"Good Enough"

[Cmmopar]

Some good words about "good enough" which seems to be well on its way to becoming the prevailing attitude in this day and age.

My son, beware of "good enough,"
It isn't made of sterling stuff;
It's something any man can do,
It marks the many from the few,
It has not merit to the eye,
It's something any man can buy,
It's name is but a sham and bluff,
For it is never "good enough."

With "good enough" the shirkers stop
In every factory and shop;
With "good enough" the failures rest
And lose to men who give their best;
With "good enough" the car breaks down
And men fall short of high renown.
My son, remember and be wise
In "good enough" disaster lies.

With "good enough" have ships been wrecked,
The forward march of armies checked,
Great buildings burned and fortunes lost;
Nor can the world compute the cost
In life and money it has paid
Because at "good enough" men stayed.
Who stops at "good enough" shall find
Success has left him far behind.

There is no "good enough" that's short
Of what you can do and ought.
The flaw which may escape the eye
And temporarily get by,
Shall weaken under the strain
And wreck the ship or car or train.
For this is true of men and stuff—
Only the best is "good enough."

Collected Verse of Edgar Guest
Cutchogue, NY: Buccaneer Books, 1976, 465​

 

[khryslerkid]

Love it! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Budnicks]

Good enough
Goes well with that participation trophy, everyone gets now, for just showing up...
or Govt. work...LOL

 

[GetX'd]

That's a very insightful post - full of good advice. Thanks for posting

 

[Cman]

I like that a lot.

 

[440+6]

I can't tell you how many times I've heard "good enough" from my employees, and I hate those two words.

My dad always said " If you don't have the time to do it right the first time, how are you going to find time to fix it"

 

[mmissile]

I wish I could have a bit of that attitude. Most of my massive anxiety comes from the opposite way I do things.

 

[69 GTX]

Good enough = minimum effort

 

[Darius]

I can't tell you how many times I've heard "good enough" from my employees, and I hate those two words.

My dad always said " If you don't have the time to do it right the first time, how are you going to find time to fix it"

I have this very sentence on the white board in my conference room, where we ALL meet every Monday. All of the employees see it and every once in a while I remind them of it. I copied ths OP's poem and I am going to put a copy in each pay envelope this week. We talk about "good enough" NOT being an acceptable position in our company often!

 

[747mopar]

I hear it a lot and occasionally say it in a joking manner... Unfortunately I'm constantly training new maintenance men and it's forever breaking the half *** attitude, for most just getting something working is enough but to me it has to look the part as well and that's hard to teach.

 

[4spd65]

"Good Enough", I spent 14 yrs as a municipal worker locally, heard that directly from my supervisor and leadworker, literally every week! Morale? what? when? why? just totally laughable, except when I,m the one out in the field trying to help citizen`s with backed up sewer in basement, or plugged catch basin in front of their driveway, then there is no such thing! This seems so small a thing-it`s not, imagine-"Good Enough" when tourqing con rod fasteners, or flywheel bolts, or ANY brake issues!? my god.........enough already.