The first draft is not the final draft.

The first draft is not your final draft, even if your first draft has great ideas in it.

I recently visited the first draft of Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. It was four pages, so lots of pieces got cut out of it as it made its way through being ratified by the colonies.

It includes that King George should not have allowed slavery to continue in the colonies. It has really good ideas in it.

Some of those got cut, as we know in history. I’m sure the Southern colonies would not ratify it with the slavery clause in it. That took them another nearly 100 years.

Your first draft is not your final draft.

Even in this country, the first draft is not the final draft. We’re still working on it.

Don’t not put something out there just because the first draft is not exactly what you need. Allow there to be cuts, even if they’re really good ideas, because they can come up later and still happen.