Paying Attention by Nino Mihilli

I've Learned to Pay Attention to What Keeps Coming Back

One Complaint Can Be Noise. One Idea Can Be a Distraction. But When Something Keeps Appearing, I Start Paying Attention.

I've had a lot of ideas in my life.

Too many, probably.

Business ideas.

Technology ideas.

Investment ideas.

Things to improve.

Things to build.

Problems I think somebody should solve.

Most of them don't deserve to become businesses.

Some don't even survive until the next morning.

I've also encountered plenty of problems.

A customer complains.

An employee struggles with something.

A process breaks.

Something takes too long.

Someone asks for a feature.

One occurrence doesn't necessarily mean much.

But I've learned to pay attention when something comes back.

Then comes back again.

And again.

Repetition is information.

Once Might Be Noise

This distinction matters.

If one customer asks for something unusual, I don't immediately rebuild the company around the request.

If one employee dislikes a process, that doesn't automatically mean the process is broken.

If I have an idea at midnight, I don't need to form an LLC the next morning.

If one investment moves unexpectedly, that doesn't automatically prove a theory.

Individual events can mislead us.

People are emotional.

Circumstances are unusual.

Coincidences happen.

Noise exists.

That's why I've become more interested in patterns than isolated moments.

Twice Makes Me Curious

The second time something happens, I notice.

Another customer asks the same question.

Another employee gets confused at the same step.

Another invoice has the same issue.

Another business owner mentions the same frustration.

Another person independently describes the same need.

Now I'm curious.

Not convinced.

Curious.

That's an important difference.

Curiosity asks:

Is there something here?

Three Times and I Want to Investigate

There isn't a magical mathematical rule that says three occurrences prove anything.

They don't.

But mentally, repetition changes the category for me.

It moves from:

Interesting.

to:

Let's understand this.

Why does this keep happening?

Is there a common cause?

Is this happening elsewhere?

Can we measure it?

Is the process wrong?

Is customer behavior changing?

Is this a real need?

Could technology solve it?

Could training solve it?

Should we stop doing something?

That's where investigation begins.

Some of My Best Business Lessons Started as Annoyances

Business owners complain constantly about little things.

I do too.

Why does this take so long?

Why are we entering this twice?

Why can't these systems communicate?

Why do we keep missing this?

Why does somebody have to manually check that every week?

Why does the customer have to call us for information we already have?

Those frustrations are easy to dismiss as the normal cost of doing business.

Sometimes they are.

But sometimes an annoyance is a business requirement trying to introduce itself.

Flat Staffing Has Given Me Plenty of These Signals

Staffing is full of repetitive processes.

Hours.

Scheduling.

Worker information.

Payroll.

Billing.

Customer communication.

Approvals.

Changes.

Exceptions.

When something happens once, someone fixes it.

That's normal operations.

When the same type of problem keeps appearing, fixing each individual instance isn't enough.

Eventually I want to know:

Why are we allowing the system to create this problem repeatedly?

That's a different question.

And it's usually a better one.

Fixing Symptoms Feels Productive

This is the trap.

A problem appears.

We solve it.

Great.

Next week it appears again.

We solve it again.

We're busy.

We're responsive.

Everyone is working hard.

But hard work can hide bad design.

If the same fire needs to be extinguished every Friday, eventually someone should stop celebrating how quickly we put it out and figure out why the building keeps catching fire.

That's where systems thinking begins.

The Front Line Usually Sees Patterns First

One mistake I've learned to avoid is assuming the owner sees everything first.

We don't.

The people doing the work often notice changes before leadership does.

The person answering calls hears the same question repeatedly.

The person processing payroll sees the same error.

The salesperson hears the same objection.

The field employee notices the same operational problem.

The customer-facing employee sees behavior before it becomes a report.

That's valuable intelligence.

But only if people feel comfortable speaking.

Complaints Can Contain Product Research

Nobody enjoys complaints.

But complaints are information.

The customer is telling you where expectation and experience separated.

Sometimes the customer is wrong.

Sometimes the request is unreasonable.

Sometimes you should politely say no.

But when multiple customers complain about the same thing, I want to know why.

Maybe communication is unclear.

Maybe the product is confusing.

Maybe the process is too slow.

Maybe we're promising something differently than we're delivering it.

Repeated complaints shouldn't automatically control the business.

They should definitely get its attention.

Repeated Questions Tell You Something Too

If people keep asking the same question, the problem may not be the people.

Maybe the explanation isn't clear.

Maybe the website doesn't answer it.

Maybe onboarding is missing something.

Maybe the instructions make sense only to the person who wrote them.

I've learned this in technology too.

When the user repeatedly needs someone to explain how a feature works, that's not necessarily a training problem.

It may be a design problem.

Good systems answer more questions through their design.

Opportunity Often Whispers Before It Shouts

We imagine opportunities arriving with flashing lights.

Here it is.

This is the big one.

Real opportunities are often quieter.

A customer asks for something.

Then another.

You notice a workaround people created themselves.

Someone is paying too much for a poor solution.

A process nobody likes has become accepted because "that's just how it's done."

Those are interesting signals.

Markets frequently reveal opportunities through inconvenience.

Look for the Workaround

This is one of my favorite signals.

If people are creating workarounds, they're telling you something.

Spreadsheets connecting systems that don't communicate.

Text messages replacing bad scheduling software.

Employees keeping personal notes because the official system doesn't give them what they need.

Customers doing something manually because nobody built the right tool.

Workarounds are evidence of unmet needs.

Sometimes the workaround is good enough.

Sometimes it's the blueprint for the product that should exist.

AI Makes Pattern Recognition More Accessible

One reason I'm excited about artificial intelligence isn't simply that it can generate things.

