What's this?
This sentence comes from Chapter 63 of the Tao Te Ching. It is sixteen words long, but it tells a counter-intuitive truth:
> The difficult things in the world must start from the easy places; the great things in the world must start from the small places.
In today’s words:
> You don’t lose because you don’t know how to do it, you lose because you think too much.
> You didn’t lose because you were incompetent, you lost because you thought it was trivial.
> Big things are not made by making big things, but by heaping up small things.
Note, this is not a "start small" chicken soup. It talks about the core law of systems theory - the collapse of a complex system is never because it is complicated, but because a simple link is broken. The establishment of a complex system is never because it is grand, but because a simple link is done right and then pushed down like dominoes.
What Lao Tzu said about "work in the easy" and "work in the detail" is not to advise you to be humble, but to tell you a cruel reality: Those things that you think are "too small and not worth doing" are precisely the watershed between success and failure.
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Why is it important?
Most people live in the world with an illusion: What I lack is opportunity, not action.
So they waited. Waiting for a "perfect time", waiting for a "ready state", waiting for a "big enough platform". They look at the success of others and say, "I wish I had that opportunity too" - but what they don't see is how many things others did before that opportunity came that were "too small to be worth talking about."
In the twenty-five years since I came to Europe, I have seen too many people fall into this illusion.
Case 1: The entrepreneur who "waits and is ready"
A young man wanted to open a cafe. He studied for three years - studying coffee roasting, studying market positioning, and studying decoration style. He made a 48-page business plan and revised it 17 times.
Three years have passed and he has not opened a coffee shop. Because he has been "preparing".
At the same time, the owner of another cafe on the corner was a retired barber. He won't study any business plan. He will only do one thing: open the door on time at seven o'clock every morning and give every customer an extra smile. Three years later, he opened a second store.
This is "all the hard things in the world must be done easily" - the barber did not wait to be "ready", he did the "easy things" first: opening the door, smiling, and making coffee. The hard thing (opening a chain store) grows out of the easy thing (opening the door every day).
In the 25 years since I came to Europe, the most stable entrepreneurs I have seen are not the ones with the most complete plans, but the ones who do the smallest thing at hand first.
Case 2: Leatherworker in Florence
There is a handmade leather goods workshop in Florence that has been open for four generations. I asked the fourth generation: "How did you make it to the fourth generation?"
He said: "My grandfather only does one thing every day: choose the best leather. My dad only does one thing every day: sew every stitch. I only do one thing every day: check every detail three times."
"Have you ever thought about expanding? Building a brand? Opening an online store?"
"I've thought about it. But do this little thing at hand first."
This is "big things in the world must be done in small details" - the inheritance of the four generations is not because they have done any "big things", but because they are doing the same "little things" every day. In the 25 years since I came to Europe, the longest-lived Italian family businesses I have seen are not the ones with the most ambition, but the ones that can endure doing small things.
Case 3: The person who wrote the book
A friend wants to write a book. He wrote the outline, created the characters, researched the market, and compared competing products—and then, he didn’t write a word for three years.
Another friend writes 500 words every night before going to bed. It doesn’t matter what you write, whether it’s good or not. 500 words. Three years later, she published two books.
It's not because she's smarter, it's because she's not too small. 500 words too few? Yes, but 1,000 500 words is 500,000 words. A book starts from word to word.
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This reminds me of compound interest and atomic habits
There are two concepts in modern times, which are completely consistent with Lao Tzu's words.
The first is Atomic Habits by James Clear. He said: If you improve by 1% every day, you will improve 37 times in one year; if you retreat by 1% every day, you will approach zero in one year. It's not because the thing you do is "big", it's because you do it every day.
Lao Tzu's "Zui Yu Yi" is the Eastern version of atomic habits: instead of waiting for a perfect plan, it is to turn the smallest things into daily habits. Habits don't help you accomplish big things, habits are the big things themselves.
The second is Toyota's "Kaizen". Toyota's production line was not built in a day. Over decades, every worker, every day, proposed a small improvement: "Can this screw be tightened by half a turn?" "Can this process be shortened by one step?" Over the decades, Toyota has become the most efficient automobile company in the world.
This is the saying that "big things in the world must be done in detail" - a great system is not designed, but the result of the accumulation of details.
Even more interesting is Nassim Taleb’s theory of antifragility. He said: Complex systems are not planned, but evolve through constant "small impacts". You make a big plan and a black swan destroys it. If you do small things every day and accept small impacts every day, the system will become stronger and stronger.
This is completely consistent with what Lao Tzu said - difficult things cannot be conquered in one go, easy things become difficult. Big things don't happen with one hammer, but small things add up to big things.
> What you think is a small thing is the beginning of something big.
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How to do it?
