In an April 2007 article, Pearls Before Breakfast, Gene Weingarten writes about a Washing Post social experiment about people’s perceptions of beauty in “a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour."   Given these surroundings: "Do we perceive beauty?  Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?”  The learnings are magnificent!

A Facebook posting by Vahdet Yilmaz captures the story.

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.  Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.  A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.  The one who paid the most attention was a three year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist.  Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.  No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the top musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.  Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100. 

Yilmaz offers a question to the results of the experiment: “If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world play the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?”  The question is a gentle reminder to great leaders: take time to smell the roses; care for yourself for you are very important to those you serve.  Life passes too quickly. The calendar is full.  It is prioritized by studied and deliberate choices of what needs to be done.  Include in those choices those quiet moments to refresh yourself, to live life to its fullest... to hear the music.  It is beautiful and magnificent.  Remember the words of Henry David Thoreau: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” 

Have a beautiful day and a magnificent week!!!

（Permitted to share by Professor Michael M. Reuter ，Director, Center for Leadership Development

Stillman School of Business， Seton Hall University; Title given by http://weibo/houshengtian）