An Overshadowed Olympic Champion, A Studio Apartment With Boxes Of Discarded Fruit, And A College That Only Offers One Major: Why Not Being In 'The Spotlight' Doesn't Mean Your're Substandard

The 3-Word Quote: ‘Accomplishment Over Attention’

1.

If you're not a baseball fan, you probably didn't notice.

However, a few months ago, on April 15, every single player, coach, manager, and umpire on every team wore the same number.

The number was 42, and if you watched any baseball game that day, the only number you saw on all the players was 42.

It's a yearly tradition in Major League Baseball, and baseball fans and historians know that this is the way professional baseball honors Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play in the Majors in the modern era.

Robinson's impact was so significant that the number 42, Jackie's number, is now retired from the entire Major Leagues. His impact on Civil Rights and baseball was immense.

You will never see a major league player wear number 42 again.

But before his history-making performances in the Majors, he was the first four-sport letter winner at UCLA (football, track, basketball, and baseball).

He won the National League Rookie of the Year award in 1947, the MVP award in 1949, and was a World Series winner in 1955- Robinson truly had an amazing career as an athlete.

However, despite those awards, what you may not know about Robinson is that he wasn't even considered the best athlete in his own family.

2.

Abhi Ramesh was pretty certain he had made a huge mistake.

The 26-year-old looked around his small studio apartment and was shocked.

The apartment was so crowded he could hardly move, and he couldn't see anything.

The lack of space wasn't just due to the studio's size - although it was a small apartment.

No, Ramesh had brought in dozens and dozens of boxes, stacking them high in his studio. The boxes took up nearly every square inch of open space.

But the boxes didn't contain his personal belongings - he hadn't miscalculated what the apartment could hold. He wasn't just moving in, as the boxes didn't hold any personal belongings.

It was crowded because he had filled his apartment with thousands of pieces of fruit and vegetables.

He had boxes of peaches and apples, cartons of onions and tomatoes, and a few boxes of some vegetables he had never even heard of.

And on a summer night in 2018, Ramesh sat in his tiny studio, surrounded by boxes and boxes and boxes of produce, and wondered.

He wondered what in the world he had just done.

3.

If you are a parent with a college-aged kid or who has kids who aspire to go to college, you know selecting a university can be a taxing and time-consuming issue.

Finding a school that is affordable and offers the right mix of social opportunities and academic options requires extensive research and some travel.

And if you're in this college search circus, you likely have read dozens of brochures, spent hours on university websites, and read several lists of 'best' universities.

These lists rank colleges in various categories, and for some prospective students, these rankings are important.

You've seen the lists: Top Ten Engineering Undergrad Programs, Best Value for the Money, the Best Secondary Education Programs - just a few among many others.

Universities typically prefer to be included on these lists, as students and parents often read them.

They're interesting - and endless.

And despite the lists being relatively subjective, students and schools still place value on them.

Students often aim to attend a 'top' or prestigious school - one that is high on the list of best colleges.

And universities aspire to be included on these lists for bragging rights and marketing purposes. They believe these lists drive interest and applications at their school - which ultimately help with enrollment.

One of the most well-known college rankings is the one published yearly by U.S. News and World Report.

A few years ago, U.S. News and World Report examined 1,631 colleges and universities.

They compiled research and conducted surveys to rank these schools from best to worst.

However, when the list was completed, 131 schools were not included on it - these schools were not ranked.

You might feel badly if you were an administrator and your school was in the bottom 10 on the list. But you'd likely feel worse if you were one of the 131 that didn't even make the list at all.

How would you communicate this to possible students and parents when asked about your ranking - or asked why your school couldn't even get on the list?

Sounds like a public relations nightmare for those 131 schools.

But not for one school.

And it's a university with only 100 students and offers only one major.

The Takeaway:

So, what do Jackie Robinson's family, a studio apartment filled with boxes of fruits and vegetables, and a college with only 100 students and only one major all have in common?

These are all examples of success stories that are not celebrated, posted, or smothered with attention.

They are examples of success without attention.

So often, the people or organizations that are #1 in their field seem like the only ones celebrated, covered, and posted about. They are held up for all to envy and aspire to.

And often, for good reason - these are usually the top performers.

And that attention is sometimes well-deserved. 

However, for many, getting attention, gathering followers, and gaining fans seem to be the only metric that validates good work.

