Without a doubt, the single most informative piece of advice in my formative years came from my uncle. Ironically, it came from asking dumb questions. In this blog I’m going to talk about asking dumb questions and why they are critical for your personal development and that of your startup.Pausing briefly, my uncle responded momentarily, “Whenever I am in a room and someone says something I don’t understand, I ask a question. I can only not understand something once. So if you keep asking questions, you will eventually know the answers. Also, I found most people in the room didn’t understand what was being discussed either, so were in fact happy I asked.”“My turn to be candid what would qualify as an elevator pitch?”In the end, he ends up looking even dumber and the boss ends up having to clean up the mess. Perhaps the boss is dumb himself for not asking the question “Do you understand how to complete this task?”Asking questions is indicative of a precocious mind: Smart people ask questions. They ask a lot of questions. It shows you are always thinking and paying attention to what people say. If you are dealing with smart people it is expected that you ask questions. You can start with dumb questions but work your way up to smart questions.I am upfront that I don’t understand, in fact I say it. ‘You’re the expert, not me, but to help you figure out how much to raise I need to understand the dynamics of your industry.’ The founder doesn’t mind that I don’t know and possibly appreciates my effort to get up to speed.Give context to why you are asking: And ask for context. ‘Just so we are on the same page, can you explain what you mean in by that in the context of adtech’Summarise what they say into three bullet points: An ex-MD in banking said to me “there is always the rule of three. “Everything can be explained in three bullet points. Repeat what was said in three points and ask if that is a proper summary. Then ask “is that what they are saying?”Ask dumb questions to challenge your assumptions before giving a dumb answer, which is way worse.Was his question dumb? Yes, a little. But he is going to get ahead because he is learning. Do the same. Be dumb. Get smarter. Win.
How smart… are you?I responded: “lol. glad you asked. Maybe I want to work with you now. Explain what you do to a 10 year old. with the attention span a 10 year old has. Or better yet, I am Mark Z. you are in a lift and have 15 seconds to explain what you do to me to make sure I have a meeting with you. What would you say? That strips away all the BS you want to say. Strip to the absolute core. Why is this cool? Who do you focus on? Why you will be big?