Stop Waiting For Perfect

Watch the episode here:

• Discover why perfectionism is actually procrastination in disguise.
• Learn how taking imperfect action today leads to unstoppable momentum tomorrow.
• Hear real stories of starting from nothing and building something meaningful.
• Get the motivation to finally start that thing you’ve been putting off.
• Understand why your only regret will be not starting sooner.

What’s shakin? Hey, I’m Rick Jordan, and today we’re going all in. Today is going to be an awesome day. I want you to share this out with three people, at least, because as much as you’re going to be fired up about this, just like I am, you’re going to want to share this with other people, because you are so fired up. So here we go. Today. We’re talking about just fucking start. All right, I usually save my F bombs for like the middle, you know, for like a climactic moment. But I want you to hear this right away. Whatever you’re thinking about, whatever you want to do, whatever you’re thinking about, going after, whatever you want to accomplish in life. How long have you waited to begin that? How long have you said, You know what? I need this in place. I need that in place. I need this other thing to happen. I want to see this first. You know what, I’m scared. How long have you waited? Are you waiting for things to be perfect? Are you waiting for things to be just such a way, you know what? Because perfectionism is freaking procrastination in disguise, not actually procrastination in disguise. 

It’s actually procrastination as a choice. I’m gonna tell you a story about this podcast, right? Because this one here is almost 300 episodes. Who knows this actually might be the one I don’t know the last time I looked to you know, it was like 270 something. And I’ve talked with so many people, because there’s so many things that are hitting right now. I’m talking about me doing amazing global media. I’m talking about a public company. I’m talking about major media agencies that are watching all of my content online right now, and all these people that are surrounding and I think back to years ago, when I first said yes, when I first said yes to doing just one thing, and that was actually speaking in a NASDAQ board room. I had my very first thing of putting putting out my personal brand was my face on a jumbotron in the middle of Times Square. I know talk about, like, going big or going home, right? But at the same time leading up to that, because guys, that kind of stuff costs money, investing in anything, starting anything, is going to cost money, even when people say, Oh, I started with nothing, right? Which was literally me when I started my cyber security company 12 years ago. Yes, you could say that I started literally with nothing, because there wasn’t any quote, unquote, like infusion of cash to begin this thing. However, there was a lot of trickles of a lot of things. 

There was time away from my kids there. There was just dollars that had to be spent on something. I remember buying the very first iPad when it was released, I couldn’t even freaking afford it. It was like 700 bucks, right? And you think, Oh, that’s not a lot of money. But you know what? $700 was actually like my mortgage payment at that time. And during that time, I got to be like, 90 days behind, in foreclosure, almost booted out of the house, and I spent money on an iPad which was investing into the business. There was a reason I invested in that iPad, and that reason was to give me the most high tech possible appearance that I could possibly have. It’s the same reason still to this day, why I get the new iPhone every single freaking year, because it’s branding, because it’s investing, and because I said I’m going to start. I’m not going to wait until I think that I can afford to do these things, or till I think I have all these things in place in order for me to do this. You’ve heard the term like build a plane as you fly it, right? It’s even worse than that. Okay? You don’t even have freaking parts yet, and that’s when you should be starting. Whatever it is that you have in your head. What are you going after? I had somebody ask me the other day, it’s a new attorney that I brought on to the public company, right that I’m grateful to be the CEO of I had a new attorney Come on, and he’s like, Hey, Rick, what’s your number. And I think back to 12 years ago, when I started this because I didn’t want to start reach out to be a generational business, because there’s a lot of people and this is maybe different. One of the big differences between me and other people in my industry is that I didn’t start reach out to be a generational business. I actually started it because it was out of a need in the moment, understanding that where I wanted to be in life actually even had nothing to do with this company. But I knew that if I continued, if I because I was laid off, if I started to go and actually work another job, work a w2 role, which is okay if that’s what you want to go after, right? Because it’s amazing to actually, there’s entrepreneurs, right, but then there’s also intrapreneurs. That’s okay, but that wasn’t for me. 

I keep saying that my only single regret out of becoming an entrepreneur is that I didn’t do it five years sooner because I thought that. Needed a whole bunch of shit in place in order to be able to do that, until I was shoved into a moment to where I had no choice but to provide for my family, and actually was just thrust into this thing, I actually hope that you get a big kick in the ass, just as I did whatever that is to finally make the choice that you’ve been wanting to make for such a long time, to go after your dream, because the dream only stops when the dreamer stops dreaming. If you’re shoving that aside, if you’re saying, I need this, I need that first, I need all these other things, it’s bullshit. You’re feeding yourself, you’re procrastinating, you’re allowing yourself to die a slow, painful death inside. I’m so fired up today because I look back at these things that are hitting right now, and some of them I can’t even talk about because they’re not completely inked yet, but it’s just incredible to me because I sit back and I’m hitting you hard today, but I want you to also hear today that I am so grateful for every single thing, and it’s no easier now than what it was when I first started. In fact, it’s harder now it’s more difficult. Now there’s more emotional load, load to shoulder. There’s more things to keep in balance. There’s more to actually mentally process. There’s just so much more that’s going on, and at the same time, it’s still stretching. It is way harder now than what it was when I first started.

