I’m at the Summer Discovery Program in Michigan at the moment (which is why I haven’t really been blogging much lately, and my apologies for that). It’s been a really interesting experience for me so far, and I’m sure that upon deeper reflection, I’ll have much more to write about.

But anyway, back to this post. There’s a piano in the lounge here, at the dorm. And there a few people who play.

When the piano is being played, it’s very easy for the people around to just ignore it, and go on with their own activities and conversations. In fact, more often than not, that’s exactly what happens. People don’t notice the music from the piano.

When do people take notice? When it’s a song they know and like. It’s not how good the pianist is. No matter how good the song is, or how well the pianist is playing, people won’t take notice (not for long anyway), unless they can relate to it.

It’s a pretty obvious lesson. People will only bother about what they know and like – something that is personal to them and they can relate to. Everything else just fades into the background, as background music.

And the thing about background music is that, even if it’s good, most people just ignore it.

How do you prevent yourself and your message from fading into the background?