When little things become big deals - is this a good thing?

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about how little things become big deals when you're a startup founder.

One of the questions that I thought about was whether this relatively small situation having such a major impact on my psyche is a good thing for me.

On one hand, it's obviously not good at all.

There are a lot of "small" bad things that can happen that can stress out any startup founder or early employee. You might lose touch with a potential customer, like I almost did. Maybe you typed in a wrong number that made you spend a few hundred dollars more on advertising than you planned. Or maybe you inaccurately communicated something to your team that led to confusion about what tasks needed to be done.

These things can add up and really fuck with your mind if you don't deal with them properly. The stress may lead to poor sleep, crappy work performance, and strained relationships.

Of course, that's not good for you in the least.

On the other hand, if you put things into perspective, this stress can actually signify a good thing.

It could mean that you truly care about the job that you're doing. Your reaction to these situations might show that you're really passionate about your work and the mission you're trying to accomplish. It might mean that you understand the big impact that these seemingly little things could have.

If you were buried in a large corporation, these little problems might sting a little, but in the long run, they'll likely be a drop in the bucket and have minimal impact to the livelihood of the company. With layers upon layers in an org chart, these small issues can easily get buried and ignored with little consequence, so you might not care about them as much.

I'm not saying that a startup founder's job is more important than any other corporate job; I'm saying that in the early stages in a company, little things have a much larger effect on the company.

So when these little things bother you, it can be a sign that you really care about what you're doing, and are committed to making sure everything goes well for the good of the company.

And that's a great thing.