Small things always matter. Neglecting small things can lead to unexpected disasters. This because neglecting it sometimes not only affecting you, but others as well. This happen especially when you're at the center of the others worlds wither a parent, manager or a leader. If you are in a position of responsibility, your reactions definitely will affect others no matter how massive this action is.
Suppose you are a parent raising your son. You give him apparently a large amount of money every couple of days. Your son tend to spend all his money at once. He always follow his desire whatever it's on the right place or not. You didn't bother yourself to teach him to save, to think before spendin. As a result, your son won't appreciate the value of the money when he grow up. He will not do hard to get it. You have killed the value of "doing" in your son. He won't see any problem to find any illegal way to get it. That is it. Small thing here matters.
You're a manager not caring about your employees morals and passion. You think as long as they get their salaries in time, they reach their maximum productivity. In the long term, people will get bored. This won't affect only your employees but it will affect "their" output, subsequently "your" profit, "your" life and "your" business future.
As a technical person, I see many colleagues don't care about small requirement, design consideration or even customer feedback. I am dealing with testers and designers where their output are mostly affecting the customer satisfaction in a way or another. I always hear: "No this is small .. Not important .. the customer won't care about it." You may delay the issue but don't ignore it. The result of ignoring will come someday wither as a customer lose or decreasing in market share.
Knowledge is not the only incremental characteristic in humans. Feelings, appreciation, personal values are all a result of long experience you gain along time. In your social life, if you don't show any appreciation to your parents, friends, partner and family, they will value you the same in a long term. You can't blame them as they lose your value in their life.
If you don't care about your health, body and fitness when you're young, don't expect much when you get old. It's all a matter of time and your body won't show any appreciation. As you give you will gain.
"Balance is the key to success in all things. Do not neglect your mind,
body, or spirit. Invest time and energy in all of them equally - it will be the
best investment you ever make, not just for your life but for whatever is to
follow." --Tanya Wheway
Small things matter because it's the building blocks of the larger ones. The final result of the equation always depends on its parameters. Small changes in the equation lead to different result. Make sure you're not missing any in your life!
One of our colleagues applied for a position in some company. He claimed in his resume that he has some position inside the company he hasn't got yet. The company he applied to asked a reference inside our comapny regarding this guy position. The reference denied. "No, he didn't get the position yet!", the reference person said.
