Entrepreneur Daily Our annual 100 brilliant companies!

I want to admit something many other magazine editors might not: We know that our big lists aren’t definitive. For example, this month is Entrepreneur’s annual 100 Brilliant Companies issue. When I worked at other magazines, I produced different lists of 50 or 100 this-or-thats. And, yeah, we work hard to make them authoritative. We want to provide a lot of value. But are there only 100 brilliant companies today? No. Could you argue that others belong on this list instead? Sure.

So why bother making the list? I’ll reframe that question in a really big way, because it’s an important one for all entrepreneurs to consider: Why do anything at all? The answer is that all of us—you, me, people on the list, people not on the list—believe we can contribute something good, maybe even great. But if we set out with the expectation of perfection, believing it’s only worth doing something if the final product is flawless, we will end up doing nothing. Instead, we must live with imperfection. We do something, we hope it matters, we learn from it, and we resolve to do it again. That’s entrepreneurship.

I do think we at Entrepreneur produced a great list this year. But I know you’ll ultimately be the judge of that—and I find that liberating. If imperfection is inevitable, then I’m free to explore and try and risk and fail, and yet still live to try again tomorrow. I hope that in your own pursuits, you feel as liberated as I do. Let’s all go forward, aim for greatness, and excitedly see what happens.

Jason Feifer
jfeifer@entrepreneur.com
@heyfeifer heyfeifer