Context Matters in Business and in Life

A few years ago, I was asked to give a talk to a few thousand people. A week or so after the talk, the client sent me feedback from the attendees and it was...terrible! I scored below a 3 out of 5 and was shocked!

I was confused and asked the client to send me the actual responses so I could see why I scored so low. As I read through the feedback it all made sense--context!

For starters, from the thousands of people in attendance, only 60 filled out the form. As I read the comments I saw people complaining that there was no restroom break, they didn't like the food, it was too dark, it was too loud, etc.

In other words, 95% of the feedback had absolutely nothing to do with me at all! Context matters a great deal in business and in life.