To paraphrase author Jay Acunzo: we've become so concerned with reach that we've forgotten about relevance.

And that can become an issue. 

Because reach doesn't guarantee quality. Sometimes, we can become overly concerned about the number of views, listeners, or followers something has.

And we become discouraged when we don't receive the same level of attention that others do.

And that's because the exceptions are on display. 

So we begin to focus more on increasing clicks than improving our content or work - all to be like those exceptions.

We see the viral videos, the top ten lists, and the most-read articles.

But those are all exceptions, and they don't devalue our work - unless you begin comparing your work to that on display.

You can still be exceptional and not be #1.

You can still create amazing art and not sell much.

You can write excellent books, but they don't become bestsellers.

You can create wonderful internal videos at work that only a few will see.

Being popular doesn't guarantee greatness. Being in the spotlight doesn’t ensure success.

We often equate attention with quality, but that's not always the case.

Remember, the exceptions are always on display.

Let's look at the stories.

***

Jackie Robinson is celebrated.

And rightly so.

He was a baseball savant and a Civil Rights icon.

Most consider him not just a great baseball player but an outstanding athlete.

However, some scholars contend he wasn't even the best athlete in his family.

The best athlete in the Robinson family?

That was Mack Robinson, and he was Jackie's older brother.

He may not have been recognized as much or had as many accolades as Jackie, but he was a fantastic athlete in his own right.

Mack attended Pasadena Junior College and was a track standout.

Mack was talented enough to try out for the Olympics while in college but had no money to get to the trials.

However, local businesses funded his trip and helped send him to trials. He was so broke he had to race at the trials in shoes that were falling apart.

The shoes made little difference.

Mack easily qualified for the 1936 Olympics in the 200M dash. He was one of 10 African Americans to travel to the 'Nazi Olympics' as they became known.

There, Mack Robinson raced well and qualified for the finals in his event.

Mack thundered to a lifetime-best run in the finals - his run was so fast his time beat the previous Olympic record.

But he didn't win gold.

He came in second, earning a silver medal.

The winner of the race was someone you have heard of - Jessie Owens.

Mack lost by .4 seconds to Jesse Owens, a man many consider the best athlete of the twentieth century.

But Mack knew what we all know.

The exceptions are on display.

So, while Jesse Owens took the gold and the headlines, it didn't diminish how Mack felt about his performance.

Mack Robinson said:

'It's not too bad to be second best in the world at what you're doing, no matter what it is. It means that only one person in the world was better than you. That makes you better than an awful lot of people.'

Mack turned in his lightning-fast silver medal performance, wearing shoes that were falling apart.

He later set numerous national track records and competed in track at the University of Oregon.

But he earned little recognition for his bronze medal, and it offered few opportunities.

However, Mack was extremely proud of his second-place performance.

He returned to Pasadena and worked various odd jobs, many as a janitor sweeping floors.

Mack even worked as an usher at Dodger Stadium, where his more famous younger brother was years earlier, setting records and making history in front of thousands of people.

One brother played in front of thousands of fans; the other brother showed those fans to their seats. 

One brother on full display for the world to see; the other brother pushed to the background.

Mack Robinson is seldom remembered today. He was overshadowed at home by his famous brother, Jackie Robinson, and forgotten at the Olympics due to Jesse Owens.

Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson - two titans of sports.

Mack Robinson never sought the spotlight or got the attention of those two.

But he was just as good.

***

Abhi Ramesh sat in his overcrowded studio apartment.

He was surrounded by boxes upon boxes of produce - hundreds of pieces of fruit and vegetables covered every inch of his tiny home.

It was then Abhi knew he had a problem.

You see, he had ordered all the fruit. He didn't intend to eat it all, but he did want to sell it.

But the produce had problems.

All the fruit in his apartment was considered 'unsellable.'

Why?

Because all the fruit in his apartment was 'ugly.'

Ugly fruit meant everything in the boxes had issues.

The apples sitting in the boxes were discolored.

The tomatoes lying around were too small.

The carrots were weirdly shaped.

Think about your last trip to the grocery store. You picked up an apple that looked like all the others. You selected a potato that was the same size and color as the rest.

Most of the fruit and vegetables look the same in your supermarket. Those items stacked neatly in the store are all the best and most beautiful examples.

But nature doesn't work that way.

If you have a garden, you know most individual pieces of fruit and vegetables have variation.

