At the suggestion of a colleague in my broker mastermind group, I just started reading a book called Power Questions. You know a book is going to be thought-provoking when the opening quote makes you stop and think. The quote is from Albert Einstein, the Nobel Prize winning scientist who is considered by many to be the greatest mind of the 20th century. He said: “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
Einstein often insisted that it was character, rather than gray matter, that set him apart from his peers. Take for example this quote: “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” Indeed, Einstein was not alone in his philosophy that asking great questions and working on problems longer than most are keys to success in any field. Thomas Edison had thousands of failed attempts before creating the light bulb. James Dyson created 5,126 prototypes before perfecting his now famous, best-selling bagless vacuum cleaner. It’s a concept the pros call “failing forward”.
I think that’s what Einstein was trying to say. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but for many, failure kills curiosity. Instead of abiding by the old adage, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again”, in today’s culture, it seems that many operate according to a new maxim: “If at first you don’t succeed, just give up and try something else.”
As a business owner, I can attest to the fact that we’ve all seen some trying times since 2008, but, I like to believe that passion, curiosity, and perseverance will pay off in the end. Bernard Baruch said: “Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why”, and Robert Half said: “Asking the right questions takes as much skill as giving the right answers.”
As for the “wrong questions”, children’s author Shel Silverstein taught us at least one we should never ask:
I asked the zebra,
Are you black with white strips?
Or white with black strips?
And the zebra asked me,
Are you good with bad habits?
Or are you bad with good habits?
Are you noisy with quiet times?
Or are you quiet with noisy times?
Are you happy with sad days?
Or are you sad with happy days?
Are you neat with some sloppy ways?
Or are you sloppy with some neat ways?
And on and on and on and on
And on and on he went.
I’ll never ask a zebra
About stripes
Again. -Shel Silverstein
Question everything this weekend,
(well, almost everything….)
~Bob
