The Cost of Small Thinking

A friend told me a story recently that I can't stop thinking about. His company had a project that needed to be contracted out. The project, once delivered, would generate millions. Easy. The kind of opportunity you move fast on.

Instead, the business team spent five months negotiating the contract down to save $50K.

Five months.

By the time they finished congratulating themselves on the savings, the deadline was breathing down their necks. Now they're scrambling. Paying rush fees. Expediting everything. Spending more than they saved just to have a shot at making the timeline they blew through months ago.

They optimized for the wrong number.

This isn't a story about someone else's mistake. We've done this at YoPrint. We've spent weeks agonizing over a decision that, in the grand scheme of things, barely moved the needle—while the thing that actually mattered sat waiting.

It's tunnel vision. You get so locked into winning the battle in front of you that you forget there's a war. The $50K feels real because it's tangible. The millions feel abstract because they haven't arrived yet. So you fight for the small number and let the big one slip.

This year, one thing we're deliberately fixing is where we put our energy. We want to build what matters. Work on the things that move the needle. Not aimlessly optimize things that don't. It's a simple shift, but it's hard because the small stuff always feels urgent and the big stuff always feels like it can wait.

The best founders we know aren't the ones who negotiate the hardest. They're the ones who know which negotiations don't matter.

If the upside is millions, stop fighting over thousands.