Nothing lasts. Nothing is finished. Nothing is perfect. Embrace it.

As a child I spent two years living in Japan with my family, and the country has since always had a special place in my heart.

I love its culture, its architecture, it’s design sensibility and eye for naturalism and simplicity.

One of my favorite elements of Japanese tradition is “wabi-sabi.”

Wabi-sabi is a traditional Japanese aesthetic or worldview, centered on the acceptance of transience. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent and incomplete.”

It’s fascinating to me how much of the wabi-sabi worldview can be applied to entrepreneurship. Much of it seems taken straight from the playbook of the lean startup movement and Agile software development.

Nothing lasts.
Nothing is finished. 
Nothing is perfect.

So keep shipping, keep innovating, and keep learning.
And appreciate the imperfect beauty of everything you build.

Further reading: Wabi-Sabi Principles for Entrepreneurship.