The Most Important Question.
What is it?
Oh man, I have been slacking on the Brand and Biological system series. Not to worry! It will be back tomorrow and hopefully better than ever.
Today, I want to focus on something entirely different. Questions.
Largely, through working on different projects and recording my own podcast, it has become quite clear to me that the quality of your questions is probably the single most important meta skill there is. It is the thing that catalyzes your thinking, and your thinking leads to your actions.
Through some introspection and a little bit of observational data gathering, I have spotted some question patterns and developed one principle.
Internal & External
Firstly, questions come in two forms. The first are questions you ask yourself, and the second are questions that you ask of others, and of inanimate objects.
The internal question that I have found a pattern of usefulness with is that of why is this a gift? Both in the building of business/brand and in day to day life, the real progress is made when faced with setbacks. A great way to reframe setbacks is to ask this question — “why is this a gift?”. Amazingly, it shifts your attention from the inevitable doom to the abundance of unseen opportunity.
Externally, meaning focused on things outside of your control, I have found two different questions patterns.
The first is, how can this be as simple as possible, while still being effective? This question, from my observation has been synonymous with truth and quality. Think about all the best products you use, all the best experiences- they have all asked and aswered this question correctly. Everything that is suppsoed to be there is there, nothing is superflous.
The second question is, where is the point of emotion? I have seen this question pattern in people who are great at exploring and finding what is emerging. Whether it is food, or the next frontier of tech — their is a quality of emotional curiosity in those who can spot the trend, as they are always looking for the answer to the question of — who/where is all of the emotion? more often than not, there is something brewing.
The Principle
Now, from thinking about the questions …
- Why is this a gift?
- How can this be as simple as possible, while still being effective?
- Where is the emotion?
I have realized that the importance of asking the right question in a given situation, which lead to the principal, or the meta question of what is the appropriate question for this situation? Currently, the heuristic that I am using is that setbacks require Q1, products and experiences require Q2, and relationships and people require Q3.
