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Start Now, Get Perfect Later

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What are you waiting for?

Hardly anyone gets it right the first time, but many of us are crippled by indecision and fear of failure. The desire to get it right can inhibit us from getting started. In this book Rob Moore, the bestselling author of MONEY, shows that the quickest way to perfect is starting right now and improving as you go. This book will show you how to launch your business or idea, begin the next phase of your career, and overcome self-doubt - right away. Get perfect later, get started NOW.

224 pages, Paperback

Published November 26, 2019

331 people are currently reading
1584 people want to read

About the author

Rob Moore

259 books124 followers
Rob is an investor, best selling author, podcast host and owner of the largest property education company in the UK.

He lives and loves entrepreneurship and property investing, and is the host of the successful UK podcasts, The "Disruptive Entrepreneur" and "Money". He is on a mission to change the way people think about property, business and aims to support people around the globe through the Rob Moore foundation.

He continues to disrupt as an entrepreneur and businessman, with interests ranging from property development to public speaking and digital media. He is a writer, communicator, social media influencer and philanthropist. His 9 books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and received over 9,000 reviews.

He is a highly sought-after public speaker, having given 1,200 speeches in the last decade and held 2 separate world records for the longest individual speech marathon. He has the rare skill of cutting to the chase, using his personal experience to help others and entertain in a disruptive way.

Through the Rob Moore Foundation, he provides an opportunity for under-privileged individuals, start-ups and small established businesses to gain valuable support, investment and mentorship from some of the best in the business. All his profits from his book Money go to the foundation.

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5 stars
178 (19%)
4 stars
335 (37%)
3 stars
248 (27%)
2 stars
107 (11%)
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36 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 99 reviews
Profile Image for Cristian.
12 reviews2 followers
March 3, 2020
Just like most self-help books, this one has tiny tidbits of useful advice buried under a series of useless anecdotes. There are short summaries at the end of each chapter, and I recommend you just read those to save yourself some time and because that's where anything worthwhile in this book can be found.

Here, let me save you a read:

1. Don't be a perfectionist, allow yourself to do sub-par work which you can always improve later.
2. Just start. I know it's hard but momentum builds momentum: once you get going you will probably keep going.
3. Let go of judgement from others. They will judge you anyway, so just do your work at the best of your abilities.
4. Cut distractions in any way possible: block websites, don't read emails, etc.

Good luck.
Profile Image for Daniel Griffin.
Author 2 books13 followers
January 6, 2019
Read it in one sitting. The book doesn't cover anything new really, but Moore's engaging writing style makes you re-evaluate things you already knew and stare hard at a few home truths.

Some of the main things I took away from the book from my first quick read was: I need to limit my options or be overwhelmed (clothing, games, work priorities, etc), actually use the Pomodoro technique and schedule time to do it in my calendar (it's effective), set up competitions or artificial deadlines for my most important (but not time-bound) projects, define what my long-term vision is, and to stop working on relaxation holidays!

If you're looking for a kick up the arse to do something you've always wanted to do, or looking for some tips on how to be more productive generally in life - this quick book will point you in the right direction without feeling like you've wasted an afternoon reading ANOTHER self-help book!
Profile Image for Gohnar23.
1,075 reviews37 followers
September 1, 2025
#️⃣3️⃣6️⃣0️⃣ Read & Reviewed in 2025 🏩🌷🦩
Date :💮 Monday, July 21, 2025 🌸🌸
Word Count📃: 59k Words 🧼💒

🦑 ⋆。゚☁︎。⋆。 ゚☾ ゚。⋆ 🍧

⸜(。˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝ ♡ My 45th read in "Why is Kesha's latest album so good" 🩷 July

3️⃣🌟, read few days ago, review now 😐😆
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➕➖0️⃣1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣4️⃣5️⃣6️⃣7️⃣8️⃣9️⃣🔟✖️➗


So an ironically this book can actually be summarized by the literal title of it. Like it's literally just that.."Start Now, Perfect Later". It means that no matter how imperfect our surroundings may be, no matter how imperfect the situation we are currently in and constantly telling our brains to do it at the 'perfect time', it wouldn't happen because there is no perfect time to do those activities. The only time to actually complete those is to just do it now.

