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Wayne Gould helped Sudoku become a global phenomenon by developing a computer program over the course of six years to generate endless variations of the puzzle. “Once I take on a project, I see it through to the end,” he says. “The trouble is that I’m a perfectionist. I’m slowed down by that. It’s a terrible combination, having an interest in everything and being a perfectionist.”  [Psychology Today May/June 2006; photo by Bill Greene, The Boston Globe]    ~ ~ ~ ~ Q'Orianka Kilcher - on getting advice from Colin Farrell He was always watching out for me. Since I was little, I was a perfectionist, and Colin taught me acting wasn't about being perfect…. An actor should never take themselves too seriously. It took a burden off my shoulders. Q'Orianka Kilcher (pronounced Corie-AHN-ka) was chosen at age 14 to play Pocahontas in Terrence Malick's film "The New World" [Los Angeles Times November 6, 2005; photo by Carlos Chavez / LAT] ~ ~ ~ ~ I'm heavy on preparation. Some actors come to the set and don't know what scene they're playing, but that would make me crazy. It's not about control but perfectionism - my biggest vice and one of my biggest assets. I have strong feelings about the emotions of the character and am not shy about expressing them. I go along with directors after I agree with them. While they have the last word, they're not paying me to read lines. Emmy Rossum .. [Los Angeles Times; Dec 27, 2004 - posted on emmyrossumfan.com] photo from "The Phantom of the Opera" (2004) ~ ~ ~ ~ "It's more like anger at the idea of perfectionism," Mary Gaitskill says of her novel "Veronica."  "It's the way that beauty is sometimes treated and fetishized in a really cruel way. It's an idea about perfection that isn't only about beauty, it applies to a lot of ideas and attitude about life. America has become insane about perfecting things, like perfecting one's mood... "... perfecting one's performance, perfecting one's mind, perfecting one's body. It's insane the way people are. It does make me angry, but I also just find it scary." > from article Dark side of perfection. By Charles Casillo, LA Times Oct 9 2005 > photo from cover of Veronica : A Novel ~ ~ ~ ~ Gabby [my six year old niece] was a veritable artwork factory. Each day she happily produced scores of new drawings that pushed the bounds of creativity... She did not really care if you liked her work or not; her personal goal was to create the art and get it out into the world to be seen... Her art, in her own mind, was always perfect, the ideal expression of herself. Many would-be artists who strive to create meaningful stories, pictures or music are not always able to approach their creative work with the same sense of fearlessness and abandon. Edward B. Kurpis - in his chapter "Becoming an Imperfectionist" in the book Inspiring Creativity: An Anthology of Powerful Insights and Practical Ideas to Guide You to Successful Creating - by Rick Benzel

While the high visibility of my public life has not always brought me personal peace and happiness, it has lent a certain universal quality to my various metamorphoses. Because I believed that to be loved I had to be perfect, I moved "out of myself" -- my body -- early on and have spent much of my life searching to come home ... to be embodied. I didn't understand this until I was in my 60s and started writing this book. I have come to believe that my purpose in life may be to show--through my own story -- how this "disembodiment" happens Jane Fonda - from her memoir My Life So Far

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The Perfectionist : Life and Death in Haute Cuisine - by Rudolph Chelminski It is a sad and cautionary tale of living larger than expectations, a tale that could apply equally as well to a captain of industry as it does to haute cuisine. A Michelin three-star recipient, Burgundy chef Bernard Loiseau, owner of La Cote d'Or in Saulier, committed suicide in February 2003. Journalist Chelminski traces his friend's career while scrutinizing the biographies of the granddaddies of the new French cuisine--the brothers Troisgros, Fernand Point, Paul Bocuse, and others--as well as the origins of Le Guide Michelin. The story is related with an obvious appreciation of Gallic cooking and its creators; the author helps us understand the art and science of a very demanding, militarylike discipline: "You did it right or you left." ... A warm tribute to a man and his search for perfection. Barbara Jacobs / Booklist

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"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." Joseph Chilton Pearce

 
     

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.. .. I had always been a kid whose parents had to tell me to stop doing homework and go to sleep. I was a driven little girl.  [She studied literature at Yale.]  I didn't know how to be in college, I was so singularly obsessed and dedicated. Overserious. Maudlin. I was terribly old when I was younger.

.. .. [She transferred to Stanford.. joined the track team and ran six miles a day.] I am an obsessive-compulsive and a perfectionist. I don't say it with pride. Jennifer Connelly  /  in Vogue, quoted in The Week, Nov 5 2004 > photo by James Patrick Cooper/Retna > Connelly won an Academy Award for A Beautiful Mind (2001)

 

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Ask people why they procrastinate and you'll often hear something like this, "I'm a perfectionist. Everything has to be just right before I can get down to work..." The other end of procrastination - being unable to finish - also has a perfectionist explanation: "I'm just never satisfied. I'm my own harshest critic..." Do you see what's going on here? A fault is being turned into a virtue. Jim Rohn - from his article Ending Procrastinatio

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Children these days are under the same pressure as adults are. Society is constantly pushing them toward perfection -- it's the parents' fault, really.  All these baby boomers grew up with these high expectations of what life should be. Then they woke up in middle age and became unglued. Erica - "a renowned child psychologist" (played by Vanessa Redgrave) - on FX series "Nip/Tuck"[dvd] from article: The Miami macabre of 'Nip/Tuck' - by Carina Chocano, LA Times Jun 29 2004

 

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I'm afraid of making a mistake. I'm not totally neurotic, but I'm pretty neurotic about it. I'm as close to totally neurotic as you can get without being totally neurotic. Bridget Fonda. ..... [imdb.com bio]

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.. .. Dr. Christian has worked with  a number of exceptionally capable women executives, professors and other professionals, some of whom, he notes, are sometimes "self-attackers of the classic kind" that he describes in his book. "These are utterly brilliant women," he says. "It would be hard to imagine that there would be many others out there that could match their brilliance, and yet they become a mess about achievement. "They may be chronically late with projects. They might have a grant for a study and be two years behind on rolling it out. "One such woman had enormous difficulties with doing things on time. She had developed a brilliant thesis. Things had been so easy for her, and she was the kind of person who feared that because it all came too easy, that she really and truly was a fraud. And that is such a toxic thing."

