All organizations are prone to fail slowly, although it may not seem like it at times.
Just like the overnight success of Amanda Palmer, which is anything but an overnight success (it was a consistency of getting the little things right over a long period of time), failures appear to happen fast. One day the restaurant is there, the next day it’s not. One day the business manager is in charge of 20 employees, the next day it’s just him. But, truly, you and I know failure and success don’t happen that fast.
All agencies, organizations, businesses are bound to be cut and bruised just as we are. Are you treating the wounds of your business as you would a wound on your body? Or are you waiting (like so many now-failed businesses) until it’s time to patch the wound with a giant band-aid, a redesigned website, a new PR campaign, a new motto or “about us” page? It may seem logical to care for all wounds at once, but it’s not.
A drop in office productivity, a minor employee-client clash, one regretful tweet are cuts that need mending immediately. Even more importantly, we must view the boring things of business just as wounds that need our immediate attention.
When we begin ignoring the little things, we set ourselves up for a fail: a slow fail until the day it hits you.
You can certainly jump ahead success-wise with a broad stroke, a bold move, but to stop a slow and painful death that every organization, every person in business is susceptible to, we must make the little things a little more remarkable, we must apply, not just quick-fixes, but improvements to the banal, to the cumbersome, to the “not my problem” problems of our business.
Don’t just think “how can we fix this?” think “how can we fix this in a way that leaves a positive impression?” If we ask and answer this enough, we may just find ourselves getting referred to as an overnight success.
Stay Positive & Turn The Little Things Into Big Things
