Is close enough, good enough?

"Excellence is an attitude not an event.

We shouldn't accept close enough as good enough.
We won't be perfect but we should aim for the best.
In the U.S they measured some things where, if you accepted 99.9%, this is what you would get.

2,000,000 documents would be lost by the I.R.S. each year,
22,000 cheques would be deducted from the wrong bank account in the next hour,
12 babies would be given to the wrong parents every day,
268.000 defective tyres would be sold this year,
2,500,000 books will be shipped with the wrong cover,
3,000 copies of tomorrows Wall Street Journal will be missing three sections,
18,000,000 pieces of mail will be mishandled in the next hour,
291 pacemaker operations will be performed incorrectly this year.

If you think close enough is good enough just ask these 291 people if they agree with you."

Peter Irvine Co-Founder, Gloria Jeans Coffees.

So often we bounce through life believing our mistakes will have no impact on others.
You see, the above example gives an indication of what would happen if they accepted 99.9% as good enough. Obviously they don't.

In six months last year British Airways lost the bags of over 550,000 passengers.
They cap restitution at $1,500.00. Get your calculator out and examine how much this would potentially cost the airline.

We Aussies have a saying "she'll be right".

Will it?
Is it?

Is close enough, good enough?