For Want of a Nail
Sweat the small stuff.
If you didn’t clip your fingernails today, no one will notice. If you don’t clip them for a week, maybe one person will notice. If you don’t clip them for a year, everyone will notice. Small seemingly invisible things compound.
"If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like,--serve yourself. A little neglect may breed great mischief; for want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was lost;" being overtaken and slain by the enemy; all for want of a little care about a horse-shoe nail.
Benjamin Franklin • The Way to Wealth (Illustrated)
Philosopher and priest Franz Brentano on how small errors compound:
“What is at first small is often extremely large in the end. And so it happens that whoever deviates only a little from truth in the beginning is led farther and farther afield in the sequel, and to errors which are a thousand times as large.”
“What is at first small is often extremely large in the end. And so it happens that whoever deviates only a little from truth in the beginning is led farther and farther afield in the sequel, and to errors which are a thousand times as large.”
jamesclear.com • 3-2-1: On Allowing Yourself to Be Happy and Full, and How Small Errors Compound | James Clear
Most catastrophes come from a series of tiny risks—each of which is easy to ignore—that multiply and compound into something huge. The opposite is true: Most amazing things happen when something tiny and insignificant compounds into something extraordinary.