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Synopsis

Dr. Misner first learned the expression “Perfect practice makes perfect” from his sensei when studying the martial arts. If you don’t do your best when you practice, you won’t improve your skill. A master pianist gives as much to his practice as to his concert performances.

You can’t expect to become a master networker if you don’t give your all every time you give your 60-second commercial or give a presentation. Be prepared and present yourself at your absolute best.

Perfect practice doesn’t have to be absolute perfection—only your best. A little bit of preparation can help you practice your networking.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 069 -

Priscilla Rice:
Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast brought to you by networkingnow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I’m Priscilla Rice and I’m coming to you from Live Oaks Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I’m joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan, how are you?

Ivan Misner:
I’m doing great, Priscilla. Thank you very much.

Priscilla:
What are you going to share with us today?

Ivan:
This week, I’m back at BNI headquarters and some things came up that made me think about some material that I’ve written about in the past. I first talked about it in my book, Truth or Delusion. That’s the whole idea of perfect practice makes perfect.

Priscilla:
Perfect practice makes perfect, I thought it was practice makes perfect.

Ivan:
Yes, that’s what I want to talk about. Everybody says practice makes perfect, but the truth is, that I have found, practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. Let me see if I can explain it. The first time I heard that phrase was in the martial arts. My sensei said to me, “Ivan, practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. If you’re just going through the motions of your practice, you’re not going to improve your practice. You have to really do your absolute best, you have to practice this perfectly, for you, every time, otherwise you don’t improve your skill.” I listened to him, he was a seventh degree black belt. You don’t argue with a seventh degree black belt, right? I didn’t really think much of it, he saw me practicing a kata, and I guess I wasn’t doing my best so he gave me the lecture. OK fine, but it didn’t really resonate with me until a few weeks later.

I had a conversation with a friend of mine, and she told me that she had gone to a friends house for lunch. He was a concert pianist, and after lunch he said, “I hope you don’t mind, but this is my practice time. You are more than welcome to stay and listen if you like.” She said, “Are you kidding? I would love to.” People pay big money to watch this guy play the piano. She got a private concert. She sat there and listened to him practice. She said to me, “you know, I had this vision of listening to the scales or something that was not finished, and I sat there and I listened. My God, it was incredible! It was so beautiful, Ivan. I sat there and listened to him play and tears came to my eyes listening to him practice. When it was all done, I said to him, ‘my goodness, that’s the way you practice? I was expecting something different , that was like a concert.’ He said to me, practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. Every time I practice, I practice as though I’m in concert. That’s the only way I can improve my music.”

I thought the world was telling me something, if within a month or so, two people tell me practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. I really gave a lot of thought to that and came to the conclusion that they are absolutely right. Practicing the skills necessary to become a good networker is important, but networkers can’t expect to become master networkers by just going through the motions. Take for example, the 60 second presentation or your brief commercial at every BNI meeting. If you just stand up and go through the motions, unprepared, unrehearsed, a vague idea of what you’re going to talk about, you’re just practicing at networking, but you’re not doing your best. Others who give their presentation, often times, will prepare and they will practice it. They have something laid out in advance. That’s a better idea of perfect practice, being prepared, coming in presenting yourself at your absolute best.

If you’re a teacher, do you want to wing a lesson plan? No. Better teachers set goals and objectives for what they want their students to learn. They spend time planning exactly what they’re going to cover in class, sometimes down to the exact wording. They prepare visual aides and handouts that reinforce the subject matter. That’s the kind of 60 second presentation, you don’t have to do all of that, but those bits and pieces are the kinds of 60 second presentations that to me are a great example, not of practice making perfect, but of perfect practice making perfect.

Priscilla:
Let me ask you a question, because I do a lot of practicing. I’m a musician, and I need to know from you, what do you mean by perfect. There’s a lot of different ways to practice. How do you know when you’re being perfect and you’re practicing?

Ivan:
If you’re a learner, are you ever really perfect? Especially with music, right? I spoke to my sensei after I heard the second story about perfect practice and had a conversation with him. He said to me, ” when I talk about perfect practice, I don’t mean that it’s necessarily the most perfect kata that I’ve ever seen, but that it’s perfect for you. It is your best, and if you’re not doing your best, you can never achieve perfection at it. The only way you can ever come close to perfection at whatever you do, is each time to do your best. Now look, I know life gets in the way and sometimes we don’t always do our absolute best every time. I get that. But on the other hand, how do we in fact improve? The only way to improve at anything, whether you’re talking about music or you’re talking about martial arts or you’re talking about networking, is to do your best as often as possible. The more you in fact, truly do your best, the closer you are coming to perfect. That’s what we mean by perfect practice means perfect.

Priscilla:
Okay great. I’m going to try and incorporate that this very afternoon.

Ivan:
Good. The best way to do it, especially in a BNI setting, is to remember not to wing it. Don’t wing your 60 second presentations, don’t wing your 10 minute presentations, be prepared. If you’re going to do one-to-ones, go there prepared with somebody you want to meet with that week.. And the following week come in and talk about the one-to-one that you just did. A little bit of preparation can help you practice your networking at a perfect level for you. That’s what I recommend. For those of you listening to the podcast, a great thing to do here on this podcast is to share with us in your messages on the bulletin board. Tell us what you’ve done to help raise your game in practicing this process of networking.

Priscilla:
Great. Is there anything else or does that pretty much tie it up?

Ivan:
I think that covers it for today. Thanks, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
Okay good. I guess that’s it for this week. I want to let the listeners know that this podcast has been brought to you by networkingnow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice and we hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting episode of the Official BNI Podcast.