Little Actions

I find it interesting how conditioned we are to focus on the big things in life and how accolades are oftentimes given when these big events/actions/results occur. Makes sense doesn't it? We all respond to recognition, good or bad for our achievements.

What about the hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of little actions happening along the way to the "big event?" Aren't these deserving of recognition? Isn't it most likely that these small, mundane, seemingly insignificant actions ultimately yield the big results?

I am always fascinated by and have a strong desire to learn about people who have accomplished great things. Everybody loves a winner, right? The universal constant with this group of winners seems to be their ability and willingness to learn from their mistakes along the way and their unquenchable excitement and anticipation of the massive results forthcoming because of the little achievements happening each day, week, month, year. What an amazing life Mother Teresa led and how significant her impact on a tiny spec of this World, yet I suspect her daily life would have seemed exceptionally mundane to most of us. I wonder if Thomas Edison had crowds surrounding him at 2:00 a.m. on many nights as he obsessively pursued that next step in his quest to bring light to all of us? Warren Buffet has built his empire one spreadsheet analysis at a time,systematically surrounding himself with like-minded, analytical, not so 'exciting' people.

Here's where I am going with this. Life of the individual or the organization is a marathon made up of mundane actions with seemingly minor-to-meaningless impact. That's okay! The actions have impact and the yield over the course of the marathon can be really, really big or even difficult to measure. And isn't impact like success relative?

When I founded Purely the entire thought process at the time was to satisfy unmet demand for quality germicidal ultraviolet (UV-C) replacement bulbs. Believe me, nothing seems exciting about replacement components and when the product is a scientific technology the result was a lot of glazed stares. This said, we love the fact that these products help ensure that tens of thousands of consumer products work properly, hospital equipment sterilizes effectively, research institutions studies are accurate, food processing assuredly eliminates salmonella and other pathogens...you get the point. Unexciting, seemingly insignificant products helping deliver safe, effective products and services to people everywhere...excited yet?


A very cool thing that continues to occur at Purely Products is our growth and focus in lighting and the long-term impact that this step in the marathon run will yield. We recently introduced a compact fluorescent lightbulb (CFL) that has a built-in Ionizer, allowing it to remove things like pet dander, smoke, dust mites and much more from the air. Great enough by itself, right? On top of this, our Healthy CFL bulbs use approximately 1/5 the energy of a traditional light bulb, last 5X longer for less landfill disposal and will reduce by over 2 tons the amount of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide emitted into the atmosphere by the old traditional incandescent lightbulb. I think it's awesomely exciting that a mundane, insignificant step of changing a lightbulb can have such amazing impact. And we're just getting started. We're rolling out a modular CFL lightbulb line, a nightlight that cleans the air, a light/sound/aroma/cleaning therapy unit singly doing what has required multiple units (and multiple amounts of energy) in the coming months. Individually and collectively the products will have huge impact on the individuals life and likely a very small BUT measurable positive impact on the whole.

I love how our business is being driven by the consumer. Green, eco-friendly, carbon footprint, awareness, etc. are the result of a few insignificant people raising the awareness of a few more insignificants to local municipalities, to state and federal agencies to worldwide forums. Amazing! Keep it up 'littles,' one 'little' company in Knoxville, TN is listening and all of us are learning.