Every action — every detail of our lives — has bottom-line repercussions, and it’s dangerous and derogatory to think of any of those details as trivial, unimportant, or inconsequential.

You may be familiar with the old nursery rhyme which teaches this principle to children:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Downplaying small details, dismissing them as minutia — can and oftentimes will sabotage the biggest goal or project you can conceive.

Ultimately, the key to quality and excellence in every aspect of our lives is doing little things correctly — all the time, every time — so that each action produces a quality result.

When every nitty-gritty detail is lovingly attended to, and each step in the process is given complete and careful attention, the result inevitably will be of the highest quality.


WHAT TO DO NOW? Share your two cents on the importance of nitty-gritty details.

Practice is probably something you think you’re done with when you leave school or when you’ve stopped taking music lessons.

However, having or showing gratitude is also a fine art that comes with practice.

The best way to practice gratitude and giving thanks for being alive…is to:

• Accept 100% responsibility for your life.
• Behave like a gentleman and lady.
• Commit your life to excellence.
• Deliver exceptional results.
• Exceed expectations.
• Focus on solutions.
• Gracefully age.
• Honor your commitments.
• Inspire through your actions.
• Joyfully embrace each day.
• Keep your promises.
• Leave a lasting legacy.
• Model best practices.
• Necessitate high, uniform, ethical standards.
• Open your mind to new ideas.
• Passionately pursue your dreams.
• Quickly solve problems.
• Reciprocate and pay it forward.
• Showcase your talents.
• Talk lovingly.
• Undertake challenging tasks.
• Vote to protect and defend democracy.
• Welcome and embrace change.
• Zealously do what is right, good and noble.

There is a special kind of magic in the practice of showing gratitude.

It raises our consciousness, recharges our energy, enhances our self-worth, and strengthens our spirit!

WHAT TO DO NOW? Share your two-cents worth on what it means to show appreciation.

Seven Days of Giving

Reciprocity is defined as a mutual exchange. It simply explains that that when someone gives you something or does something for you, that you feel an obligation to give back and return the favor.

Serial reciprocity is exactly what one might expect – a series of sequential exchanges between parties.

This set of exchanges is unique because they do not occur between two people in a closed quid pro quo arrangement.

Instead, serial reciprocity is “when people repay the benefits they have received – for example, from a parent, friend, mentor, anonymous stranger, or a previous generation – by providing benefits to a third party, someone other than their benefactor”

Serial reciprocity differs from other forms of reciprocity because the original donor or volunteer does not receive anything tangible, measurable or immediate in return for his or her initial good deed.

I define serial reciprocity as, “the principle that says we should repay the good works and contributions done for us by the good works and contributions we, in turn, do for others”

Thus, in serial reciprocity, individuals “pay it forward” instead of paying it back.

In the film Pay it Forward, a teacher asks his young students to fix what they don’t like about the world. A student, Trevor, completes the assignment by helping three people.

In return, he asks only that each individual help three more people, and request that they do the same. Trevor hopes to change the world one action at a time using the principle of serial reciprocity to begin an unending chain of positive events.

The 7-Day Benevolence Challenge

I’d like to offer you a 7-Day Benevolence Challenge where you will engage in a series of random acts of benevolence and expect nothing in return.

GUIDELINES

1. For each of the next seven days, identify a person or group of people whom you would like to help.

* You can choose one person for each of the seven days, and you can also recruit others to participate in the challenge with you.

2. Think of a special act of benevolence that you would like to do for them.

3. Be creative, if possible, refrain from using money, use your melon and think of ways to use your time, talents or special gifts to blow someone?s mind, or simply put a smile on their face.

4. Remain anonymous.

5. Leave a note for the beneficiary of your benevolence. Ask them to Pass it On and do a good deed for someone else.

Why Should You Participate?

Serial reciprocity is of critical importance on four accounts. The first, and most obvious, is that it widens the circle of giving, allowing recipients to become givers by doing good deeds for another.

Second, the deeds of these “new” givers perpetuate benevolent action and ensure its place in society.

Third, serial reciprocity is essential to the transmission of benevolent values from one generation to the next.

Finally, the ultimate test of the impact of an individual is twofold: whether the world they left is qualitatively different from that which they inherited, and what contribution they made to that change.

Therefore by participating in the 7-Day Benevolence Challenge, you are helping to make the world a better place and inspiring others to do the same.

I hope that by sharing this understanding of serial reciprocity and by offering it as a challenge, that it illuminates benevolent motives in people throughout the world.

I believe that once people recognize the importance of serial reciprocity and consider its implications, it becomes difficult to imagine daily life without engaging in random acts of benevolence.

So what are you waiting for? Begin your challenge today, and be sure to pass this message on to everyone in your address book.

What To Do Now? Begin your 7-Day Challenge and post all of the fun, kooky and creative ideas you come up with. In addition, tell us how you felt when you were engaged in these anonymous acts of benevolence.

Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps.

The other night I was watching a 60 Minutes interview with Olympic Champion Michael Phelps. During the interview, the host Anderson Cooper showed pictures of Phelps winning the 100-meter butterfly final at the Water Cube in Beijing by ONE-HUNDREDTH of a second over Serbia’s Milorad Cavic.

Phelps admitted that his winning margin of one-hundredth of a second was almost impossible to see but it was because of ONE small difference, on the final stroke Cavic lifted his head up just slightly which acted as a mini speed bump and I kept my head down streamlined. Small stuff matters a lot!

It’s important to keep in mind that high achievers in every vocation turn over all stones, understanding and exploiting to their benefit the fact that the critical difference between merely acceptable versus excellent results lies in the smallest of details.

They acknowledge and accept that the difference between Gold and Silver at the Olympics can be traced to the tiniest of details in training or execution; as a result, they make everything count!

WHAT TO DO NOW? Share your own two cents or personal story on the importance of small details that led to a big success.

The small details matter.

There’s a very popular book series that has enjoyed a long life on the best seller list titled, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff.

It offers a philosophy that is immensely popular, but highly flawed as it panders to the majority by telling them what they want to hear rather than what they need to do.

As pragmatic advice on how to run a business and live a life of excellence, it’s a big steaming pile of nonsense. This is bad advice, and it spells trouble in the current economy.

All the power and leverage is with the customer and they will exercise their power by leaving one business in favor of another over very small things, things that could have easily been avoided by simply using common sense and paying attention to the small stuff.

Every business is severely and adversely affected by poor customer retention. If a customer abandons one restaurant or coffee shop for another it’s most likely NOT because of the food or coffee, but due to dissatisfaction over a small detail like;

• Having to hunt down a waiter for more coffee or the check
• Not receiving a genuine welcome or prompt greeting
• Too long on hold when making reservations
• Table conversation constantly interrupted
• Gum or debris on the ground
• Too long a wait for service
• An unclean fork or glass
• Apathetic personnel
• A filthy bathroom
• No eye contact

The cost of losing a customer is multiplied in tough times simply because there is a smaller pool of replacements and much more intense competition for them.

Do NOT be fooled by mainstream news; businesses like Circuit City are not suddenly upside down thanks only to a credit crunch or drop in customer spending; there’s much more to their suddenly revealed weaknesses than that. They have gone on too long not sweating the small stuff, and now they are suffering consumer’s revenge.

If you have any interest in being competitive than start sweating the small stuff because every little thing does count.

WHAT TO DO NOW? Share your two cents worth on the importance of sweating the small stuff.