Ten years ago, I was part of a five-person team, which was basically the entire company, tasked with rebuilding our website. The owner gave us one week off regular client work to knock it out.
We got ambitious. Instead of delivering what he asked for, we decided to blow his mind with something bigger. Better design, more features, great content. We worked heads-down all week, convinced we were building something solid.
Friday came. We had nothing to show.
We aimed for 125% but delivered maybe 40% of what he actually wanted. The owner was out $12k in lost billable hours with zero to show for it. We still had to finish the site, catch up on neglected client work, and deal with the fallout.
The lesson hit hard: exceeding expectations is meaningless if you don’t meet them first. Success beats looking impressive every time. I can still feel the disappointment in that room.