Scenario: "Dude, just read as many books as you can. Increase knowledge. Yay!" Increase your knowledge by asking as many questions as freakishly possible. You know that hawkish pseudo-consultant who flies in with seemingly all answers for your business -- without asking you any questions to understand your business? Yeah, answers may seem sweet on the surface; but, when you dive deeper, you'll realize the chock-full-o-crap-o information. Seek profound knowledge by habitually starting with the 'Why-why-why-why's'.

The 'Seeking Knowledge' Approaches

Say you want to increase revenues by 5% this month.

The Wrong Approach

Joe Pseudo-Experto Schmoe tell you:

• "You can increase revenues by targeting the youth market!"

But wait, you tell him: "The youth market won't convert to long-term customers. We'll sacrifice long-term gain for the short-term!"

The Right Approach

Instead of chiming in with the answers, your badass would instead ask questions to determine the realities of your business's vitality:

• "Can we reduce costs without sacrificing quality?"
• "Can we upsell our current customers with complementary products?"
• "Do we have sufficient resources to target a new market?"
• "How are our top competitors getting customers?"
• "Would our customers recommend us to their colleagues?"

Result: You get mucho information to get your badass toward increasing revenues by 5%.

Learning Something New

Consider another situation. Say you're learning a new programming language. Instead of jumping in with the books to seek answers, you instead start asking questions:

• How do I set up the environment on my computer?
• How is the language different from other languages?"
• Why is it better?
• Where can I find a quick overview?
• Where can I seek help?
• How do I create a simple 'Hello World' application?
• How do I set up a database-driven application?

Your inquisitive mind starts googling, and googling, and googling -- searching for those answers to your questions. What happens then? With every question answered, your knowledge magnifies.

Said The Einstein

That physicist dude Albert Einstein once said:

"If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes."

Sweet words from Mr. Big Shot.

The Steps

1. Ask as many questions as humanly possible.
2. Get exponentially smarter.
3. Win.

Why?