I was reading an article about why the author used to hate Chetan Bhagat. I am not a fan of him either but I feel the venomous hatred I have seen for him is almost unparalleled. And it makes me feel that these critics are just judgemental people. Him not being at par with your favorite or the best writer is not a good enough reason to hate. You can feel and say he is not good enough without hating someone or spewing venom at them.
Despite not liking him particularly I don't hate him. He did what I haven't and did what he dreamed of doing. Most people don't even bother to write. In fact, most people think they can write or draw better than they actually can when they say "I could do that". If you are the average person, no sir, you can't. You can't do any better than him but at least he had the courage to do it and face the possibility that he could fail, rather than do nothing so he can imagine that he COULD have. And I admire him just for that. Because I wish I had done that.
Which is what this person said. That he was a perfectionist and was jealous CB did something badly and succeeded, while the article writer sought perfection and had not written anything at all. There were more reasons: 2. He is doing what he wants to and maybe being the best writer is not his goal. We have no right to decide what his career goal should be. 3. That there are much worse or equally bad writers selling "bestsellers" and no one seems to have a problem with them. So the problem doesn't seem to be that he is not good enough. This is also why I feel the hatred is unwarranted even though the critique might be correct.
But what he was saying made me realize, that's the problem with perfectionism:
You want to reach the peak BEFORE you write a single word, draw a single sketch or do anything.
The problem is you can't get better at things without doing them. And definitely not without failing. And being a perfectionist myself I love it when people - artists, writers - do what they can and succeed. I try to learn from that. It helps me change. Perfectionism is painful.