They don't all look the same.

And your grocery store doesn't work like nature - stores want the most perfect examples of each type of produce.

They don't want to sell 'ugly' pieces of fruit.

Fruit in your grocery store is like people on social media.

Each tries to display their best version.

The exceptions are on display - and in the spotlight.

And that brings us back to Abhi.

A few weeks before sitting in his studio surrounded by those boxes of ugly fruit, he visited an apple orchard in Pennsylvania.

While at the orchard, he noticed the hundreds of apples on the ground by the trees. Abhi asked the farm's owner what happens to all those apples. 

The farmer said he would try to use them in other ways, but most would be disposed of because he couldn't sell them due to their size or color variation.

The apples were too 'ugly' to be placed in stores.

They were delicious apples, but grocery stores wouldn't put them out because consumers wouldn't buy them.

And that's when Abhi had an idea:

What if he went around to farms and gathered up all the 'ugly' produce, then sold it via mail?

That is how his mail-order company, Misfits Market, was born.

He is in the 'ugly' fruit business.

All the fruit he sells is perfectly edible. He collects the discolored and misshapen fruit and sends boxes to customers who don't mind that their produce looks a little different.

All those boxes in his tiny studio apartment were eventually sold when he started.

His company is now valued at $ 2 billion.

But he is still considered small compared to the massive food companies that sell those beautiful pieces of fruit that get all the attention in your grocery store's produce section.

The exceptions are always on display.

Abhi knew you don't have to be perfect (or have perfect fruit), be number one, or have a massive following in your field to be a success.

***

U.S. News and World Report ranks colleges.

You know the list.

It purportedly identifies the best colleges based on its research findings and surveys.

A few years ago, they reviewed 1631 colleges and universities to create their list.

And 131 schools didn't even receive a ranking.

Most casual readers would assume these must be terrible schools.

So, how do these schools attract students and 'sell' the value of their school when they can't even make the bottom of the widely-read U.S. News and World Report's list?

For one school in New York that wasn't on the list, the solution was simple.

They celebrated being unranked. They revealed that they were not on the list. They wore it as a badge of honor.

In fact, they made being 'unranked' a part of their identity, a key aspect of their branding.

Webb Institute is a small private college located in Glen Cove, New York.

Webb is purposely small and offers only one major.

It is a well-respected engineering school, and its only major is a dual degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.

The institute is the only school in the country that offers this degree, and all students receive a full tuition scholarship.

It has a 100% placement rate after graduation.

Most people have never heard of the Webb Institute.

They are proud of their small size and distinct program and don't shy away from what they are.

Webb Institute was not embarrassed by being 'unranked' on most college lists.

No. They understand the exceptions are on display - they know they are not going to be on the list with the Ivy colleges or the large research universities.

They were never going to get the attention of these other schools, but this lack of attention did not make them feel like an inferior school.

Instead, Webb used the list to their advantage.

Webb sees their absence from the list as a 'mark of distinctiveness.'

They even use their unranked status in their marketing.

In a wonderful response a few years ago to the release of the top college list, their Director of Admissions and Student Affairs said:

'Instead of staying hidden within the 'unranked' designation…we are going to wear their 'unranked' badge proudly and redefine what a 'best college' is.'

***

Your work might not be winning awards. You might not be the most noticed in your field. You might think no one values your work because you're 'not on display.'

But maybe that doesn't matter.

You might be similar to Mack Robinson - still amazing but getting little recognition.

Your work might be like Abhi's fruit - still amazing and just as good - but just not on full display like the others.

As writer Jay Acunzo often says, worry more about your resonance than your reach - worry more about your work than the attention your work gets.

Everyone wants recognition for good work - for some, it's essential in the workplace. It always feels good to be recognized and valued in whatever you do.

But that's not why most people do the work they do.

Attention isn't the same as excellence.

Webb Institute's admissions director finished her letter about not being included in the college rankings with a statement of pride:

'Webb is proud to be unranked.'

Proud to be unranked.

Perhaps that is a line we can all embrace. Because sometimes, avoiding the spotlight can work to your advantage.

***

3 things before you go:

1. watch: here’s hoping your 4th of July get together goes better than this one

2. listen/watch: hadn’t heard this one in some time; good early version of the song

3. watch/listen: always fun to hear this one when it comes on the radio

***See you in 10 days.

-Jeff