(Note: this post comes from the archives. We’re reposting some of our old posts that for some reason we took down.)
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.
Growing up, I don’t know how many times my mother told me that story. There are many variants.
The point is this: the way we do everything matters. We’ve been focused for 3 years on making beautiful, durable videos. Some of our earliest videos are still being used – likeWishList Member, (I think that was Simplifilm #3).
But, we’re learning not just how to make videos, but to run a company. And it’s hard damn work to run a company.
There are many parts – and all of them matter, and everything interconnects with everything else. These things are vital:
- The way we invoice someone.
- The way we answer the phone.
- How fast we get back to someone.
- If we deliver on time, every time.
- How we welcome someone.
- The tools we use.
- The clients we choose to work with.
Everything impacts everything else. We’ve all bought a car we’ve loved from a dealership we’ve hated. The experience is soured for no reason.
The better we do them, the more human we make them, the more care we take means that we create and accrue advantages.
One little detail may not screw up a project, but it may cost a sense of wonder that clients deserve when they pay the kind of money it costs to work with us. A detail that gets missed could cause a cascade of delays.
We could be able to blame the client for those delays.We may be right. But who cares? It’s not the outcome anyone wanted. We are here to tell great stories about great businesses. We are here to deliver an amazing experience, not point fingers and have plausible deniability.
It doesn’t matter who’s fault the delay was, or where the error came from.
What matters instead is this: was the problem solved? Did the intentions and outcomes align with what we sought out to do? Did the video tell the right story?
Did the sales experience come from a place of earnestness and honesty?
These are the tiny things, but man, they matter. A company gets into a death spiral when it allows laziness in the door, when it becomes indifferent to the meaning behind the messages. When everything becomes a task and a chore and not an honor.