It’s never too late to be wise
TL;DR
A client asked whether the author would jump off a plane without a parachute for $100,000. She dissected the wording and answered yes, then realized she had made assumptions. She had missed her own professional skill of asking questions. The lesson is that quick intellectual judgments can mislead, and curious questions come first.
The other day I had a client ask me a very thought provoking question: “We are sitting on a plane and I offered you $100,000 would you jump off a plane without a parachute?”
I thought for a minute, dissected the sentence and then quickly said “yes”. I had been taught to dissect questions for tests. This indeed was a test. However, not a test to find the right answer.
I had dissected the question, sitting on a plane. That means we are not flying in the plane. That must mean we are still on the tarmac.
Wrong again.
I had played mental gymnastics based on the words that he was saying. I made assumptions. Sitting on the plane as opposed to flying on a plane. Well you do sit while flying. I missed the whole morale of the story. I missed and over looked the thing that I have trained to do for over 30 years. You see, in actuality, I am a professional question asker. I failed to ask questions. I had used my intellect to make a hasty judgement.
Oops!