1. Before you want to do something big, ask yourself: "What is the minimum viable version?"
"Want to write a book?"→"Can you write 500 words tomorrow?"
"Want to start a company?"→"Can you provide good services to 3 customers first?"
"Want to learn English?"→"Can you memorize 5 words every day?"
"Want to keep fit?"→"Can you do 10 push-ups every day?"
I have been in Europe for 25 years, and I teach students a principle in the practical business class of pblcoach.com: Don't ask "Can this thing be done?" Ask "What is the smallest step in this matter?" Find that step and do it today. When you're done, ask about the next step.
2. Make "do one small thing every day" a rule, not a choice
Choice takes the most willpower. If you ask "do you want to do it today" every morning, you have already lost.
Change to rule:
-Write 500 words at 7 o'clock every morning. It's not "write when you want to write", it's "write when the time comes".
- Read 10 pages of a book every night before going to bed. It's not "read when you have time", it's "must read before going to bed".
- Every Friday, review the week. It's not "Replay as soon as I think of it", it's "Review on Friday".
In the 25 years since I came to Europe, I have met the best creators, the best entrepreneurs, and the best craftsmen - they all have one thing in common: Their good habits are not "insisted on" but set by "rules". They don’t need willpower because they turn the behavior into an automatic routine like brushing their teeth.
3. Record "small wins" and create positive feedback
People need feedback. But the feedback cycle for big things is so long that you give up.
So you need to create small victory feedback:
- Did you write 500 words today? Mark a ✓ on the calendar.
- Have you completed a small task today? Write it down.
- Did you do three more things this week than last week? Celebrate it.
After coming to Europe for twenty-five years, I found that the best leaders have a habit: They don't see "big success", they only see "small progress." Did the team accomplish a small goal? They are happier than accomplishing a big goal. Because they know that big goals are the compound interest of small goals, and the sense of accomplishment of small goals is the source of motivation for big goals.
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when?
"Everything difficult in the world must be done easily" is not a slogan for successful learning, it is the underlying thinking that you can use today:
When you feel that a task is too big to start with – break it down into the smallest steps. It's not about "finishing a book", it's about "writing 500 words today". It's not about "finishing a project well", it's about "complete the first sub-task today".
When you want to procrastinate - Don't ask yourself "Am I ready?" Ask yourself "What is the smallest step?" Do it when you are ready, you will never be ready. Doing it is called preparation.
When you see someone else succeed - don't just look at his "now", look at his "starting point". Every giant today was doing something that you thought was "too small" yesterday.
When you want to give up - Ask yourself: "Am I insisting on a big thing, or a small thing?" If it is a big thing, it is normal to give up. If it's a small thing, do it for another day and see. Most giving up occurs at the step closest to success.
When you think "this little thing is not worth doing" - this is what this sentence is going to warn you about. The little thing you think is probably the detail that makes others win over you.
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Where?
The rule of this sentence is applicable everywhere.
In psychology, the core of James Clear's atomic habits theory is that real change does not come from one-time determination, but from the repetition of small actions. A 1% improvement every day is a 37-fold difference one year later. This is exactly the same as what Lao Tzu said about "doing things that are easy" - not doing "difficult things", but turning "easy things" into "everyday things".
In economics, the compound interest effect is the most powerful force. Most of Buffett's wealth was earned after the age of 50. It’s not because he becomes smarter after he turns 50, it’s because he started investing when he was 20 and has been running compound interest for thirty years. This is "working in detail" - every small decision you make today is the seed of big results in the future.
In business, Amazon's Flywheel (Flywheel) is the best explanation. Bezos said: Amazon was not built in a day. It started from the smallest thing of "better user experience", which drove "more traffic", traffic drove "more sellers", sellers drove "more choices", and choices drove "better user experience" - the flywheel started spinning. The hardest part is the first step: getting the flywheel to make its first turn. That is "made in Yi".
In sports, tennis legend Nadal's training is not to play five hours a day, but to do the same serving action a thousand times a day. Federer does not play high-level matches every day, but practices the same pace every day. Great athletes do not do "great training" because they do "too small training", so small that their opponents disdain to do it. This is "work in detail" - the difference between the champion and the runner-up is not in the decisive point, but in the countless "too small" daily training.
In Italian family businesses, the secret of inheritance among three generations is not the "big decisions" made but the "little persistence" made. I have been in Europe for 25 years, and I have seen the longest-lived Italian workshops. The bosses all have a common characteristic: they don't do big things, they only do repetitive small things. A Florentine bakery that has used the same recipe for four generations. Not because they are conservative, but because they know that big things are the repetition of details, and details are the foundation of big things. When you change the formula, you change the roots. Change the roots and the tree dies.
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One sentence summary
> What you think is a small thing is the beginning of something big.
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This article was originally written by Coach Liu. Please indicate the source when reprinting.