That's it you don't have to read the book anymore!!!! :DDDDD

But surprisingly i actually learned more in here than just that 😆😆😆, there is this idea of "pre-crasination" and "Task Jumping" which perfectly summarizes the things that you may be doing instead of the actual work which is also considered to be a form of ✨procrasination✨. One where you overanalyze the heck out of the work you're trying to do and the other being doing so many things at once that is not even related to the work that you're literally supposed to be doing. You're creating this idea of a productive work without actually doing the work. And ye thats it, don't read the book :DDDDDDDD the summary is right here 👍👍👍
Profile Image for Whitney ♥.
200 reviews10 followers
August 24, 2018
This is quite different to any book I would have expected from Rob but still has his own brand of logic and pragmatism that I enjoyed. It wasn't airy fairy, vague and full of metaphysical education and advice. It was practical in the ways that it said "We all do this, we are human, but here are a few ways you can change that". This book essentially said to me - stop wasting your life and just do something. In my opinion, you can never hear these words too many times.

The purpose of this book was to help people just get started - to rid that fear of failing and in conclusion - it worked. He develops this theory through many smartly constructed concise chapters that read as a checklist as things to do and now I feel like I have more of a plan to STOP planning and just get things done.

This book is easy to understand, it flows well - the jargon is minimal and you can tell it is written by a man who is about his business, knew what he wanted and found a way to make it happen. Rob draws from a lot on his own experiences but echos a lot of lessons learnt by other greatly successful people like himself.

To conclude - I STARTED NOW ! This review being the first one I have ever done. Is it perfect? No. I read a lot but still don't use punctuation or grammar correctly but F it. Rob said to just do it and work on it later so I have. I should note that I listened to audiobook with all its joyful extras. Rob's voice matches his writing very well 'blunt and to the point' and that is how I like to take my information in. I don't want to have to read between every line - sometimes just give me clear instructions.. and that's what he did.

Overall, this was a great, to the point pragmatic book that I will definitely read over and over again just to remind myself that I can start now and get perfect later. This will be a staple in my library along with Think And Grow Rich as the information will never not be relevant and I can read it over and over and over again and learn something new each time.
Profile Image for Jaakko Karvonen.
2 reviews
January 7, 2019
The books starts promising, then continues with common sense page filling rambling for about half the book, and then tries to end as promising how it started.

Pick it up in the bookstore and skim through the first couple chapters to get the “I’m not alone”-feeling and leave it be, you’ll be much happier.
Profile Image for Abhilash John.
9 reviews
September 30, 2018
Too many principles and too much preaching. A book should have a few (a dozen, may be?) take-aways, in my opinion. This book has over a hundred, that makes this to the league of a Bible or something similar..
Profile Image for JP.
454 reviews12 followers
December 19, 2018
Some books are
Like
Taking your bicycle early in the morning, the same road, same scenery, same walkers but different experiences
How? Get into the this book, the author takes you to your familiar journey but enlight different dimension on the topic he discussed
Procrastination and Decision
He protest we never procrastinate our survival activities and
In Decision,we should not have PLAN B COZ your plan A will be week in execution
Only flaw in this book was dragged to 200 pages rather it would fit in 50 pages in tiny edition.
Yes the book is useful!!
Profile Image for Nate.
588 reviews50 followers
May 1, 2023
Good info on beating procrastination with routines, scheduling and honest self assessment.
The humour on the other hand could use some work.
Profile Image for Klinta.
336 reviews179 followers
July 27, 2019
Funnily enough, I started this book as a way of procrastination because I didn't want to do what I had planned to do. And the first thing the book told me was to stop procrastinating. Well, good news, I ended the book while making soup and... crap, the soup is still boiling. Just a sec. OK, soup is ready and delicious.

This book was meh. There are a ton of books like this - short, supposedly witty, and with very many chapters that talk about what and how you should do things, but often taking the approach insensitive people who don't really understand how other types of personality work (for example not recognising that someone with depression can't just "cheer up").

Now the author does offer a plan for some things, so I can't say that his book was all bad in that aspect, but there was a fair share of "I tell you this, now you know this (because you obviously didn't think of it before), so stop doing/feeling this or that and become a superstar of your life". That's not how it works and it irks me.

The lessons in this book were very repetitive and I almost feel like I'm being hypnotised and confused to not know what is happening, so I could just be programmed to do what is repeated to me. Repeating the same things multiple times made me phase-out and just miss parts.

Obviously, he started now and decided to get perfect later. But if you are selling something to consumers and it is of this quality, you should at least start and get above average now, sure perfection can wait. He boasts about how many books he has written and how many editions those books have. Well, what is the point? If it takes you 20 years to get to that final edition, you still took 20 years. Is the fact that you earn some money on the way the point? And if you say that without writing the bad book you wouldn't get the good book, then... write the bad book, just don't publish it. I mean it is done, just set a new milestone of getting it to average.

