Stack Size...How important is it?

A problem that many players face early on in the tournament is the worry that their chip stack is becoming too small because of blinds that have been lost for whatever reason.  For example, if you are sitting at a table and have lost 30 chips of your stack of 1500, you may look at the tournament lobby and see that you are falling behind the average and thus must start making something happen.  This is the WRONG response!!
If you try to force chips your way, you can stop thinking about hands rationally and make some very bad plays which will cost you your tournament life.  You must keep playing tight in these stages, as the blinds won't actually do you any damage and can be made up with a marginal hand later on in the tournament.
It is absolutely critical to play tight but aggressive poker, only playing premium hands.  It is very easy to get to the top 50% of most tournaments even if you never play in a pot.  When the blinds go up, the risk of playing less than premium hands is outweighed by the potential reward.  The opposite is true early on, to raise 200 with Q9o in an attempt to steal 30 chips in blinds is a ridiculous plan!
To give a personal example of this, last night I was in a 90man SNG on PokerStars and I wasn't doing that well but I was still there in the top 45 or so.  Sitting in the big blind, I was dealt AT of spades and checked to a flop.  The flop came 2, 4, J, all of spades.  I checked, the player to the left raised 800, the next raised all in, another called, I called, as did the guy to my left, and I won over 6000 chips with the nut flush, moving myself into 7th.
A key virtue in poker is patience; early on you can wait until you are holding the nuts, then make a nice move to double or triple up.  Patience will pay off and when the premium hand comes, you can be ready.  Once you are in the money, however, new rules apply to how to play your hands and that will be the subject of a later post!  For now, I hope to see you at the final table!!