I can’t freaking stop. And if you want to get to that point to where you can’t freaking stop, think about this, if you’ve ever worked out, right, if you’ve ever gotten into the you know, it’s so freaking hard, you know, to get going and to get into things and to get into this rhythm, it’s so difficult to where it’s like every single time. And I’ve been there right the last time that I was there was actually when I had surgery this past year, and I was off for eight weeks I couldn’t work out. And then finally, at the end of the eight weeks, I’m like, every single morning that I got up to work out, I’m like, I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do this. Like, I’ll do it next week. You know what? Maybe I’m coming up with all these things in my head about maybe I’ll just give myself an extra week to recover, because I think that would be good for me. And I’m making up this bullshit in my head every single time to not start, to not do what I know I want to do, to not go after what I know I want to get after. And even though I’m fit right now, I still have fitness goals that I want to achieve, that I want to see come to pass in my life, when you’re first starting to work out, you don’t want to get up, you don’t want to do it. But then it flips over to where you’re in this rhythm, and I’ve been there before too, to where it’s like, man, you know what I did? I remember this time, to where my shoulder. My left shoulder was really hurting me. 

I don’t know what happened, you know, but every time I would lift my left shoulder, I’d pop. I’d be proven before. I’d work out to try to get through the pain. And then I kept pressing forward. I kept doing it. I kept doing it. And now in that point in time, it’s like I almost have to stop myself, because it reverses itself when you get into this rhythm. That’s where you want to get to, is where you can’t stop because you started now you can’t stop. That’s where I want to see each and every one of you, because you finally made the fucking choice to begin. Now you can’t stop. And you actually have to try to coerce yourself to be smart in the moment like it is when you continue to press forward in a workout, because you’ve been doing it for so long consistently. It was like five years for me before I had this eight week period. And this, anybody who’s ever gotten into this rhythm, even like a semi pro athlete, an amateur, whatever, you get into these rhythms, and then it’s like you’re pushing so it’s like, oh, my shoulder hurts, you know what? But I can’t stop. I can’t do it. Then you gotta start to try to talk yourself out of that rhythm to be smart, just as you had to try to talk yourself into getting into that rhythm to begin with. It’s like, you know what? Dude, it’s okay. It’s okay to take a day or two to let your shoulder heal. You’re never going to get to get to that moment in your life to where you can’t stop, unless you actually start, unless you actually throw everything aside and say, You know what? It’s not going to be perfect.

 I know that. But if you look back and it’s like, me, right when I finally started things, it’s like, Man, I should have done this five years ago, I’ve said that that’s what I what I regretted, but you know what? Now I don’t say that anymore, because that was me trying to hold myself in the past. Any sort of regret is actually another reason for you not to press forward. I want you to hear that any regret that you hold on to is actually a reason. An excuse you’re giving yourself to not move forward. Let it all go, let the baggage go. Let your excuses go. Let everything that you want start to fall into place, because you know it’s not going to be perfect. This show, as I started now, has 300 episodes just about I’ve had, this was what I wanted to get into today, about just continuing, right? And even when I decided to start, I was like, Fine, that’s great. And it was even hard to maintain this rhythm to begin with, because we didn’t have this amazing studio.

 I had to fly out to Vegas or Seattle, where the branding company was it became kind of a pain, but I didn’t quit, and here we are sitting at about 300 episodes or so, and now a lot of people are taking notice. I did this search the other day, and you can look it up. I can’t even remember the website search, but I saw a friend of mine last week who I met a couple years ago finally met him face to face, which was really cool, Steve Sims, and he posted on Facebook. He’s like, I searched my podcast. He’s like, I wasn’t doing this thing to actually, you know, gain followers or anything like that. I looked up, and I’m like, top 1% in the world. So I’m like, I’ll punch up all in with Rick Jordan. Let’s see her in I’m like, Hey, top 2% in the world. So then we’re joking with each other, and now it’s like, a little friendly kind friendly competition, right? Because it’s like 2% versus 1% whatever, you know, but I’m thinking it’s like, Wow, imagine when I first started if I would have actually stopped, because I wouldn’t have even called it a start. Because most podcasts stop after seven episodes. It’s stupid. They started, they stop, and there’s 850,000 at least. 

The last number, there’s probably more, like 900,000 podcasts that exist in the whole world right now. The majority of them pod fade after seven episodes. I don’t even call that starting. I don’t even call that beginning, because people are just throwing their crap out there. The way you actually begin is being like, I’m starting now. I know it’s gonna be tough. I’m putting all my baggage aside. That’s the only way to get going on. Whatever it is that I want to get going on, I want to go after this thing. I want to start this business. I want to date this girl. I want to I want to create this in my life. I want to go after my dreams. And I’m starting today with the intention of continuing it until I see it happen in my life. Who cares about the regrets because they’re just holding me back. Who cares about everything else that I’ve got going on? Because I know that if I start today and look at the past five years and say I should have done that five years ago, I know five years from now, that’s not gonna happen, because I’m gonna look back and say, Thank God I started and I went all in you.