Details. I often find myself in the midst of immense suffering as a result of disregarding small facts along the way of my pressing journey to the big goal called The End.  Nevertheless, I still see details as an aggravation in my effort to shorten my to-do list. In my opinion, no one is a “details person”, as details should be present as small print which no one reads, and no one reads the small print. Instead, the very definition of the word “detail” varies with each individual. Each person defines what a detail is, not how much emphasis they will place on it. If someone gives so much attention to a detail it loses its detail value, and it becomes a sub point or a major point. In essence, one man’s details are another man’s passion.

There is no way to universally measure the real worth of a detail, because a detail is dependent on a person’s subjective perspective. It depends on a person’s priorities and their estimate of how events will unfold and what consequences they will bring. If they fail to calculate their formula correctly, their definition of details could be faulty.

Details = events or actions that are [hypothesized by a person] to bring < significant direct outcomes to a particular cause

It is not the details that are the problem; it is the person’s ability to determine the precise outcomes of where they must use their resources. There is an objective definition for each person’s details, and they must not be confused as main points, or a main point could be lost which could be detrimental to the person’s goal.

For example, when I was in high school I worked the cash register in retail, I had a long list of procedures to run through besides the obvious, getting people’s money and giving them their clothes. The first step was to ask the customer two questions: if they had found what they had been looking for and who had helped them. Both of which I found ineffective but I couldn’t proceed to the computer until I had given it an answer so I found it to everyone’s best interest to submit to asking to these useless questions. I was then supposed to ask them if they wanted to sign up for a credit card which, although pointless, was not time consuming like the others because the customer usually turned it down point blank. Then I was to ask them if they would like to sign up as the store’s newest Chosen Customer. Now, there is no coincidence these questions are asked in this particular order, so I ask myself, if the marketers are analyzing and examining effective ways of communicating and expanding their public that they even prefer the questions to be asked in a particular order, why can they not analyze this retarded system of taking down thousands, and yes I mean thousands, of apathetic customers’ names in order to call, email, fax and mail each individual a small flyer about the monthly sale? I found it annoying to be the person in charge of contacting the thousands of women across the state that chose to be the newest Chosen Customer at that moment, whether it was out of the elated joy of new clothes, or a pity agreement so they did not feel they had just given me two negative replies in a row. 

Calling each woman was intense discomfort for me as I never knew if the next one was going to be the one who had had enough of the monthly phone calls and would proceed to use unruly language to express their feelings toward them.  I found most people were not home; I guessed they had probably moved away, as I left countless messages on answering machines which indicated a different resident abided at that number. I could have been thinking of a better way to reach the people, the ones that cared about the sales, and could have saved many bad associations with telemarketers the next time a causal customer heard the name of my store. But instead I was spending my five hour shifts letting people know what happens when they become one of the Chosen.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there were several women who were just as excited to get the phone call each month as they were to sign up. But the ratio appeared unpromising. Was it really worth calling individuals to make it personal because that is how it has always been done? Was it really worth the effort telling each woman as I rung up their items that they too could be a Chosen Customer? I think not, as I now walk by my store in the mall and see its doors closed forever, or at least until someone decides to lease it out. And I can’t help but think those tasks I was given were details…just details to me. But to someone else they were the foundation of the store’s success. And all they did was fail to define their own details accurately.