Close Enough Construction Company

Relish in the imperfections

I start my bio with “I’m a builder”, which is both literal and figurative.  I’ve built several companies and brands as an adult, and several treehouses as a kid and as an adult.  I’ve now built over 20 music venues.  I will admit, I like the smell of fresh concrete and freshly cut wood.   I love construction.  Part of creating live music venues is literally building the physical rooms—the walls, the stage, the soundproofing, etc.  My first club, The Knitting Factory, I did most of the physical work with a friend and hired a few sub-contractors for electrical, plumbing, and AC units.  In 1986, thank God, the NYC building department scrutiny of small spaces in the Lower East Side was lackluster.   Since then, I’ve pretty much put down my screw gun and stopped participating the physical work of the rooms and left that the professionals. 

Nevertheless, for my home projects—from treehouses to waterfalls—as well as; when it comes to philosophically building projects, I rely on the concept of Close Enough Construction.   While I could use a laser measurement tool and saw the piece of wood precisely perfect, square, clean, and exact, I can also use a jagged rock, mark the piece of wood and cut it within an 1/8 of an inch in much less time.  Does the tiny little difference really mater.  Will the house fall down?  Probably not.  Did I rush the design or the structural a little, perhaps.  Will I iterate and do better next time, certainly!

The concept here is there is a trade off between obsessing with the tiniest little details and speed, in getting something close enough that it works, that it accomplishes the intended purpose.   While I am not debating that getting something done as close to perfect is not an admirable target, not getting it done because it is not perfect is a bigger problem.  In fact, I think the old adages said it, Confucius: “Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without”, or Voltaire, “The best is the enemy of the good”.   Perfection is indeed the enemy of getting something done.  Or the Pareto Principle, the 80/20 rule which explains numerically that it takes 20% of the full time to complete 80% of the task, while to complete the last 20% of a task takes 80% of the effort.  Achieving absolute perfection may be impossible and so, as increasing obsessive effort results in diminishing returns, wasting time and increasingly inefficient.  Move on, iterate, its close enough.

I think about the waterfall I put in my backyard.  I never built one before.   I hired a neighbor who can work a big excavator. (Certainly, above my paygrade) to help move boulders and I showed him my sketches to dig a bit in area with a natural stream, increase the height of the hill a bit and throw these dining-room table rocks into place.  After 6 hours, version 1 was complete, the water was flowing over the edge, mud moving and it all fell apart in a large splash.  A total messy disaster.   The next weekend my excavator friend came back and we dug it wider, placed the boulders in with more clarity, diverted the water differently, I added a little concrete in a few hidden spots and walla.  6 years later, it is still standing looks great.

Now, if I had hired a landscape architect, boulder engineer, water flow specialist, and a few other professionals, perhaps it would have not collapsed the first time.   But I both learned something about retention walls and got a great satisfaction of getting it right the second time.   And now, I really feel proud in looking at this structure knowing I built it and it brings me additional satisfaction, beyond the zen-quality of water falling surrounded by other nature. 

The whole point is Close Enough Construction got it done, it works, I have moved on to what is next.    Trying to fit the jigsaw puzzle of natural rocks together would never be perfect.  I was not trying to recreate Machu Picchu, but something I could enjoy and afford.   Learning to be satisfied with 95% perfect is an important part of entrepreneurship, the next one might be 96%, iterate, improve, learn and you will hopefully keep getting it better.  And relish in the imperfections.   Those mistakes can not only be beautiful, but lead to it being unique, different and special.   But try it, move on, life is too short to get caught up trying for perfect your first time.