The power of curiosity

Every skill I have came from the same place: a boy in Israel who could not stop asking how. How does the mind decide? How does attention move? How does a spoon bend? Decades later I am still asking, and the questions have taken me to stages in 60 countries.

Curiosity has a reputation as a personality trait, something you either have or you lack. I disagree. Curiosity is a habit of asking one more question than is comfortable, and like any habit it grows with use.

Watch what it does in a leader. The executive who asks "what am I missing?" before "here is my plan" gets the truth from their team instead of the version everyone thinks is safe. Questions open people the way statements never do, and everyone on the team can feel the difference.

Here is the exercise I give audiences: in your next meeting, trade one opinion for one question. Just one. Ask it, then actually wait for the answer. Do this for a month and people will start telling you things they never told you before, which is where every advantage in business and in life begins.