I’ve got a two-year-old son, and one of my favorite parts of “daddy duty” is taking care of bedtime each night. My wife gets him up and takes the mornings, and I get to put him to bed. Every night we get to read a couple of books, I get to sing him to sleep, and then after I lay him down I get to hear him scream and yell when he realizes I’m leaving. It’s that amazing blend of sweet and sour that every parent knows.
One of his favorite books these days is an old nursery rhyme book that my grandparents gave me when I was a kid. He likes to look at the drawings and find cats or dogs or horsies or whatever else sparks his imagination.
One nursery rhyme jumped out at me as I was reading to him the other day. It’s not a rhyme, more of a parable, but it delivers a powerful life lesson. It goes like this:
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 message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
It’s a great illustration of the importance that even the seemingly minute details can have on larger events, and a great reminder about why paying attention to the details matters. You can apply it to a number of other areas as well - no job is too small, the law of unintended consequences, etc.
That may be a little too complex for a toddler, but for me as I work to build a business and as I work with other small business owners, it really rings true. I’m a big-picture guy by nature. I love to ask “what if we did this?” but I struggle with making myself focus on the details sometimes.
This little parable serves as a great reminder to me of the need to force myself into drilling down, and to work with my clients to really hone in on the detail of their communication strategies, and I thought it might help others as well.
Now if I can just get out of the room without my son noticing!
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