Do The Same Thing Differently

I was on the way to work one morning last week when I saw something that struck me as being a little peculiar. There was a guy pushing a lawnmower down the road.

It wouldn’t have struck me as being strange except that the lawn mower was running.

At full throttle.

As I drove around him I realized what he was doing. He had mowed the yard beside the road and had blown all of the grass out into the road. After finishing the yard he was simply blowing those grass clippings off of the road and sidewalk back towards his yard.

He was just trying to keep the road and sidewalk from having a bunch of hairy grass on them.

Sometimes its the little details that make all the difference.

It’s the little design on the edge of the cake frosting.

It’s the way a link works on a website when you hover over it.

It’s the extra couple shrimp in a quesadilla texana.

It’s the carefully positioned cherry tomatoes on a salad.

What often sets people who are good at building/doing things apart from others isn’t so much the base “thing” that is required of them, but how they “finesse it” once they’ve reached the minimal deliverable product.

It’s those things that show that you not only care about what you are creating or doing, but you care enough to go the extra mile with it.

Anyone can put a bunch of french fries in a fry holder. What would happen if they all were put in so that each one was completely vertical? I’d notice that.

Anyone can mow a lawn. Not everyone does whatever it is they do to get the “checkered” look. I notice that.

Anyone can set a table. Not everyone carefully places the napkins and forks and glasses around each plate in the exact right order and spacing, nor should they always have too. But those little details take a regular meal and can help turn it into a special meal…

Anyone can write an email. Unfortunately it seems to be overly difficult for some people to read over what they wrote before sending the email. I hate getting emails that almost make complete sense.

So I guess I say all that to say this… Don’t just do an okay job on the things you do today. Take the extra few minutes to do something better than average. I bet someone will notice and I bet they’ll appreciate the extra effort you took.

Or maybe they won’t. But we’ll never know unless we try… 🙂