I admire perfection. Those things that seem so beautiful as to appear unreal. Sometimes you see it in great works of art, other times in a scientific equation.
Last week I visited Italy’s Lake Como, a place I have been several times. This time, I toured Villa Balbianello—one of the most spectacular places I’ve ever seen. While it had been 30 years since I was last there, I had the same sense of awe I recalled from 3 decades earlier.
The gardens were beautifully manicured, the lake view was pristine, and the pathways curved in that perfectly intentional way that makes you imagine you are on the set of a movie.
You may recognize the setting from the Bond movie Casino Royale.
A man was tending the gravel walkway with a rake, ensuring that each tiny stone was contained in its proper place.
When I got home, my tomato plants were tilting off the stakes in the ground, parts of the lawn had been parched a crispy yellow by the sun, and the backyard looked, well, far from pristine. But it was still beautiful. Alive and real.
It reminded me of something I often tell the professionals with whom I meet: Business development is not a perfect art.
We’re often drawn to perfection—especially in professional services. Perfectly aligned PowerPoints. Polished bios. Impeccable CRMs. But real relationships?
They rarely grow in a straight line.
Sometimes a conversation doesn’t lead anywhere for months.
Sometimes a promising prospect goes silent, only to resurface later.
Sometimes you connect deeply through something entirely unrelated to work.
Like that winding path in the gardens at the villa, relationships often curve, pause, and take unexpected turns.
The trick is to keep walking. To stay curious. To water the tomatoes and the grass, even when they look hopeless.
Because underneath it all, connecting is messy, but it is worthwhile.
