The Little BIG Things:
163 Ways to Pursue Excellence
The Little BIG Things is, without any hint of hyperbole, the single best management book I’ve ever read.” Warren Bennis
The Little BIG Things is a compendium of 163 ways to pursue excellence—with tips ranging from the blatantly obvious, “Show Up! (It’s a Start.)” and “It’s All About … the Quality of the Workforce,” to the wildly counterintuitive, “Boring Is Beautiful” and “Reward DNK (Do Not Know),” to the often repeated, “The Customer Is ‘She.'” Begun as a repackaging of the Success Tips from our blog, this book became so much more as Tom worked and reworked its contents. Now, its main message is that EXCELLENCE is the result of many small tasks, all of which can be practiced and mastered.
Where to Buy
You can purchase The Little BIG Things on iTunes as an ebook, an enhanced ebook, or you can find several apps combining video and text from the book. Visit Tom’s Apple Books page to find them.
Listen to the Book
While Tom was reading The Little BIG Things for the audio edition, we made a collection of mp3 files, one item at a time. So, here they are, The Little BIG Things read by Tom. We’ve posted them a section at a time, and the book is now complete. Listen and get energized by Tom’s enthusiastic rendering of his book!
Watch a Video
We caught Tom on camera talking about many of the little BIG things included in the book. He talks about the importance of listening in the video below. For more videos in this series, visit our channel at YouTube.
Read a Few Chapters
Why not read a sample from the book? Choose from the Introduction, the Table of Contents, the section about Others, or the section on Enterprise. As a preview, we had sent section 1, Little, to recipients of our TP Times newsletter, and that’s also available.
Synopsis Series
From Tom: “You’ll find here the ‘CliffsNotes’ version of The Little BIG Things. In the interest of getting connected with as many people as possible, I’ve produced a series of ‘Highlights’ pdfs, which capture the ‘BIG idea’ in each of these ‘little BIG things.’ Missing are (1) the nuances and (2) 90 percent of the ‘How to’s’ and the rationale for those ‘How to’s.’ Eliminating the subtleties and cutting the action part is cutting the heart out of the book—nonetheless, I hope you will be titillated by what follows and moved, perhaps, to purchase the book; or in fact to use this version, distribute it, etc.—I want the ideas to circulate to the max.” There are 48 sections and an introduction, each only a page or two, released over the course of several months.
#48 Big
#47 Success
#46 Special Section: The Heart of Business Strategy
#45 Impact
#44 Now
#43 Wow
#42 Re-imagining
#41 Special Section: The Top 50 “Have Yous”
#40 Enterprise
#39 Grunge
#38 Details
#37 Design
#36 Time
#35 Learning
#34 Curiosity
#33 Special Section: Quotations 34
#32 Listening
#31 Innovation
#30 Gender
#29 People
#28 Talent
#27 Presence
#26 Passion
#25 Special Section: Charlie Wilson’s War
#24 Change
#23 Action
#22 Customers
#21 No
#20 Yes
#19 Equations
#18 Lunch
#17 Networking
#16 Words
#15 Leadership
#14 Initiative
#13 Work
#12 Performance
#11 Attitude
#10 Connection
#9 Others
#8 Self
#7 Special Section: The Recession 46
#6 Resilience
#5 Opportunity
#4 Crisis
#3 Special Section: Guru Gaffes
#2 Excellence
#1 Little
Introduction
Media Sightings
People are talking about The Little BIG Things. Here’s what they’re saying:
The Little BIG Things, CreditUnionMagazine.com, 26 April 2012
The Little BIG Things, UpMarket.squidoo.com, 29 February 2012
The Little BIG Things—Book Review, MimosaPlanet.com, 9 July 2011
Five MUST READ Business Books, John Spence’s blog, 6 March 2011
Coast Guard Reading List and a recommended reading, US Coast Guard Auxiliary District 13 Division 7 Blog, 5 February 2011
Tom Peters is back with a terrific new book, The Herald, 17 January 2011
10 Books Every Entrepreneur Must Read From 2010, Under30CEO.com, 29 December 2010
