Asking questions is an activity I’ve encouraged since long before I started teaching. “Ask questions in your classes,” I tell students. Your questions are, at the very least, signals to your professors that indicate you’re interested and engaged. Participation helps you learn more from each class and also makes teaching more satisfying for your professors. Importantly, most every professor counts “participation” as part of your grade, a strong incentive for asking questions.
When students and colleagues go on job interviews, my strongest advice, besides knowing as much about the company and job as possible, is “ask a lot of questions.” Many years ago before I started my advertising agency, I was able to generate job offers at between 80% and 90% of the companies in which I’d interview. My secret: ask questions and get the interviewer to talk about her- or himself, about the company, and about the business segment in which the company operates.
Questions were the tool that helped me grow my agency. The answers to my questions about my clients’ businesses caused me to ask more questions. Each answer generally caused another question to arise in my mind.
It’s not difficult, but it does require you be “in the moment” and pay attention to the answers you’re receiving.
After years of extolling the value of questions, I’ve encountered a book on the topic by a guy a lot more interesting than I. Author Brian Grazer is Ron Howard’s business partner. Together they’ve produced films like Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, Splash, 8 Mile and Friday Night Lights and dozens of other blockbusters.
Landmark movies aside, Grazer’s greatest accomplishment, in my opinion, is his book, A CURIOUS MIND: THE SECRET TO A BIGGER LIFE.
Grazer’s given a lot of thought to curiosity and questions. Fortunately for him, his natural curiosity yanked him off the track to becoming a lawyer and thrust him to the top of one of the most coveted occupations in America: big time movie producer. The Hollywood stories he uses to illustrate his ideas make the book fun to read.
His 30 years of “curiosity conversations” with accomplished people have served as the basis for his personal growth and a lot of his films: He’s had curiosity conversations with LAPD Police Chief Daryl Gates, Jonas Salk, Eminem, Condoleezza Rice, and Isaac Asimov, among many others.
How did he get to sit down and chat with these notable personalities? Persistence. The tactic that nearly every accomplished business person, inventor, researcher, and student engages to achieve success.
According to Grazer, if you’re not naturally curious, you can develop the trait with practice. It’s worth the effort.
Curiosity and questions are powerful. I agree with Brian Grazer. We have that in common.
We also share a spiky haircut style. One difference between he and I is that I can’t cast you in a major motion picture!
Read A CURIOUS MIND and let Brian Grazer know what you thought of it. Tweet him at @briangrazer