Greatness in the Wrong Place

A $3.5 Million Dollar Violin & $32 Dollars in Tips

Today’s story might sound like a bad setup to a stand-up joke, but it’s 100% real. In 2007, Grammy-winning violinist Joshua Bell performed in a Washington, D.C. subway station with a $3.5 million dollar violin. $3.5 MILLION DOLLARS.

Bell blended in with jeans and a baseball cap and played for 45 minutes during the morning rush hour, drawing little attention from passersby. To be more exact, over 1,000 people walked by and barely anyone stopped to watch more closely.

He got no standing ovation. No applause. He made just $32 in tips. Ironically, he performed a few days prior for a sold out show where tickets averaged over $100 apiece.

Same music. Same violin. But his response was dramatically different in both contexts.

The absence of applause and praise for Bell in the Subway can remind us the importance of showing up and performing whether or not there’s an audience to celebrate you for it.

But today, I want to highlight something subtle and invisible that affects us more than we often realize: Context.

Context Changes Everything

Let’s talk about water for a moment.

Have you noticed how the cost of it varies depending on where you’re purchasing it?

A bottle of water might cost around $2 at the grocery store, $4 at the gym, $6 at a hotel, and maybe $8 at a concert (and guaranteed it’s warm).

Same bottle. Same brand. Same amount of H2O.

But the price tag? Completely different. Why? Context.

In performance settings, context—where, when, and how something occurs—profoundly influences how people behave and what they value. The subway wasn’t a concert hall for Joshua Bell. Commuters weren’t looking for beauty. They were looking for a train.

So even though Bell played the same music, on the same $3.5 million violin, his greatness went largely unnoticed. He didn’t perform worse or below his normal standard. He was just performing in a location where no one expected greatness.

Psychologists call this expectancy theory, which states that we see what we expect to see. If you’re not expecting a Grammy winner in a Subway, you’ll walk past one without a second thought.

Now apply this to athletes.

If they’re waiting for the right stage, the perfect setting, or the loud applause to perform at a high level, they’ll miss a hundred chances to grow. Context might change how others see you, but it shouldn't change how you show up.

Coaching With Context in Mind

What helps one athlete thrive might cause another to shut down. One context might stretch someone’s abilities, while the exact same setting might trigger self-doubt and fear in someone else.

As coaches, we love the clipboard moments where we get to present tactical solutions and draw up the perfect X’s and O’s play.

But the real art of coaching? Understanding the context before trying to “fix” the player.

Here’s a few things to consider to support your athletes with the role of context on behavior:

• Avoid the copy-paste trap – Just because a drill or strategy worked for one player doesn’t mean it’s the golden ticket for every player.

• Get curious before getting corrective – Sometimes the best coaching move is not in the advice-giving, but the question-asking and active listening.

• Be a translator – As a coach, you’re not just a teacher. You’re a translator who helps athletes find what works for them individually, not just what worked for others.

• Coach them to their standard, not the setting – Help them define and adhere to a consistent internal standard, rather than get caught up in circumstances and ride the highs/lows.

Final Thoughts:

Greatness doesn’t need a spotlight to be real. Context may shape how others respond, but it shouldn’t dictate how we show up. As a coach or leader, your job is to help your people play to their standard, not the setting.

Inspiration for This Piece:

• McRaney, D. (2011). You are not so smart. New York: Gotham Books.