Lessons From The Margins: What Every Business Leader Can Learn From An Editor’s Eye For Detail
In editing, as in business, the smallest signals often carry the greatest weight—if only we choose to pay attention.
One of the things I’ve learned to do in my time as an editor is to always keep an eye out for things that just don’t feel right.
Sometimes it’s as small as a misplaced punctuation mark. Then there are moments when headlines seem more clickbait than credible. Other times, it’s a story that seems to say a lot yet conceals a gap that can change the entire narrative.
Regardless of how these signs show up though, I have come to believe that ignoring such signals comes at my own peril–because if I do ignore them, they will almost always come back to cost me more later.
What I notice in editing, I often see echoed in business too. A brand rarely breaks down overnight—it usually starts with something small and almost unnoticeable on its own. For instance, slipping standards, which are either blissfully ignored, or dismissed as unimportant. The departure of key employees, explained away as chance, when, in truth, it’s the company culture that’s driving them out. The nail in the coffin is usually when customers themselves begin to lose faith—unlike the other signs, this one demands attention, but it also offers little room for recovery once it makes its presence felt.
The problem, I suppose, is that these red flags, much like the errors I’ve had to train myself to catch, are easy to skim past when you’re going through the motions. In editing, missing them risks eroding your journalistic standing; in business, ignoring them can trigger a decline that’s hard to come back from. The lesson, however, isn’t about being paranoid—it’s about paying attention. It’s about noticing what feels off, asking the hard questions before circumstances force the answers, and ensuring corrections are made while still possible.
At the end of the day, in both editing and business, problems don’t vanish if you miss (or ignore) them—they often harden into something that’s far more difficult to repair. The real question, then, is whether you try to catch the cracks before they spread—or wait until they leave you with no choice.
This article first appeared in the September 2025 issue of Inc. Arabia. To read the full issue online, click here.
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