perfectionism causes anxiety and self-esteem issues.

A belief that the self and/or the world needs to be perfect in order to succeed can lie at the core of emotional problems like anxiety, depression, and anger. When I was very young, I was short (still am), and this caused me to be bullied and viewed as an "outsider" (I was super short for my age). This self-perception (that I was "not normal") caused great distress within me, which lead to extreme anxiety and a deterioration of my self-esteem. In response, I started to believe that in order to get people to approve of me, I would need to "be perfect" (i.e. without fault). And with this mentality, I became my own bully, and the level of self-criticism rose to emotionally painful heights (not to mention that it further pushed down my self-esteem).

The moral of this story is that perfectionism, while it may seem like a good idea on its surface, can lead to an exasperation of an already painful situation. From my own experience, perfectionism gets in the way of fully realizing the potential within. Because at the end of the day, being overly self-critical creates a ton of stress and anxiety, and those things only erect barriers to potential.