What is your core question?

Back in September, I went to a seminar in Chicago, hosted by Perry Marshall, (author of 80/20 Sales & Marketing.) The main speaker at this seminar was Richard Koch, (author of The Star Principle and The 80/20 Manager,) and he really challenged us to think — to think about our business and career in very different ways. .

Richard really challenged us to think — to think about our business and career in very different ways.

Why listen to this guy? He’s built some really interesting companies, has a net worth of nearly half a billion dollars, and works less than ten hours a week. And the work he does involves thinking. Thinking about markets, businesses, people — and then setting decisions in motion.

Midway through the seminar, he made an assertion that immediately grabbed my attention. Something to the effect of this statement:

Every company is a set of answers to a set of questions … or often, at a more fundamental level, a single answer to a single question.

For example, Henry Ford was driven to answer the question “how can we create an automobile that the common man can afford?” The answer to this question was the Model-T — AND the entire business system that produced it at scale.

As soon as Richard explained this concept, I asked myself: What is the core question behind Aligned Action?

What is the core question I’m seeking to answer via my work and through my company?

As soon as I asked the question, these words came to me immediately.

“Is it possible, and if so how, to change one’s core experience of life?”

It was like a bolt from the blue. It provided unifying clarity to everything I’m doing.

I grew up in a military family. I was born in Bitburg, West Germany and then moved to Weisbaden, West Germany, to Victorvile, California, to Montgomery, Alabama, then to Aurora, Colorado, then to Warner Robins, Georgia — all before I entered sixth grade.

I always felt like an outsider. I remember this vague wondering, even as a child, as I would encounter different people and cultures. I often wondered and still wonder about:

• Why do people live the way they live?
• Why do they think the way they do?
• Why do some people thrive and grow, while others flounder and struggle, and the vast majority just sleepwalk through life?
• Why do some people see change as an opportunity, while others see it as a threat?

All of these are sub-questions of the core question, said slightly differently: If you wanted to change your life, can you really do it? And if so, how?

When I look at all of the different paths I’ve explored over the years, they all represented efforts to gain some new insight into this question.

But I think this was the first time that I ever crystallized the question as a driving force within my life and company.

Just having the awareness around this question has provided tremendous clarity to me and is guiding my thinking about how to move forward. Understanding your core question will guide how you structure your work and your company — what do you do, who do you serve, and how do you serve them?

The idea here is to bring this question out of your subconscious mind where it has been operating for years and to make it conscious.

Take a few moments to reflect:

What is the core question that your company is built upon?

What is the core question that your life’s work is built upon?

If you don’t like the question, create a better one.

Up until now, what question has been driving me?

Going forward, what is the question I will seek to answer?