This is a guest post by Nathan Bashaw, a student at MSU, and the founder of Brighten, an early stage digital publishing startup. He tweets as @nbashaw and blogs on his website.

Nobody likes the guy who tries to be perfect. It’s the same way with businesses.

Ultimately, a business is a group of people taking collective action. You’re going to mess up sometimes. It’s impossible to flawlessly predict the consequences of our actions. Yet some corporations think the proper response is to sweep the mess under the rug. They’re afraid of being imperfect – human. Your customers are smarter and more forgiving than you think. We all make mistakes sometimes. What separates leaders from the pack is their ability to admit mistakes and move on.

For too long, businesses have been able to sidestep responsibility for their impacts on society. As long as your customers are happy, nobody else matters, or so they thought. But we all know that’s not how the world works. We need a broader definition of what counts as a mistake. It’s not just failing to serve your customers – it’s failing to be a positive force in the world. The organizations that thrive in the 21st century will be those that admit responsibility for their external impacts. We don’t expect you to be perfect, we just expect you to try in good faith.

When you let go of the unrealistic dream of perfection, it frees you to tell a more true story about yourself. It shows strength of character. We’ll respect you for that.

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