Seth Godin recently stated the obvious. (Again)

​Quality work does not mean luxury.

​Quality work is not perfection.

​Quality work means you meet spec (i.e. specification).

​If you meet the spec, you did quality work.

​Having high standards is to relentlessly improve the spec in service of the people you work with or your customers.

​Not happy with your work? Improve the spec to create higher standards.

​You are not providing a service to make it perfect for you. You are creating a product or service to delight your customers.

​This is why it's hard for an artist to look at a piece of work and say, "I'm done!"

​Or why you're unhappy with what you produce. You're trying to please the wrong person, [FIRST NAME GOES HERE].

​But having a spec creates clarity. It gives you a realistic goal to aim for.

​Not having a spec in the first place gives you too much freedom to produce lower-quality work.

​Yesterday, when an inbound lead inquired about a service I haven't created, I spec'd out a clear offer.

​This starts to set the boundaries for what it looks like.

​Having a personal website that brings serendipity gives you room to explore and get curious about building offers around things you love to do.

​Maybe it takes you in a new direction. Maybe not.

​But have high standards by creating specific offers if people ask for them.

​Design smarter, not harder.