Devil is in the details

“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.”
-Colin Powell quotes (Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-93). Former, US Secretary of State, 1937)

In honor of Colin Powell, who will be speaking at our company conference in San Francisco mid November, I found a quote of his that summed up some thinking today. I have been struggling with the notion that focusing your energy on the top 20% of your customers, priorities, life will produce 80% of your results or happiness. In the long run, I believe this to be true, however, dealing with the important details or nuances of each situation really seems to bring closure. Sometimes it seems like there are too many details or time consuming tasks that need to be completed to finish things off.

So how do you focus your energy, where you will get the most payoff, while still dotting your i’s and crossing your t’s?

Is it continuing to focus on the vital few, less is more, while making sure you take care of all the little details only relevant to these priorities. I’m curious, what do you think?

By the way, I have seen some pretty amazing speakers over the years including President Clinton, Tony Robbins and John Chambers (CEO of Cisco) and Colin Powell is the best I have seen. His experience in many different facets of life, weaving his thoughts present and past among foreign policy, politics, war and philanthropy was truly outstanding.