My day yesterday was pretty SUPER. My husband, Jeff, and I watched the Michigan men’s basketball team win the NCAA National Championship Game in Indianapolis. Go Blue! 💙💛
On the drive to the game, I watched the Artemis II crew livestream their voyage around the moon, venturing farther from Earth than any humans in history and closer to the moon than anyone in more than 50 years.
And, as if that wasn’t epic enough, we stopped not once but twice at Buc-ee’s on the drive. (12/10 for Buc-ee’s, as usual. No notes.)
The word that kept coming to my mind yesterday, both with the Artemis II mission and the championship game, was “details.”
You already know that obsessing over seemingly-unglamorous parts of your business — the “does this even matter?” details — is often what separates forgettable from unforgettable.
Today, I want to celebrate two kinds of details: the intentional decisions that are made before the moment, and the deliberate execution of details in the moment.
Because even though you’re (presumably) not playing in a championship game or going on a mission around the moon anytime soon, your customers will notice when you care as much about the “little things” as they do.
The details before the mission: the Artemis II Patch
Spaceflight isn’t just about rocket science — it’s about inspiration. And, due to the significance of the Artemis II mission, the crew knew its mission patch had to be just right.
Patch designer Gregory Manchess gives a brilliant recap of some of the intentional design decisions he and the NASA team made for the patch (seen above) in this article.
Manchess says he and the crew spent months brainstorming and sharing sketches to perfect the patch for the mission.
Months. For a patch. The crew and artist didn’t have to put that much effort into it. The patch could’ve been quickly slapped together with a couple of vague references, but they cared enough to make it spectacular and deeply meaningful.
My favorite parts?
“For the Benefit of All” has been a guiding principle of NASA since its inception in 1958. Look closely at the patch and you’ll notice the Roman numeral for “2” is intentionally styled to resemble the word “All” following the “A” for “Artemis.”
The patch pays homage to Apollo 8 — the original mission around the moon and the flight during which the famous “Earthrise” photo was captured — with its placement of Earth, right down to the details of Earth’s rotation and cloud patterns.
The actual cloud patterns. Not “an Earth.” That Earth, from that moment. The end result is a patch that the Artemis II astronauts, the larger team at NASA, and space enthusiasts alike (🙋🏻♀️) can marvel at, thinking, “Wow. They thought of everything.”
The details elevate the entire experience.
The Details During the Mission: The Free Throws
Some details in your business are designed and decided upon before the mission or the game (like the patch). Others are designed or practiced in advance but must still be executed in the moment, because they were practiced until they became instinctual.
Michigan didn’t make a single three-pointer in the first half of the championship game. But they made over 20 consecutive free throws at one point, and finished the night 25-of-28 from the line. That’s nearly 90% accuracy!
Free throws are the opposite of glamorous. They’re the part of basketball you practice alone, in an empty gym, long after the crowd has gone home. They’re boring. They’re repetitive. But, unlike heavily-guarded three-point attempts, they’re completely within your control.
And when it’s a four-point game with two minutes left on the biggest stage in college basketball, they’re everything. It’s not always the flashy, highlight-reel moments that win championships. It’s a relentless dedication to executing fundamentals when they matter the most.
Some details happen before anyone’s watching. Some happen while everyone is. Make the decision to obsess over both, and you’ll be unstoppable.
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