In a world obsessed with hacks, highlights, and headlines, it’s easy to forget where real greatness is built: the invisible, boring, relentless repetition of the basics. Not the moonshots. Not the breakthroughs. The basics.
The Wooden Way
John Wooden, arguably the most successful coach in sports history, began every season the same way—with a lesson on how to put on socks and tie shoelaces. This wasn’t cute. It was surgical. Blisters from poor sock placement could bench a player. Loose laces could cost a possession. Tiny errors create ripples. And ripples create losses.
Wooden won 10 NCAA championships in 12 years because he understood what most people ignore: mastery begins where ego ends.
Details Are Not Details
Charles Eames once said, “The details are not the details. They make the design.” This isn’t just about design. It’s about life. It’s about business. It’s about leadership.
- A sloppy onboarding doc leads to a misaligned hire.
- A rushed reply creates doubt in a key client.
- An unchecked pixel breaks trust in a brand.
You don’t lose a $1M deal in one move. You lose it in 10 unnoticed ones.
Excellence Is a Game of Inches
Champions show up differently. They prepare differently.
- Kobe showed up to practice hours before anyone else.
- Tom Brady obsessively reviewed tape, frame by frame.
- Da Vinci spent years studying muscles before painting skin.
These are just a few examples stories of devotion to the granular.
The Enemy: Complacency
At PD, or any company that wants to punch above its weight, the standard you set on the small things becomes your culture:
- Do we show up on time?
- Do we dress professionally?
- Do we set up their workspace and computers?
If the answer is no, we’ve already lost the bigger game.
The Invitation
Sweating the small stuff isn’t about micromanagement. It’s about pride. Discipline. Ownership. It’s about saying: “Nothing is beneath me if it gets us one inch closer to greatness.”
And here’s the punchline: When you sweat the small stuff long enough, the big stuff takes care of itself.