And finally this book could be perfect and I still wouldn't give it five stars, because I just didn't feel connected to the author. This is not books, author's or my fault. We just didn't click and that is fine. But as I'm writing a subjective review, that is obviously showing in the number of stars.
Profile Image for Sam Cross.
Author 1 book4 followers
April 22, 2019
Started strong enough, but rapidly devolved into (what appeared to be) jot notes related, but not directly relevant, to the topic. I didn't take away anything new from this, unfortunately, except (maybe) the acronym JFDI, which is more or less Nike's slogan so nevermind, actually. No true takeaways. I'm pretty sure I saw every existing "don't procrastinate" cliché at least once, and some of the chapters (there were too many) were so short that the "summary" blurbs at the end more or less repeated them verbatim. I wouldn't recommend this.
Profile Image for Diana Darie.
4 reviews
December 18, 2019
This is by far one of the worst books I have ever read. There is so much repetitive and obvious information it provides I had to stop reading it half way through.
Profile Image for Ivor Kovic.
24 reviews
October 6, 2018
Great book to listen to on a commute. Messages can be applied to all areas of life, but mainly anything work related. As the author says himself multiple times, you know most of the things he advises to become more productive. The issue is that you lie to yourself and create unnecessary complications. Know it our not, it is great to hear somebody else tell you the facts. It is especially great to hear it from the author himself, as he also narrates the book in audio format. And he brings with it a his own style and passion, which is a welcomed bonus. So, there is now better time then now to start and get perfect later.
Profile Image for °°°jouli°°°.
351 reviews7 followers
January 9, 2023
2.5/5
Self-help books are monotonous reads, but I enjoy his writing style and energy, especially in the beginning.
Later, I think I got lost.
This book, in my opinion, is helpful for those who collaborate with others and have extra responsibilities to assign.
2 reviews
August 22, 2018
Brilliant book, very motivating and really raises the importance of getting stuck in! - highly recommended!
Profile Image for Fauzia Shereen-Saggar.
14 reviews
June 20, 2021
Great read by Rob who shares insights on motivation, getting things done and putting yourself on track to achieve your goals.
369 reviews2 followers
April 14, 2022
It was ok. The author's personality got on my nerves, but it is definitely so good productivity/ effectiveness tips.
Profile Image for Ben.
351 reviews
November 4, 2025
Solid productivity advice, keeps it simple with some novel elements consistent with the “do less but better” shift in productivity culture, like how to decide when to delegate, what a good leverage list includes and max size, etc.
371 reviews
October 7, 2018
Practical, honest, and comprehensive. I've already started applying the principles of the book and has helped me greatly.
Profile Image for Joe.
521 reviews
August 24, 2018
A great book reminding us of the importance of getting started and not waiting for everything to be perfect. The chapter talking about the most regrets of the dying is a little scary but unless we have some way to make our time on earth unlimited then don't we want to minimise the risk of regret at the end by creating the life we want and finding the time for what is really important?

Another excellent book from Rob Moore, one of my new favourite authors alongside Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins, Napoleon Hill and David Schwartz.

The audio and kindle versions of the book include for free Routine = Results which was published last month and also available separately.

You wouldn’t start drilling for oil, get one fifth of the way down, then give up, start again and drill one fifth of the way down the next oil well, and the next one and the next one and so on. This would be somewhat insane. You wouldn’t plant a seed today and come back annoyed tomorrow declaring, ‘Well where’s my fucking tree?’ One fifth of the way down five separate oil wells could be five fifths of the way down one oil well. And, revelation: you only get oil when you get all the way down. You only get your tree when the seed has grown deep roots, then shoots, then fruits. The grass is greener where you water it and give it sunlight. A good way to overcome the FOMO beast is to observe the emotion, and then simply wait. Sure, that might be like saying sit and look at a drink for hours if you are an alcoholic, but try it. Just wait. Sit on your hands. Wait long enough for the extreme emotion to pass, and then allow yourself to evaluate the decision in a more balanced way.

Sometimes doing the right thing at the wrong time is actually the wrong thing. Learn to say ‘Yes, but not now’. Keep the door open, but just ajar. Make sure you can look yourself in the eye and be confident you gave the last thing long enough to bear fruit, before you move onto the next thing.

