When Christa Quarles became OpenTable’s CEO last year, she quickly realized her teams were trying to perfect ideas and projects before showing them to her.

“They would waste a ton of time trying to get it perfect,” she told the New York Times. ” “So I said, ‘Early, often, ugly. It doesn’t have to be perfect because then I can course-correct much, much faster. No amount of ugly truth scares me.'”

Early. Often. Ugly. That’s a pretty good mantra to follow when developing ideas and projects. Because getting  early feedback from our team, our decision makers and our endusers — rather than holding out for perfection — lets us make quick adjustments and keep surging ahead.

But when our focus is solely on perfection, fear of mistakes and analysis paralysis often overtake creativity and momentum.

“As certain as rain will make you wet, wrote Kilian McDonnell, “perfection will do you in.”