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Why this world famous violinist was ignored 🎻

2023-04-21 · Short · Ali · recording, 0:59 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Mindset, motivation and happiness · mode: Personal story

In a Short, Ali tells how the violinist Joshua Bell played Bach in a Washington DC train station and was ignored by almost everyone, and draws the lesson that rejection often means the wrong audience at the wrong time: keep working on your craft and look for an audience that cares.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Joshua Bell plays his violin in a busy Washington DC train station

  • ★ Ali says the world-famous violinist Joshua Bell began playing at four, was quickly identified as a child prodigy and, through years of hard work, sold out prestigious venues across the world. — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ Ali tells how Joshua Bell, in a baseball cap, played Bach on his $3.5 million violin in a busy Washington DC train station: in 45 minutes more than a thousand people walked past and only seven stopped. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Ali says that two days before the train-station performance Joshua Bell had sold out a huge theatre in Boston, yet in the subway no one cared about him. — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ Ali says the passers-by rejected Joshua Bell because he was in front of the wrong audience at the wrong time, which happens to everyone, not because of his talent: even the most talented people can be ignored. — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ Instead of sulking or complaining about rejection, Ali advises doing what Joshua Bell did: keep working on your craft and try to find an audience that might actually care about it. — 00:00:29

00:00:40 — The wrong audience at the wrong time, and what to do about rejection

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Joshua Bell

Also: Washington, D.C.

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