I once ran a music conference. We had problems with on-site registration the first year, and one of my staff members responded by having a meltdown that we had run out of paper clips. I used them as an example of the problem of obsessing over “minor details” for the entire next year - until we then printed something in the directory without a tiny logo for the next year's conference, and we had to refund the client thousands of dollars.
7 - In many mission-critical situations, I will obsess over details as if I were building parts for a commercial airliner. However, I'm content to let some "inconsequential" balls drop if I must, in favor of achieving larger initiatives. The problem is that while I have a pretty good ratio, I can't claim to a 100% track record in always knowing what someone else might find mission-critical while I might see it as "polishing the underside of the banister.”