The Questions That Changed My Business

Over the years, I’ve learned something interesting.

The biggest breakthroughs in my business rarely came from finding the right answers.

They came from asking better questions.

As founders, we’re expected to have answers. Our teams look to us for direction. Our customers expect confidence.

But the best founders I’ve met never stop asking questions.

Here are three that have changed the way I think about business.

1. What business are we really in?

Most founders answer with what they sell.

The better answer is the problem they solve.

When you see your business through your customers’ eyes instead of your own, new opportunities begin to appear.

2. What would I stop doing if I were starting this company today?

Every business accumulates habits, processes, and assumptions.

If you were starting over with everything you know today, would you build it the same way?

If not…what’s stopping you from changing it now?

3. What am I pretending not to know?

This may be the hardest question of all.

Deep down, most founders already know where the real issue is.

The decision we’ve been postponing.

The conversation we’ve been avoiding.

The opportunity we’ve been afraid to pursue.

Sometimes the biggest breakthrough doesn’t come from discovering something new.

It comes from finally acting on what we’ve known all along.

One of the reasons I enjoy spending time with other founders is that they ask questions I would never think to ask myself: they challenge assumptions, they offer fresh perspectives.

And occasionally, someone asks a question that changes the way I see my own business.

That’s exactly what I’m looking forward to at our Private Founder Roundtable on Wednesday, August 12, with Mark Hodges, Bill Thomas of Acresis, and a small group of founders committed to learning from one another.

Because sometimes, the right question changes everything.

Steven Pivnik