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“Make your mark, and see where it takes you.”

Peter H. Reynolds, The Dot

Once, I had a grumpy little voice that lived inside my head. It was the Voice of Perfect, and it never let me finish anything. “It’s not shiny enough!” it would whisper, or “Wait, make the colors brighter!” Even if I worked and worked, the Voice of Perfect made me think nothing would ever be good enough.

This voice was like a little spell of worry. It pushed me to try my best, but it also made me want to hide away everything I made. The worst part was, it sounded so smart that I almost believed it! Drawings that might have taken a day would hide in my sketchbook for weeks, months…sometimes even years! Turns out, Perfect can be a pretty sneaky excuse not to try.

Then one day, far away from home in a big, quiet city, I felt a big wave of loneliness. Suddenly, my head was bursting with stories to tell, pictures to draw—so many ideas! But when I picked up my pens… nothing. That silly Voice of Perfect was louder than ever.

And then, like a little light switching on, I remembered something important: “Wait a minute…I’m a designer! That means I fix problems.”

Designers and artists are a bit different, see? Artists make beautiful things for themselves. Designers make useful things for people. My job wasn’t to chase “perfect”—that would never end. My job was to build cool stuff that could help someone else!

It’s like the insanely great Steve Jobs said, “Real artists ship.” That means making stuff that works, even if it isn’t the fanciest thing ever. You can always come back to make it fancier later!

That changed everything. The Voice of Perfect is quieter now. I draw, I build, I share…and when it tries to come back, I just ignore it. Being brave enough to share, even if it’s not perfect, is how you start the real magic.