The Best Leadership Books of 2010, LeadershipNow.com, 25 December 2010
Year’s Best Books for Business Owners, Inc., 8 December 2010
The Little Big Things by Tom Peters—Audiobook of the week, Internet Business Productivity Blog, 10 November 2010
The Little BIG Things—Tom Peters, Greatest Hits Blog, 4 November 2010
Tom Peters is not a BIG MOUTH & stuff you can learn from him, Rothacker Reviews, 29 September 2010
Tom Peters “The Little BIG Things” Vook review, Dean on Software, 19 September 2010
All success in an enterprise comes from valuing and engaging people, The Economic Times, 6 August 2010
It’s Always the Little Things, Rita Keller, 3 August 2010
The little big things, Idealog, 26 July 2010
Tom Peters Innovative Move, The Midwest Laboratories Blog, 23 July 2010
Book Review: The Little Big Things by Tom Peters, FundraisingDetective.com, 13 July 2010
Talking Little Things with Tom Peters , Duct Tape Marketing, 30 June 2010
Tom Peters Invades My Excellent Tech-Free Weekend!, Keyboard Karma, 26 June 2010
The Little Big Things: 163 Ways to Pursue EXCELLENCE, TMReview.com, June 2010
The Little Things, Geezer Skier Blog, 11 June 2010
The Little Big Things: 163 Ways to Pursue EXCELLENCE, Sacramento Book Review, 26 May 2010
Tom Peters’ Little BIG Things Is Excellent Read, Excellent Resource, Serve to Lead Blog, 11 May 2010
Re-Set Business Breakfast, 21 April 2010
Excellence Guru Talks at Saint Francis University, Pennsylvania Business Central, 19 April 2010
Discover the 19 Es of Excellence, Ian Paul Marshall, personal development coach and blogger, 18 April 2010
Marketing Communication—It’s a Little BIG Thing, It’s Everything, Marketing Is Us, 14 April 2010
The Little BIG Things by Tom Peters, Fred Leland (law enforcement/security consultant), 10 April 2010
Cool Speakers for 2010: Tom Peters, Nick Morgan, Public Words, 7 April 2010
Enterprise* (*At Its Best), an excerpt from The Little BIG Things, ChangeThis.com, 7 April 2010
Enthusiasm! Bill Williams’ Blog (acting/creativity coach), 8 April 2010
THE LITTLE BIG THINGS: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence, Risk Management, 7 April, 2010
Can Tom Peters Help Us Find Excellence In An America That Needs To Re-Set Its Thinking? Huffington Post, 1 April 2010
Excerpt: Item #133: It’s All About the Mud! on AmEx OPEN Forum, 29 March 2010
Tom Peters Speaks Out About Toyota Recalls, Ron Holohan, pm411.org, 28 March 2010
Grandma Was Right, WallStreetJournal.com (subscription required), 28 March 2010
Tom Peters on The Little BIG Things, Part One (27 March 2010), and Part Two (28 March 2010), Anthony Iannarino at The Sales Blog
Tom Peters’ Newest Book … ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Achieving Business Excellence, 27 March 2010
Book Review—The Little Big Things by Tom Peters, Todd Sattersten, 23 March 2010
Sustainability Wisdom from Tom Peters, Andrea Learned, 23 March 2010
Little BIG Things Money Quotes, John Moore at BrandAutopsy.com, 22 March 2010
Tom Peters Highlights, TheGrowthGuy.com, 19 March 2010
Achieve Excellence With Your Branding Strategy, BusinessWeek.com, 19 March 2010
Tom Peters’ Little BIG Things, PersistenceUnlimited.com, 16 March 2010
163 Ways To Be More Awesome At Your Business, BusinessInsider.com, 16 March 2010
Tom Peters Talks About the Little BIG Things, David Meerman Scott, 15 March 2010
Memo to Tom Peters from the Department of Punctuation!!! Debbie Weil, 11 March 2010
Book Review, EnterpriseMedia.com (producers of Tom’s videos), 10 March 2010
Video Book Review of The Little BIG Things, Chris Brogan,
9 March 2010
Epigrams from the Original Modern Guru, by Stefan Stern at the Financial Times,
4 March 2010
A Little BIG Thing, JWT Bangkok, 3 March 2010
Library Journal, 15 Feb 2010 (scroll down about 1/4 of the page)
Kevin Roberts on Tom Peters, KR Connect, 19 Jan 2010
Six New Business Books for 2010, Vancouver Sun, 31 Dec 2009
Peter Cook Reviews The Little BIG Things, The Anglo American Book Company