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clips, and typing something for someone to approve, Elon is pioneering life on Mars using reusable space rockets, and long-distance electric sports cars.
Musk said we spend too much time on small ideas. In the context of the interview, he implied that when you focus on big ideas and big goals, you can make much more progress and you don’t get distracted and preoccupied by small ideas.
The ever-quoted principle, “Do small things every day towards your dream and you’ll eventually make it” can actually be a quote that gets in the way.
Zimbabwe has a problem with change because of a shortage of coins. For whatever reasons – be it logistics, bank charges and cross trading rates, we cannot get change for our goods.
Instead we have settled for the “credit note”, an IOU redeemable at the same store (credit notes are a good scam in themselves but more on that in another article). We have had this in place for years now, but every now and again I have to stand in a queue for minutes while an irate customer demands his 11 cents change in real coins.
Yes, the store should be able to pay you on principle, but to focus on it as if the world was going to end for something as small as 11c is crazy. You cannot even pay bus fare with it. When we focus on small things and place a magnifying glass over those tasks, ideas and mini-saving we start to become more and more selfish.
That turns you into a grumpy, complaining lump of human because no one can ever do things the way you want them. When the small things become unpleasant BIG things, big enough to stop focusing on everything else, they become your life, and then your life cannot be messed with. Think about it, if you’re willing to hold up an entire line for measly cents, your small savings cannot be messed with. Your precious email time cannot be messed with. Your task at hand cannot be interrupted, even if by a customer who needs you.
Focusing on the small things makes you overlook the big picture. Have you ever met someone who is so focused on a little detail that they are unable to look at alternative options. Bureaucrats can be like this; “the Father has to come and do it, no we understand you are the mother, but we need the Father to do it.
“The person picking up the document has to have the same surname as you, nor your married sister cannot help you because her name is now different to yours.”
I remember walking into an emergency room once where a patient was wheeled in, blood soaking through bandages after an accident.
The person was in a bad way and obviously needed immediate attention if they were going to make it.
The clerk asked for their identification document. The clerk spent the next five minutes asking an increasingly unconscious patient for their ID number, that patient was not going through till an ID was produced.
A life was at stake and the clerk was more concerned about a minor detail, we are not even talking about ability to pay here. The small things became big. When that happens, big things stay away from you and small things find you, latch on to you, and drive you nuts.
You’ll probably have a hard time making friends that think big. What do you spend your day doing?
Is your day all about what you need to get done just to check a few to-do boxes, or is there a bigger vision that is actively being added to? It doesn’t have to be building a new planet or being the first rock band to play on Mars, but it should be bigger than yourself and the strides you take to get there should be pushing the boundaries of your comfort zone.
Many tasks can be done big or small. I always have to look at myself and ask, Am I doing this just to get it done? Or is there a knock on effect to this? The answer changes my delivery, tone and focus. How can you take a small task and make it into something big in a positive manner? Small way to do something – Deliver a product to someone that ordered the item. Big way to do the same thing – Deliver a product with a note that reinforces your dream as a team and their value as a person, maybe even with a gift.
Something that will be remembered and won’t fade into the distance. Small way to do something – Write an article to meet a deadline. Big way – Write an article, on time, that you know will revolutionise the way people think on a national level.
Small way – Drop off a sales list of items. Big way- Set up a sales call and pitch that will kick-start a relationship that will bring you and your client benefit for years to come. Do big things and eliminate small distractions. There will always be time to save 11 cents later.
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