Nothing is perfect, this is something we all agree on, but in our societies, we always tend to hide these imperfections and focus on what looks good by standards which we have no clue who set them in the first place. Something that I have been spoon fed by the society (not by my household) ever since I turned 16. And I don’t seem to understand what is perfect! Everything is relative based on how we perceive it, also, who sets these standard(s) of perfection? What’s imperfect for me may be perfect for someone else, it all depends on our objective.
Keep your hair brushed!
Wear dresses!
Talk in a low voice!
Smile!
Watch your weight!
Behave like a lady!
In the corporate world, there are codes for conduct, standards for operating procedures, benchmarks for reporting systems, all are set with the intention of making the work as close to perfect as possible to aiming to achieve a certain objective. But corporate standards are always evolving and adapted to align with the evolving corporate objectives. Each corporation’s success is based on how these standards are implemented and are being updated.
Given that, why we don’t our human standards undergo the same development process where nothing is set in stone, from beauty to logic, personality to education, degree to profession, same way a corporation does?
I mean our capitalist world is full of corporations and companies with different success levels and the customization of their corporate standards and cultures are the main contributors for their performance. Even us as individuals if our wealth is projected based on our income yet our success is dependent on the standards, we customize for ourselves to reach our own objectives and not by those standards we are being rated by others who don’t know our objectives and might eventually demotivate us while grabbing certain opportunities.
In real life experience, it was a standard for a marketer to be in his/her (mostly his) late 30s, relish persuasion skills for spending budgets, and advocate long campaigns. 30 years ago, marketers who had these assets/skills were undeniably the most important assets of an organization. With the evolvement marketing needs and objectives from 1990s till now, the concept of marketing has broadened and changed, the era of digital marketing has emerged, where SEOs, algorithms, data science and transparency in spending have made technical skills as important as the conceptual ones. Even young age is no longer an obstacle and persuasion skills to spend big budgets are not needed. Consumers have become more aware and have outgrown this propaganda of traditional advertising notions.
And no one in this era defies the importance of real time reporting and authentic context which balances and perhaps outdoes the importance of other traditional skills.
The standards of corporates and marketing practices are obviously being overwritten, and they will keep on changing because the world is changing, and everything is evolving and so should our standards of perfection be. It is beautiful how boundaries are being redrawn and what’s true today may be untrue tomorrow and what’s pushing you down now might pull you up in the future.
When Covid-19 came it was a crisis many lost their jobs, but what is true for us today will be untrue tomorrow, there is a lot of beauty in this life and imperfection of a lifestyle, job, physical shape or a situation might be the paragon of the future.
Imperfections are simply our valuable assets and what makes all the difference, so let us acknowledge and cherish them to leave a unique trace for our existence.
