wealthiest, sexiest person, right? You’re looking for a person you’re going to click with. It’s the same with hiring. The most hard-working, high-achieving person with the most advanced degrees may not be the right fit. “Perfect on paper” doesn’t translate to perfect in real life, or perfect for me. We all get to choose what works for us, and it doesn’t say anything about the worth of the other person.

As a matter of fact, I tend to eschew candidates who expect their credentials to speak for themselves. I’m looking for people who are always growing and learning, regardless of the letters after their name.

This goes back to a dangerous lesson of traditional school, which is that grades are a good measure of learning. Maybe they are in some cases. But it’s also possible to view grades as a reliable measure of a person’s willingness to jump through hoops to please authority figures.

If you value those traits in an employee, great. But in my organization, I want people who can think for themselves. I want people who are looking for the best way to do something, not the right way. I want people who are motivated to do the work for its own sake, not for the sake of pleasing me.

When you carry a “school” mindset into adulthood, you are always looking for that 100%. You don’t want to make mistakes that cost you points. But 100% is an illusion. There is always more to learn. There are many valid ways to solve a problem, and infinite problems to solve after that. And in real life, mistakes don’t cost you — they help you grow.

It can take some effort to free oneself from the comfort of the A-plus. How do you measure success without it? It’s very seductive to think that you can get 100% — that you did everything right. But that’s not the way life works, and the need to validate yourself that way can cut you off from actual opportunities to improve and get better. On the other hand, letting go of needing a perfect score will expand the possibilities around you. You’ll be more effective and have more fun.

In reality, as my uncle says, there is no valid objective measurement of a human life. You get to decide the metrics that matter to you. And the ones you’ve chosen aren’t helping you, choose a different set. It’s a little scary but infinitely rewarding.