We bought a house that needs a lot of work. Qest water pipes. Roof near the end of its lifespan. Kitchen that is (literally, not aesthetically) barely functional. Two unfinished rooms. I can go on and on. 

We knew all that when we bought it, but figuring out where to start was surprisingly hard. Replace the Qest pipes? Absolutely. 

But then again, we also need to move the hot water heater, plan for a new master bath, decide whether to turn an existing full bath into a half bath, figure out where we'll put the washer/dryer hookups... every decision creates a cascade of other decisions that, unless we want to risk going backwards at some point, need to be accommodated.

Replace the roof? Seems simple, but we're thinking about adding shed roofs over some windows. And might use metal instead of shingles over the long front porch. 

But also might replace the columns that hold up the porch and the porch ceiling and remove the railings since the porch is only a foot off the ground... seems like unless we want to risk going backwards at some point, we need to figure all that out, too.

So yeah: A little paralyzing. As many entrepreneurs planning a brand-new business can attest, thinking about what you may want – or need – to do later makes it extremely hard to decide what to do now. 

But then I remembered a conversation with Joe Satriani, the 15-time Grammy-nominated guitarist. who is the top-selling instrumental rock guitarist of all time. 

And the quintessential entrepreneur. Joe used a credit card to found his own record label, publishing company and record his first album – which in the process allowed him to retain ownership of his own masters, the holy grail of artistic and business control.

As Joe told me:

I picked up a great tip from producer Jim Scott. I wasn't happy with a song. Couldn't articulate why. Just knew I needed to record the whole thing over again.

He said, "Pick five little things that really bother you, we'll fix them and then you can listen to it again." I picked five that he didn't think detracted from the song but he said, "OK, maybe you're right." 

So we fixed them. Some were just a half-second long, but they bothered me. And it turned out great. That was a really good lesson. Now, when I'm working on new music, if something is bugging me that I can't articulate, I'll just try to find five things. Maybe a big thing, like a wrong chord.
Or a small thing, like bending a note I didn't mean to bend. Instead of starting over, fix a few things that bug you.

Often you'll find those little fixes totally change your perception of the whole.

The last line bears repeating: Often you'll find those little fixes totally change your perception of the whole.

The Rule of 5 Little Things

We applied the same approach to the house.

Qest pipes? Need to go. Move the hot water heater? Perfect time to do it is when we're re-piping the whole house. As for other changes? Those can wait: If we add a bathroom or remove a shower from another bathroom we'll be opening up floors and walls anyway. 

Roof? Replacing it doesn't affect adding shed roofs later; we'll just buy some extra shingles. Same for the porch; a new roof won't impact later swapping posts or removing the railing or, really, anything.

It just seemed like it.

Just picking 5 little things (granted, major items, but items where the seemingly never-ending ripple effects were stripped away) changed our perception of the whole.

We were so focused on the forest that we couldn't see the trees. 

We could fix this without worrying about that, at least for now. 

We could add this without worrying about that, at least for now. 

The same can be true for your business. Struggling with operational efficiencies? Instead of thinking you need to scrap all your processes and start over, pick five little things that hold you back. Supply storage that needs to be closer to production. 

Paperwork you often need to check or correct. Work-in-progress that gets handled too many times. Task workflow that gets pushed instead of pulled.

Or for you. Want to get in better shape? Just pick five little things to fix. Stop eating one thing. Start eating another thing. Start taking a walk in the evening. Start doing a few pushups and sit-ups. 

Just pick five little things to fix. Do that, and you'll solve a few problems. You'll improve a few processes.

Just as importantly, you'll gain better perspective on your business or your life, as a whole. You'll see the forest for what it is: A whole bunch of trees, some of which can be fixed or improved and some of which don't need to be fixed or improved – not now or maybe not ever. 

And best of all, you'll stop feeling paralyzed and start feeling good about making progress, however small, towards your goals.

Can't beat that.

Inc