Questions can change us, change our lives. I remember once giving a talk to a group of insurance agents, and I asked them – “What business do you think you are in?” I think they were rather surprised; what a dumb question – they were insurance agents; they sold people insurance policies. Yes, but what business were they in?

Though I’m not an insurance agent; shortly before this talk, I had just spent time with one – where I was attempting to understand and renew a disability policy. I had great respect for my agent – he listened to me, he responded to my concerns, and he educated me as to how to make informed decisions about my insurance possibilities.

So, that day, I suggested that insurance agents were in the business of building trust and of education. I could see the 40 or 50 people in the room open their eyes a bit wider, sit up a little straighter. In that moment, the way they spent a good deal of their time went from “selling” to building trust and educating.

A great question, that I ask myself often, and suggest it as a practice is – What business am I in? Some other important and useful questions:
In relationships: Please tell me, how can I love you better?
In life: What is the impossible request my life asks of me?

Here is a part of a poem that underscores the power and potency of questions:

...requests to stop what
you are doing right now,
and

to stop what you
are becoming
while you do it,

questions
that can make
or unmake
a life,

questions
that have patiently
waited for you,

questions
that have no right
to go away.
David Whyte, a poem called Sometimes