Doing 4% less does not = 4% less

I’ve been saying this for years…but if you haven’t believed me by now, maybe you’ll believe the mac daddy of remarkable Seth Godin:

Doing 4% less does not get you 4% less.

Doing 4% less may very well get you 95% less.

That’s because almost good enough gets you nowhere. No sales, no votes, no customers. The sad lie of mediocrity is the mistaken belief that partial effort yields partial results. In fact, the results are usually totally out of proportion to the incremental effort.

Church, please stop getting by. If you can’t do great, remarkable work…don’t do it. Do what you can be remarkable at. When you settle for mediocrity it’s not just ineffective it will often set people back 10x the amount. Let me give some examples:

If you can’t afford great creative for a mailing campaign…don’t do it.
If you can’t afford a powerful logo…don’t do it, just find a nice font.
If you aren’t ready for a remarkable website…don’t do it, use facebook.

Think about this, remarkable means being worthy of being noticed…especially being noticed as extraordinary. If you are doing anything less then that can you really say you’re effective as a church? If the message you bring isn’t worthy of being noticed what are you doing?

What do you need to stop doing…or start doing to be remarkable?

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 7th, 2008 at 12:33 pm and is filed under excellence . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • I really like what you wrote. It is frustrating when some of our client churches have not understood this principle to do ALL things in excellence unto the Lord...including your logo, website, direct mailers, TV broadcast, etc.

    Keep preaching this good stuff, Michael!!! Churches are quick to tell all to give it their all on whatever they touch...it is amazing when they lead by example.
  • I have this saying (others would call it a mantra)...At some point, you have to be honest with yourself. And I know that alot of church leaders don't want to hear that. But they need to take heed.

    If you are not working towards excellence, then you are not working. The work of the ministry is not to be just "good enough". It is too important.

    When we accept mediocrity, it has a contagious effect and not for the good.

    Well said! Looking forward to more insights like this.
  • mike
    5 Stars on that Godin entry (I'm quickly becoming a Godin blog junkie)!

    The recommendations you listed, Michael, may sound absurd to church teams that really want to get the word out about what they're doing, but if a piece of visual communication does not effectively speak to the viewer, they are very likely not going to give it their time, especially if it's obvious what they're shooting for and it misses the mark. Even if the content itself does pique a slice of interest, it's going to be a tough sell if it's presented in a way that is lackluster. That, in turn, reflects poorly on what's being advertised and ultimately little (if anything) is gained.

    I keep remembering what you said at the HOW conference—the Church has been called to communicate the Gospel, which is unquestionably the most important message we have in this world has to communicate. It's worthy of the best that we have to give. One could argue that simply "getting by" is an indication that you may not be using the true gifts God has given to your church, because the gifts he gives us are not given to just help us to "get by," but to serve him well. Each church should be who they are, each knowing and utilizing its strengths(gifts) and supplementing its weaknesses (there's lots of great, willing designers out there) when needed.
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