It's that businesses increasingly have the ability to make sense of information that used to sit unused.

Customer questions.

Operational notes.

Errors.

Transactions.

Documents.

Feedback.

Patterns across large amounts of information.

A human may remember the three biggest problems from the week.

A well-designed system can potentially help identify the smaller issue that happened 47 times.

That's interesting to me.

Because the quiet recurring problem may be costing more than the dramatic one everyone remembers.

Numbers Help Protect Us From Our Memory

Human memory is strange.

We remember dramatic things.

The angry customer.

The big mistake.

The unusual day.

That can distort our perception.

Maybe something felt like a huge problem but happened once.

Meanwhile a tiny inefficiency happens every day and quietly costs far more.

That's why I like evidence.

Count it.

Measure it.

Track it.

How often does this actually happen?

What does it cost?

How much time does it consume?

Who does it affect?

Numbers can turn a feeling into something we can evaluate.

Patterns Matter in People Too

This gets more uncomfortable.

Everyone has bad days.

Someone misses a deadline.

Makes a mistake.

Says something poorly.

Forgetfulness happens.

I don't like judging people based on one moment.

I wouldn't want someone judging my entire character from one of mine.

But repeated behavior is different.

One mistake deserves context.

A pattern deserves attention.

Reliability is a pattern.

So is dishonesty.

Generosity is a pattern.

So is selfishness.

Work ethic is a pattern.

So is avoidance.

Eventually repeated behavior tells you something.

The Same Rule Applies to Me

It's easy to observe patterns in other people.

Harder to look at your own.

What do I keep procrastinating on?

What kind of problem repeatedly gets my attention?

Where do I repeatedly overspend time?

What decisions do I keep regretting?

What do I say matters but repeatedly fail to schedule?

What ideas keep returning even after I put them aside?

What situations consistently bring out the worst in me?

Patterns can become mirrors.

Sometimes they show us something we'd rather not see.

Some Ideas Refuse to Leave

I've had ideas disappear almost immediately.

Then there are others that keep coming back.

You move on.

Months later, you're thinking about them again.

You see the problem somewhere else.

Another piece connects.

You learn something new that makes the idea more possible.

That doesn't mean every recurring idea should become a project.

I already have enough projects.

But I pay attention.

Sometimes persistence is telling you that the idea deserves a deeper look.

Writing Works That Way Too

Ideas for writing often behave this way.

Something stays with you.

A question.

A character.

A conflict.

A truth you're trying to understand.

It keeps resurfacing.

Eventually you realize you're not finished with it.

Writing The Variable taught me that ideas can evolve significantly between the first thought and the finished work.

You don't always know what something is when it first appears.

Sometimes you have to stay with it long enough for it to reveal itself.

Faith Has Repetition Too

I've experienced seasons where the same lesson seems to appear from different directions.

A conversation.

Something I read.

A situation in business.

A Scripture verse.

A personal conviction.

I don't believe every coincidence needs to become some dramatic sign.

We can overinterpret things too.

But I do believe in paying attention.

Sometimes God doesn't need to shout.

Sometimes I'm simply not listening the first time.

Proverbs 20:12 says:

"Ears that hear and eyes that see—the Lord has made them both."

Seeing isn't only looking.

Hearing isn't only receiving sound.

Both require attention.

Don't Force the Pattern You Want to See

There's danger here too.

Humans are very good at finding evidence for what we already believe.

If I desperately want an idea to work, suddenly everything looks like confirmation.

That's why repetition alone isn't enough.

Ask harder questions.

What would prove me wrong?

Am I ignoring contradictory evidence?

Is this actually happening frequently?

Am I hearing from a representative group or the same type of person repeatedly?

Could another explanation fit the facts better?

Patterns should create hypotheses.

Not automatic conclusions.

Look for What Changed

A pattern becomes even more interesting when it is new.

Customers didn't ask this last year.

Now they do.

Employees weren't having this problem before.

Now they are.

This cost used to be stable.

Now it keeps rising.

People used to respond to this offer.

Now they don't.

Something changed.

That's where I want to investigate.

Because changes in behavior can precede changes in the numbers everyone eventually notices.

Small Signals Can Become Big Changes

Big changes rarely begin big.

A few customers behave differently.

A technology becomes slightly more useful.

A new competitor appears.

An employee finds a better way.

A cost starts creeping upward.

An old assumption stops working as reliably.

At first, it's easy to ignore.

Then eventually everyone sees it.

I've become interested in that period between those two moments.

When something is happening but hasn't become obvious yet.

Final Thoughts

I'm trying to become better at noticing what repeats.

Not reacting dramatically to every event.

Not ignoring everything either.

Observe.

Count.

Ask questions.

Look for patterns.

Investigate.

Then decide.

One complaint may be noise.

Ten similar complaints are information.

One employee misunderstanding something may be a mistake.

Ten employees misunderstanding it may be the process.

One customer asking for something may be unusual.

Twenty customers asking may be a market.

One bad outcome may be luck.

A repeated outcome may be telling you your assumptions are wrong.

One idea may be a distraction.

An idea that keeps returning for years may deserve another look.

Life gives us signals constantly.

Business does too.

The challenge isn't noticing everything.

That's impossible.

The challenge is recognizing when reality keeps tapping you on the shoulder.

I've learned not to assume that repetition automatically means something.

But I've also learned not to ignore it when the same thing keeps coming back.

Because sometimes the pattern is the message.

— Nino Mihilli

Stay Connected with Nino Mihilli

🌐 Personal Website: https://www.ninomihilli.com

🏢 T47 Group: https://www.t47group.com

👷 Flat Staffing: https://www.flatstaffing.com

📖 Read Nino Mihilli's novel, The Variable, on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GX3783RG

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