Waiting for perfection is like the dilemma pictured in Waiting for Godot. Perfection never arrives, like the never–arriving title character in the play.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once said, “The insistence on absolutes . . . is a prescription of inaction.”

Waiting for a perfect time to act may mean we miss the best time to act, a time which may never come again. Instead of perfection, better to look for wisdom. Wise leaders who know history can better lead in those imperfect times. Yet, Kissinger complained, we tend to prefer “charismatic leaders over crafty statesmen.”

To prefer charismatic leaders encourages politicians to choose a Hitler, as happened in Germany during the 1930’s. Blaming problems on the threat to a mythical “Aryan” race and espousing a desire for a kind of golden age, led to concentration camps for Jews, confessing Christians, the handicapped, and others considered enemies of this new order.

A perfect leader is a myth. Instead, choose the wisest imperfect leader.