Before Marc came along, I was a visionary without a staff. A general without an army. A conductor with no orchestra. Marc was the staff, the army, the orchestra. To this day, he runs the publishing business, allowing me to concentrate on IDT, and at the same time he serves as IDT’s chief troubleshooter and a member of its board. Marc overseeing expansion is what gave me the whole idea for the callback business in the first place. And his one-man, year-long campaign to sell the new concept in the face of continual multiple daily rejections is what finally allowed us to break through and succeed.
If you think I seem to be saying I had a lot of inadequacies which Marc compensated for, and that’s what allowed us to really succeed, you’re right. Could I have accomplished what we have so far by myself with so many shortcomings? Of course not. Am I ashamed that I needed Marc and others to compensate for my shortcomings? Certainly not. I’m not perfect. If I were, I wouldn’t be human.
Even if you were perfect in every way, which no one is, you still couldn’t be really perfect because at different stages of your life you’d still be lacking in attributes you’ll have more of at a later stage. This is the human condition. We all go through this journey, trying to do the best with the shortcomings we have. No one has it all. The best you can do is accept your limitations and accentuate the positive. This, however, is only true on an individual level.
A company actually can pursue perfection. Is the company lacking in vigor? Hire young lions and set them free. Is it short on brainpower? Convince some real geniuses they’ll be able to really make their mark with you and you’ll soon have your own brain trust. Are you short on stature and people skills? Maybe get a former congressman on board. Whatever your limitations are as an individual can be compensated for by a great organization.
You can come close to creating perfection: a “perfect” society of diverse individuals with diverse strengths coming together to create something really great. The strength comes from the diversity. The whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts.
What’s true of a company is true of society in general. Most countries reject immigration and the diversity it brings. Their population resents the strengths outsiders bring with them, which in many cases allows them to outperform large segments of the already existing population. Rather than admit this, though, they harp on the unique shortcomings of the foreigners, the friction and changes that their different outlooks will impose on society. Then they throw them out. You know who loses? Society. The diversity would have enriched it and made it stronger. Look at the American experiment. After everybody’s spoken all the slander they want against us, there’s one undeniable reality. We’ve succeeded. Are things perfect? Do we all fit together without problems? Are there no tensions? Of course there are. It’s how our society deals with those tensions and gets everyone to work together that is the key to the nation’s success.
