The article “Take a break, worries or not” appeared on the original blog on April 12, 2011.
The point of Richard Carlson’s focus changing book “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff and It’s All Small Stuff” is to aide in getting priorities straight. Too often, it is quite easy to get so lost in the little details of life, they become fair more important than is necessary. Does it really matter if a piece of furniture is .001 inches to far to the left? Or if a child leaves half a green bean on their plate? Let the small things take care of themselves and handle the truly large stuff.
In business, these same ideals apply. Far too often, there is such a concentration on marketing (surveying customers, collecting customer data, well placed advertising), that the larger picture is lost. Is one more back link really going to matter? Does a particular print need to be one more shade of pink toward red? The larger picture is why are you in business.
Get passed the “to make money” answer and dig deeper. What really needs to be accomplished? Move the world? Make a change? Nice lofty goals, but what does that mean? Move the world to where? Make what kind of change? A change for whom?
Clear the mind and release the small things. The small goals and details. What is behind? How do business survive and thrive? Stop looking at what is special about your products. Get behind the small things. Of all the things that have impacted the world the most, what was the underlying motive?
Service.
It is by serving others first that allows one success. The greatest movers in this world, from Jesus to Gandhi, looked to serve others first. The well remembered Greek philosophers sought to teach first. Plato established the western world’s first academies. Socrates is not known for what he wrote, but what he taught others and they in turn recorded. Jesus preached that service to others was bound in God’s Law, while Gandhi pursued his non-violent revolution through service to his fellow country men.
Service not bound by expectation of reward is one of the greatest gifts one may give to another. When reward is reaped, the prize is more sweet. Serve your customers not in anticipation of a purchase, but of a grateful attitude. Those who are touched will buy. Not due to some level of coercion, but out of respectful consideration.