As you read this next section, see if you can guess who this person is: He failed in business at age 21 His mum and sister died He was defeated in a legislative race at age 22 He failed again in business at age 24 He had a total nervous breakdown and was bedridden for 6 months His sweetheart died at age 26 He went bankrupt His first son died at age 4 He had a nervous breakdown at age 27 He lost a congressional race at age 34 He lost a congressional race at age 36 His second son died at age 12 He lost a senatorial race at age 45 He failed in an effort to become vice-president at age 47 He lost a senatorial race at age 47 He was elected President of the United States at age 52 That man was Abraham Lincoln. It is fair to say that Mr Lincoln was a great man. He made the decision to follow his dream and take all the necessary actions and tough decisions, even when having the most horrific luck and awful things happening around him

Here is another person who made a decision ‘against all odds’ but made that decision right. Can you guess who she is? Her mum left her when she was 8 She was teased at school for wearing dresses made of potato sacks She was raped at 9 She was molested by a family friend, uncle and cousin She ran away because of sexual abuse at home She became pregnant at 14 Her son died after birth She was hired at a local black radio station to do the news part time She became the youngest news anchor and first black female news anchor Since then she interviewed Michael Jackson, which became the third most watched interview ever. She became the first African American woman among the 50 most generous people, having given over $400 million to educational causes. She got her own network which made $300 million a year. She is now worth $3 billion and even has her own street, ‘Oprah Winfrey Way’.

ll of us, no matter how smart or experienced – master or disaster; beginner or winner; Steve Jobs or no jobs – go into a problem from the same level starting position. Your attitude is as important as your aptitude. The two most extreme reactions and applications to a problem are: Scenario A. Victim. Defeated. Why me? I’m beaten. Wish it away. Avoid it. Pain. Scenario B. Bring it on. Step up. I can do this. This is my chance. Big potential solution. I love a challenge. Because most people veer towards Scenario A, problem solvers have dramatically increased value in society.

The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing. The top five regrets she learned from the dying: I wish I cared less of what others think I wish I didn’t worry so much I wish I took better care of myself I wish I didn’t take life for granted I wish I lived in the now Other regrets of people facing death are: I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me I wish I hadn’t worked so hard I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends I wish that I had let myself be happier Perhaps the worse regret of all is regret itself. Regretting what you could have done, what you could have achieved and who you could have become. I do not share this to scare you but to shock you into action and decision.

‘Think of all the years passed by in which you said to yourself “I’ll do it tomorrow”, and how the gods have again and again granted you periods of grace of which you have not availed yourself. It is time to realize that you are a member of the Universe, that you are born of Nature itself, and to know that a limit has been set to your time.’ Marcus Aurelius.
Profile Image for Heather.
51 reviews3 followers
March 16, 2019
I’m so glad I only paid 99p for this. It was uninspiring and took me ages to read. It’s not easy to read because it is full of acronyms and weasel speak. Only really helpful if you are self employed and actually can control you own timetable. It’s not the book for someone who is trying to fit other things in around their main paid employment.
Profile Image for Clair Kiffin.
90 reviews
February 7, 2019
I have read / listened to similar genre books and although I like the performance of this one I listened to I didn’t feel like I got much “ah ha” moments....... I liked the delivery and the style of the author but that’s about it.
30 reviews1 follower
June 6, 2019
It’s a good starting point if you’ve never done any personal development work. If you have, I wouldn’t waste your time as it’s very basic.
Profile Image for Pía López Copetti.
352 reviews9 followers
August 19, 2020
This is one self-help book I truly needed to read. Ideal to break the decision paralysis, and especially for OCD perfectionism as I do suffer on a daily basis.
Profile Image for Andrey Korniychuk.
27 reviews14 followers
October 6, 2021
Great read! Now that I finished, it's time to play some video games.. Tomorrow I will start exercising!
Profile Image for Luke.
134 reviews1 follower
April 28, 2019
This was much better than I expected it to be and genuinely held my attention for long periods of time. I was expecting some sort of drivel about productivity and time management but what I actually got was some useful tips and advice that I can see myself implementing with ease. A lot of the statements Rob made really resonated with me; I'm definitely guilting of "getting all my ducks in a row" and spending too long researching, planning and designing. I can see now that much of my time is wasted and I will work on changing my mindset.

However on the negative side I do think this book went off on a bit of a tangent in parts. I'm not sure whether this was meant to be a book targeted at getting a business started, or if it was targeted at existing businesses.. The target audience seemed to change at certain points, or maybe that's just how I perceived it. It seems entirely focused on people who the option of self-employment with significant funding available, but the blurb specifically says it will help people looking to start a new business and I'm not sure if that's entirely accurate.

