The littlest thing

The littlest thing can have a big impact.

A pebble in a shoe can create a blister. A single missing symbol can completely change the way software works. But sometimes the littlest thing can have a positive life changing impact.

I was talking to my mum recently. When I visit them and stay we both tend to be up early and that time chatting before everyone else gets up is precious.

Last time I was there she told me a story about when they first moved to Devon. She had always lived in a city; they were moving from Croydon. They had not been there long and she wasn’t sure they had made the right move.

She was walking into the town centre, which involved walking down a small lane, and someone walking the other way said good morning to her.

It was something so simple and probably so natural to that person. However it had a huge impact on my mum. She said it was at that point she felt that they had made the right move and she was happy that they had moved there.

And they are still in the same house 50 years later.

She has no idea who that person was and they have no idea the impact it had but it changed her life and it effectively changed mine.

Adam Grant made a comment recently that

The things that count most are the things you can’t count

He was referring to the fact that he is more concerned about the impact he has with his ideas, teaching and writing than the number of books he has sold or people who have downloaded his podcast. They are just numbers.

He keeps a “wwdi” (why we do it) folder where he keeps feedback from people that he can then share with others to remind them why they should keep doing something. Those comments and feedback have more impact than whether someone bought his book and it sat on a shelf.

That person who walked past my mum and made the effort to say good morning to a stranger did something so small, something they had probably done lots of times, but this time made a big difference.

Even the littlest things can have a huge impact.