Be good Quote by Scott Berkun
“I don’t want to be perfect. I want to be useful, I want to be good, and I want to sound like myself. Trying to be perfect gets in the way of all three.”
About This Quote
Source Talk: “The Art of Being Useful” at TEDx, 2018
He prefers being useful, good, and authentic over striving for perfection, which hinders those goals.
In simple terms: Be useful, good, authentic, not perfect.
Key Takeaway
Embrace imperfection.
Themes
authenticity
usefulness
self‑acceptance
perfectionism
Mood
reflective
motivational
Type
self‑help
inspirational
When to use this quote
- workplace
- creative projects
- personal relationships
Key Concepts
psychology
personal growth
identity
Questions to Reflect On
- What does “useful” mean to you?
- How can you balance quality with authenticity?
A Different Perspective
Perfectionism can still drive high standards.
![“Human beings, who are almost unique [among animals] in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.” — Douglas Adams” quote by Scott Berkun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/b7c/scott-berkun-12409_remarkable_human-beings-who-are-almost-unique-among_74918.jpg)
![“When I'm the speaker, I know that special moment [just before speaking] is the only time I will have the entire audience's full attention. Unless an alien spaceship crash-lands on stage midway through the talk, the silence before I begin is the most powerful moment I have. What defines how well…” quote by Scott Berkun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/426/scott-berkun-12409_aliens_when-i-m-the-speaker-i-know-that-special_210194.jpg)
![“History can’t give attention to what’s been lost, hidden, or deliberately buried; it is mostly a telling of success, not the partial failures that enabled success.[31] Without at least imagining the missing dimensions to the stories, our view of how to make things happen in the present is…” quote by Scott Berkun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/07f/scott-berkun-12409_failure_history-can-t-give-attention-to-what-s-b_625395.jpg)
