1.28.12 VEVO Premier 2.3.12, Adam in Europe

I totally get what you mean. A few minutes can mean an entirely different life pattern in one instance and not a huge difference in another chart. It depends on whether someone was born close to the time a major indicator shifts such as the rising sign. Again, I am speaking from the perspective of an Indian astrological tradition which does not view the Sun sign in the same way as Western. It actually looks at the "dance" between the Moon, Sun, rising sign and most importantly, the owner of the rising sign as well as 27 lunar signs. It also deals with 20 harmonic or divisional charts that all come out of the exact degree of the rising sign at birth. They all comment on specific areas of life like relationship, career, education, etc. So you see, there is plenty of ways in which things can shift around if the time is off.

I have seen situations where the whole chart changes with less than a minute of change in the birth time and others where a specific theme of life like marriage can change but not something else. It's like the gears of an exquisite precise Swiss clock.