“The Devil is in the details.”
It’s an old cliche.
And as any cliche it is overused to the point of losing any meaning and becoming something trite that we all just say.
We don’t really think about it.
But the thing about cliches is there is a reason that they have become so used.
And it’s because they effectively deliver small truths.
Such is the case with “the Devil is in the details.”
I think we have all fallen victim to a lack of understanding of the details at one point or another.
When I was a teenager what I wanted more than anything else was my own car.
As it happened my older brother had an old sky blue/rust colored 1981 Honda Accord he was ready to part with.
This was the opportunity I was waiting for.
I gave him $400 and he gave me the keys.
It was not until then that I realized that I didn’t know how to drive a manual transmission all that well.
And by all that well I mean I either killed it or had the gas so revved up that I would peel out every time.
It was an awkward couple of days, because I was too proud or stupid (is there really a difference?) to ask for help. So I got honked at a lot, and I killed that damn car more often than I would like to admit. (Especially at the red light on Sego Lily and 1300 E. If you know, you know.)
Eventually as with all things, I learned and driving stick became second nature. There are many times these days that I miss driving a stick.
At 16 though I wasn’t really paying attention to the details, I just knew what I wanted, I saw an opportunity and I took it.
And fortunately at 16 it worked out for me.
Later in life such a cavalier attitude doesn’t serve as well.
So I became more acquainted with figuring out the details.
When Matt and I first started working together we both had some baggage from previous business partnerships.
So we sat down and discussed the details.
The easy stuff and the hard stuff.
We determined how most everything would work before we solidified everything.
And once we started to work together there were definitely surprises, but mostly of the good variety, and it’s been an incredible partnership. And we have not “stalled the car” so to speak.
We didn’t know everything, but we knew enough to take a chance working with each other.
What’s my point?
Typically things will work out, but it’s a whole lot easier if you have at least figured out the critical details.
Carry on.