Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
But know the difference between what’s in and out of your control
When my kids were growing up, I used to tell them that life was pretty simple. Contrary to what they might learn in libraries full of self-help and personal advice books. “You can live by two simple rules,” I’d tell them:
Rule 1: Don’t sweat the small stuff.
Rule 2: It’s all small stuff.
And the corollary that can (and should) be applied to most any situation requiring a decision: “What’s the worst thing that could happen if…?”
To me, life is all about setting priorities, realizing the difference between things you can and cannot control, and having fun. Not sweating the small stuff is not an excuse for being lazy, sloppy or not taking responsibility. Rather, it is simply the realization that 99% of the things we worry about (the things that keep us up at night) are probably not going to kill us. It’s about priority, understanding who and what in your life really do matter (hint: probably not all 876 Facebook or Instagram “friends”) and staying focused on whatever that might be. Catching Pokémon may feel like the most important event in your life today, but chances are, in a year from now, it won’t have significantly contributed to your personal or career growth. Ditto for how many “likes” you get on your latest Facebook or Instagram post, or re-tweets of your last tweet. And if you’re stressing over the recent rash of increased COVID-19 cases in parts of the US, well, that’s hardly small stuff, but unless you’re over 70 and in a nursing home, you’re probably not going to change the situation by worrying about it. But you can take control of the situation and just stay home if you’re worried. Considering the limited capacity we all have as individuals, most of what we deal with on a daily basis is small stuff.
But my point is not to pile on in the already overcrowded field of telling people how to live their
lives. Rather, as CEOs, we should be concerned with building great brands. And building great brands and great companies is achieved by doing a million little things right. Wait, what? Now I’m confused…I mean, here’s the don’t sweat the small stuff guy saying we need to focus on details…a million of them?! Could I have been wrong? Would I have to call kids and tell them to start sweating the details after all? Perish the thought!
So now I’m on a flight to Boston and having made a note to think about big and small stuff for the next six hours, my thoughts have returned to my dilemma. I started thinking about the flight crew, and the Pakistani airliner that crashed last month. I thought about the landing gear on this plane, and the guy responsible for making sure that the hydraulics work consistently. Now, that may be “small stuff.” In a little detail, one of the million things that could go wrong on this Boeing 737 (and not a new one, by the way). And it occurred to me that for him (and me, and the other 250+ people onboard this plane), ensuring that the hydraulics work is not small stuff. Nor are the electronics to power the flight deck, the fuel injectors that make sure the jet engines are getting enough to drink, etc. It goes back to priorities. I don’t want any of those guys worrying about Pokémon (at least not now) and I do want them sweating the details of their job. In this case, lives are at stake.
Sure, for most of us, no one is going to die if we don’t write a follow-up to our champion on a new account that just closed. Or if we don’t deliver the best possible support to a customer in need of our help. Similarly, no one will die if we make an error in our financial statements, or don’t thoroughly test our code, resulting in a bug. There are millions of things that could go wrong and each of us has our own set of details. The small stuff, perhaps, that may be details but are critically important. Even if no one is going to die if we fail, there sure will be a lot of disappointment from our shareholders, customers, partners and even our employees. This is an awesome responsibility, and should be treated with an awesome level of respect.
In short, it’s OK not to sweat the small stuff. Just make sure you know the difference.