“I thought heating oil was made from coal.”
When she said that, I knew what kind of person I was dealing with: a person who does not know how to ask questions.
It’s not that she didn’t care. She apparently spent hours watching documentaries about “the truth” in the world, but she couldn’t be troubled to spend 3 seconds typing a simple question into Google
(The answer, in case you don’t know, is that heating oil is very similar to diesel and is produced from crude oil.)
There are no stupid questions, only stupid people who don’t ask questions.
The challenge, especially in business is that many of the questions we ask cannot be answered by Google. If you ask a factual question like the one above, there are authoritative sites.
But if you ask a question like “What social media platform should I be on?” or “What is the next step in my business?” or “How do I build an audience?” you will get advertisements.
I don’t just mean the paid results at the top. I mean that everything that Google gives you is an ad for something because everything you will see is there because money was spent on SEO, and they expect a return.
So the sites you’ll go to for your “answers” will give you “answers” that would suggest that the solution to your problem is to buy their thing.
Whether or not you buy their thing, you will get bad information because it is information that is given to you for reasons other than your own best interest.
One of the greatest benefits I have gained from having a network like I do is that I have access to high quality information. If I have a question, whether technical, strategic, or even philosophical, I have people I trust that I can get good advice from.
It is this asset, which has been invaluable to me, that I have built the Entrepreneur Mentor Community around.
I have invited dozens of the most trustworthy and knowledgeable people I know to be Mentors in the community. These are people who know good information, and who share it for your benefit..
I’ve also found that, because I have done a little and this a bit of that and whole lot of the other thing, I’ve had occasion to ask most of the questions that entrepreneurs ask, so I either know a top level answer, or I know who does.
This is what I do in the Ask Me Anything Solution Sessions which are one of the privileges of membership.
Want to check it out? The next one is at 11 AM (Eastern) Wednesday. (They’re every Wednesday at 11.)
You can come once as a guest, and members can come as often as they need to.
To attend, just use this Zoom link at 11 AM Eastern today (or any Wednesday).
You can only visit once, but it’s only $47 to become a member, so if you find it valuable, it’s easy to join.