I was reading this morning about the physicist Per Bak, who states that if grains of sand were dropped on a pile one at a time, at some point the pile would enter a critical stage, where another grain of sand would cause an avalanche. This “hypothesis” is used to show that small events can have large consequences; that seemingly stable systems can behave in unpredictable ways.

Though this theory is generally used, I think, to predict negative events, I think it could be equally applied to predict positive events. I sometimes wonder – what person, or what conversation was responsible for airlines taking the action of prohibiting smoking on airplanes. There must have been many complaints, many individual conversations (or grains of sand) leading up to this decision…

In my own life, I think about the first time I thought of starting a greeting card company, the idea of making things from recycled paper; how the thought turned into an idea. I remember the first time I voiced this idea and how powerful that felt; which led to the next step, which eventually became a large company called Brush Dance.

Sometimes what looks like a small step, a minor action, a thought or idea can have a large impact.

What are examples of seemingly small steps, small actions, that had a large impact in your life?