Some of the advice offered here in nonsensical. At one point Rob states that everyone should consider hiring a driver and then implies that anyone who says they can't afford it should re-consider. What a ridiculous piece of advice to anyone considering starting a business (The apparent target audience for this book)!

The self-deprecating trying-really-hard-to-be-funny humour in this book annoyed me as well. It was weirdly intermingled with some 'look how successful I am' remarks.. he tries to convince the reader that he's a normal guy but also casually drops in that his speaking engagements are 5-figure payments and that he holidays 12 weeks of the year..

There is some useful advice in this book, but Rob seems slightly out of touch with the reality of his target audience.
Profile Image for Gary.
34 reviews1 follower
July 2, 2020
This book felt a bit confused as it tried to cover various different but related subjects: procrastination, indecisiveness, productivity, and even business since the author seems to be of the "everyone should be an entrepreneur" school of online content creators who make a portion of their own money from online content on entrepreneurship. It felt like a book written for Twitter users, with very short and often disconnected chapters: just as I was getting into one part it would abruptly finish and jump to another subject, which is ironic considering it stresses the benefits of "flow". At least it's of the 21st-century self-help book style, short and getting to the point quickly without being afraid of a few F-bombs along the way, rather than last century's type that tended to be padded out with anecdotes.

A highlight for me was the advice on making difficult decisions, which is mostly very solid and I wish I had read it a year ago when I did have a big career decision (and perhaps I would have if this aspect of the book had been made clearer in the title!) although contradictory at times: early on the author insists that all decisions, even big-seeming ones, can be quickly and easily reversed, but later on he insists on the importance of committing to your choices and making them right for you. Both are valid points but there's little clarity on which one applies to which situations. Aside from that, the part that I found most enjoyable and applicable was actually the "bonus" book at the end on time management since it was a longer and more in-depth treatment of one specific subject.
Profile Image for Seemy.
904 reviews10 followers
November 10, 2025
When I read the title of this book I thought it will help me with my need for perfection and home in on that — help overcome it specifically — and whilst it did do that somewhat I felt it was just another productivity / self help book like many others with nothing particularly ground breaking — but good book nevertheless especially if this is completely new to you

To Our Continued Success!
Seemy
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Profile Image for ReadingMama.
1,014 reviews
April 11, 2020
“We procrastinate when we fear a threat to our sense of worth and independence, as a method of avoiding difficult situations.”

Moore, a successful pod-caster and a bestseller author of "Money" tells us that perfection is the enemy of progress. Start now then get perfect later. Be generous to ourselves and allow room for plenty of mistakes!

Procrastination and perfectionism are usually two barriers that many people have to overcome and this book gives steps on how we can all overcome these. Moore explains through the 4 D's, Delegate, Delete, Delay and Do, that tasks can and should be organised to fit into these categories. Creating leverage lists rather than to do lists also puts pressure on the individual to do what is best at that moment rather than what is easy to do. We all know what we need to do but create environments where we are not held accountable for our actions. This book gives the reader the tools to act when falling short of their goals to proceed to action, but there are no revolutionary concepts in this book. It only inspires us to action, which is enough in itself.
7 reviews
December 1, 2021
A low-quality book that is really not worth your time.
The book has some good parts but those could be summed up in a short Medium article (and they probably are).


It is exhausting how badly structured the book is. There are constant references to things mentioned in a later chapter which is only two pages long. Why is it then not possible to just explain the concept when needed instead of referring to them over and over? It just feels confusing.

To me, it is a bit annoying how often the author could mention the book's name in the book. When he says 'Start now. Get perfect later.' every other page I am constantly reminded of Peter Griffin: https://youtu.be/IhhXOh3K3oo

It feels like the author has a quite small subjective view of the world without the awareness of it which can be noticed in a very subtle but steady way.

Lastly, the meta text--when he talks about how he is currently writing these lines--is not my cup of tea.
Profile Image for Elaine.
216 reviews6 followers
June 25, 2021
The book was okay; if you're looking for quick motivational pep-talk to get you working on something you've been putting off, you can read a chapter of your choice. Each one is no more than five pages long, and is filled with energetic attitude.

I was looking for something a bit more scientific. The contents of each chapter of this book can be a blog post. Unfortunately like many self-help books these days, it runs into what I call the Goldilocks Problem. They always say, "Do this, but not too much of this. Don't do that, but don't avoid it too much." Which sort of leaves you in the same place you were before.

I think the author's advice of saying that all decisions are reversible, and hence, they're not as big as you make them out to be, is not applicable to a few things. Some bridges, when they're burned, can't be rebuilt the way they used to be, you know?
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