Episode 697 - Perfect Isn't

In this episode of Monday Morning Mojo, Phil explores the concept of perfection and why it shouldn't be our ultimate goal. He shares a compelling story from the late 1980s about his initial encounter with Berkshire Hathaway and the valuable lesson he learned about making investments. Phil emphasizes that success doesn't require perfection but rather a positive outlook and the ability to pivot and adapt. Discover how embracing imperfection can lead to personal growth and success.

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Transcript

Top performers in every field surround themselves with those who inspire them, who seek to build them up, and who push them to reach beyond their current limits. I am Phil Buchanan, executive chairman of Cannon Financial Institute. I designed Monday Morning Mojo to provide you with a weekly spark, a push and motivational insight to live your best life.

Thanks for joining. Good Monday morning. It is Phil here with episode 697 of Monday Morning Mojo. A couple of weekends back reminded me that perfect isn't really attainable. In fact, perfect isn't really interesting, and actually perfect shouldn't ever be the goal. Maybe with the exception of baseball, but more on that later.

In the late 1980s, I learned about a stock that was selling for $8,000 a share. That was crazy to me. I had begun working at the Trust Company of Georgia at the time, and that firm had a very close relationship with the Coca-Cola Corporation and Coca-Cola stock at the time was trading at about $45 a share.

I. So this $8,000 a share idea was, was bizarre. So I set out to do a little research on this organization, value line was my source. Now, for those of you that are pre-internet folks like me, you'll remember the three ring binder value line that got updated with new mailings each week. It was in value line that I did my first discovery of a company called Berkshire Hathaway.

Now, by the time I had put together enough money and had the confidence to buy a share of Berkshire Hathaway, I found that the price had dropped to $6,700. Whew. I determined that I had dodged a bullet. That stock was obviously going to fall in value. A year later, when I took a look at it again, it was over $9,000 this year.

I remember telling my boss at the time that I had missed the perfect opportunity to buy. He smiled as he said, the words that I'll always remember, and those were the best time to make a good investment is when you have the capital to do so. Now I did eventually acquire an interest in Berkshire Hathaway, and obviously it's been a great investment.

So every year I have tuned in to watch the annual meeting always covered by CNBC. This year is always Warren Buffet commented on the successes that the company had had, but also its failures. And in doing so, he made reference that one can never be perfect and no one finds perfect. That interesting. That resonated a lot.

This of course, coming from a man who for 60 plus years has been pretty darn good at being close to perfect. Now, later that Saturday and on that Sunday I watched. Professional golfer, Scotty Scheffler play what can only be defined as outstanding, excellent golf. And he came very close to breaking the record for the lowest four round score in a PGA event.

Watching him hit great shot after shot and make birdie after birdie was interesting but. It was his efforts of recovery on his errant shots that really pulled people in. Now, no one was wishing for bad shots, but we all make bad shots, and so it's uh, again, more interesting to see how the human factor came into play and how he was able to recover.

That was the thing that really captured my attention. It is true. Life is not about perfection. It's about how one moves forward. Regardless of the circumstances one finds themself in. It's about adjustments, it's about pivots. It's about positive momentum. I. In my earlier years, it was frustrating for me when things weren't my quote unquote perception of perfect.

What I came to learn is that my perceptions were just that my perceptions not necessarily anyone else's. Why did I have the hubris to believe that I could know what perfect should be? I only can rack that up to youth and inexperience. You know, all of us want success in our endeavors, but success doesn't require perfection.

It requires a positive outlook and an attitude of moving forward on this earth. There is no perfect, just the pursuit of it. We will all fail at perfection. When we fail, we can smile. We can dust ourselves off, and we can move forward. That's part of the key to a life well lived. Now, back to baseball for a moment.

In baseball, if a pitcher faces the minimum of 27 batters, that's three per inning over a 90 N game. And that picture doesn't allow a single one of those batters to reach base either by hit walk era, et cetera, and thus they get everyone out. They are credited with a perfect game. In July of 1994, I was in Texas for work.

My clients invited me to go watch the Texas Rangers play the California Angels that evening. Now I like baseball, and so I agreed to go. I did have an early morning the next day, so after four innings, I bid my friends aew and I went back to my hotel and I went to sleep. The next morning I opened my hotel door to pick up my copy of the USA Today Newspaper.

Yes, they used to leave them outside every hotel door every morning. As I picked up the paper, I saw the headline that Kenny Rogers of the Texas Rangers. Had thrown a perfect game the night before. Yes, the very game I had left after only four innings. So see, even when there is perfection in the air, folks like me still will leave early.

Just remember, it's not about perfect, it's about the pursuit of it, and when perfect doesn't occur, it's about moving forward. Have a great week. Monday Morning Mojo is production of Cannon Financial Institute, executive producer of Monday Morning Mojo is Sarah Jones. Editing and mixing is done by Danny Brunner.

Until next time, I'm Phil Buchanan reminding you to be a force for good. Have a great week and thanks for being part of the Mojo community.