Does a little thing like the thickness of toast really matter?

It's the little things that usually make the biggest difference.

Don't kid yourself. Whether you're in business or you work for someone else, the little things that you do everyday will bring you more success, more joy, more money and more love.

I used to own a breakfast restaurant. Do you know what I loved the most about this restaurant before I bought it? It was the thickness of the toast.

The toast was thick like homemade toast. It wasn't the bread we could buy in the grocery store. The only place you could get that toast was in our restaurant.

No one thought the thickness of the toast was important until it was taken away.

A few months into owning the restaurant, an employee asked if we could bring in caramel ganache. No other restaurants, to my knowledge, were carrying ganache so it looked like a small change that differentiated us just a little more. People were eating it so it looked like a good choice. It cost more than strawberry jam, but the decision to bring it on the menu was to give us a slight advantage over the other restaurant choices our customer had.

The protocol of the franchise system, I was in, made us give away free fudge at the door instead of the typical mints other restaurants would do. The fudge was made every couple of days and cut up by hand and placed at the cash as a final thank you to guests.

Each and every time, I would introduce myself to people outside the restaurant, I would hear one of three comments:

1. Oh I love the fudge.
2. You're the only place I ever saw caramel ganache offered instead of jam.
3. The toast is just like gramma's bread. Where do you get it?

The franchisor asked us to remove the ganache off the tables. They changed the bread for a cheaper product to keep the costs and customer prices down. Only the fudge remains.

Of course, we had to be good at the big things like serving a good breakfast. I believe it was the little things like fudge, ganache and thick toast that made us remarkable.

If you want to be remarkable in your business or in your job, think of all the little things you could do consistently every day. Maybe it's a happy attitude, the ability to laugh, or the way you compliment others around you.

I worked with a guy once that was terrible at his job. Yet, everyone loved him. He was incompetent in his job and twice got let go. Yet, every time a new job came up that seemed to fit his skill set, he would get it. Management wanted him around. They tried to find the right role for him. He knew how to make others feel great about themselves and that's where he eventually saw huge success.

So the next time someone says "Don't sweat the small stuff", tell them "God is in the details".

Greatness lies in the small stuff. What small stuff are you doing to bring out the greatness in you?