Water the flowers, not the weeds

Creating some really good lines on Mt. Spetch, British Columbia, Canada.

In addition to running DMC Biotechnologies, I’m also trained as a mountain guide. In the craft of mountain guiding, you’re constantly thinking about how to deliver the best experience to your clients for any particular outing and any given set of conditions. This includes matching the day’s objective to the client’s technical ability, fitness level, and expectations. It also means accounting for environmental elements that can either enhance or detract from the experience as a whole (not to mention dramatically impact the overall hazards that you might encounter). In my early years of ski guiding, I would obsess over tour plans and weather forecasts and constantly fret about delivering the best possible skiing experience during both planning and while in the field.

Having enjoyed the wonderful fortune of skiing so many exceptional days (and my fair share of sub-optimal days as well), I was driven to achieve perfection in the experience for my clients. As with any skill that is overused, this attention to detail and drive for perfection became a hindrance to achieving the very outcome I was striving for — an overall positive customer experience.

Instead of celebrating a really good ski run, I would lament the perfect ski run if only there were a little softer powder or a few less tracks. Rather than enjoy the efficiency of an existing up-track, I would stew over the deviations in achieving Swiss-like perfection and aesthetic for each twist and turn of the track.

With significant reflection and perspectives from a variety of friends and mentors over après ski libations, I eventually came to the following two key learnings:

• Don’t let perfection be the enemy of success, and
• Water the flowers, not the weeds

Celebrating success on the summit of Mt. Spetch.

I eventually realized that spending so much time focusing on what I perceived to be deviations from perfection was detracting from the total experience and was preventing building upon the successes. I was obsessing over getting rid of weeds in the garden at the expense of cultivating the flowers — remember, the goal of the garden is not the absence of weeds, but the presence of something beautiful. It’s the same in business and technology: maximize the flowers, reduce the weeds, strive for continuous improvement, learn from mistakes, and celebrate successes.

Reflection and a continuous drive to improve in skiing, in mountain guiding, in technology, in business, and in life is a good thing. It keeps us on the cutting edge and enables us to do things that others cannot. If we are continuously striving to improve, by definition we will never achieve perfection. But we will achieve success. And that is what matters.