.. .. Her husband was a research cardiologist at a major university, and Christian says he got the impression "she did not want to compete with him. And I don't think it was because she thought she'd lose to him.  "She wanted to take risks, but feared risk enormously, because she'd talked herself into the idea that all her lateness proved she really couldn't produce. "Well, I think the lateness was really that she wanted to perfect things before she let go of them, and she was afraid of criticism, and yet she was, paradoxically, also afraid she really was that brilliant, and then people would expect a repeat performance." from interview with Kenneth W. Christian, Ph.D.  -  psychologist and author of book ....Your Own Worst Enemy: Breaking the Habit  of Adult Underachievement - by Kenneth W. Christian, PhD photo from his site:  Maximum Potential Project

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Perfectionism: The Crucible of Giftedness [excerpt] The pursuit of excellence is a personal journey into higher realms of existence, a journey that enriches the self and the world through its bounty.  It is the crucible that purifies the spirit - the manifestation of life's longing for evolution.  A cherished goal for only a small portion of the population, excellence is the hard-won prize of those whose zeal and dedication are fueled by the drive to attain perfection, as they envision it. ...  Chiefly an affliction of the gifted.. perfectionism is not a malady; it is a tool of self-development. .... Perfectionism is the most misunderstood aspect of the personality of the gifted. Psychology characterizes it in extremely negative ways, which may be counterproductive to the development of the gifted individual. There are positive as well as negative aspects of perfectionism, depending on how it is channeled.  As one gains higher consciousness, perfectionism becomes a catalyst for self-actualization and humanitarian ideals. ....

.. .. Roberts and Lovett (1994) reported much higher levels of perfectionism among gifted high school students than among nongifted academic achievers and nongifted students.  Kramer (1988) found greater degrees of perfectionism in gifted than in nongifted teens, and more perfectionistic tendencies in females than in males.  Baker (1996) also found higher levels of perfectionism in eceptionally gifted ninth grade girls than in girls of average ability.  Kline and Short (1991) reported increasing perfectionism in gifted girls as they went from elementary to high school. Linda Kreger Silverman, PhD Director of the Gifted Development Center - from her article "Perfectionism: The Crucible of Giftedness"

 

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Michelle Trachtenberg had interviews all day and an English Lit final... "It's pretty tough," she said of the exam. "I can't afford to write it unprepared."  Does she ever fail?  "Oh no! I'm way too big a perfectionist." [Toronto Sun, June 5, 2001]

 

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Being obsessive might be my strength and my weakness, actually, as with everyone. I'm a perfectionist, so I can drive myself mad -- and other people, too.  At the same time, I think that's one of the reasons I'm successful. Because I really care about what I do. I really want it to be right, and I want it to be good, and I don't quit until I have to. Michelle Pfeiffer     [Mr. Showbiz interview]

 

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.. ..   Gwen - Princess and the Pea Gwen was a died-in-the-wool perfectionist, and she knew it.  She had put up with remarks about her "pickiness" ever since she could remember. Indeed she was a woman who knew what she wanted and how she wanted it, whether the issue at hand was large or small.  It was more than a habit, it was a way of life. Over the years, Gwen had acquired a whole set of rules by which she calmed herself, developing a keen awareness of precisely when things were just as they should be. .... But every day Gwen felt the push-pull of identity conflict. On the one hand, it was perfectly clear that others loved her thoroughness, like the way she left no stone unturned to bring difficult client negotiations to a happy consensus.

On the other. she was repeatedly lambasted about being a "nit-picker" who was both foolish and unabashedly "anal." .... Like so many smart, energetic producers with a built-in aesthetic appreciation for the ideal, Gwen was unceasingly badgered by a particular dilemma: honor and be herself, or avoid ridicule and rejection.  The one thing she knew for sure was that precision was a virtue in her work, but a personal vice elsewhere.  After thirty-plus years of swinging back and forth on the pendulum of being vs. belonging, she felt no greater confidence in her ability to make sense of it, much less maintain her balance. from article : Encountering the Gifted Self Again,  for the First Time - by Mary-Elaine Jacobsen,  Advanced Development, Volume 8, 1999 illustration by Edmund Dulac for The Princess and  the Pea by Hans Christian Andersen [book] ....books by Mary-Elaine Jacobsen The Gifted Adult : A Revolutionary Guide  for Liberating Everyday Genius Despierte su genio natural

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Scratch the surface of any great artist, entrepreneur, scientist or politician, and you will likely find a perfectionist. If truth be told, it is in part their perfectionism that makes them great.  Greatness stems from a confluence of perfectionism, talent and drivenness. Even in those of us with somewhat lesser degrees of the innate talent and/or drivenness inherent in the great, perfectionism can call us, if not to greatness, toward a characteristic of perhaps even greater personal and collective importance -- competence. from article: In Praise of Perfectionism by Stephen A. Diamond, Ph.D.

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