Rick Houcek would ask his kids to tell him something they learned.”

My grandmother must have been relieved to see my mother come home from work each day.
We lived with my grandparents and my mother worked for my grandfather while my father was away in school..
My grandmother’s grandson – that was me – had pestered her with questions all day. I wanted to know why we were fighting in Europe and the Pacific? Why the Germans and the Japanese hated us? Why Nazis were putting people in ovens? Why my father couldn’t come home to be with me.
The sweet old lady did the best she could with me but I recall once, in exasperation,  she told me, “Why can’t you be more like your sister and leave me alone?”

After we had a couple of children of our own, my wife and I began to understand what my grandmother had endured.
No matter how we replied our sons would ask another “why?” 
Our friend Rick Houcek says it’s not fair if we get angry. It’s how children learn  and we should encourage it.
When Rick’s kids were young, he would ask them at bedtime to tell him something they learned that day. He did it every night to build their curiosity and learning skills.  
It didn’t take long for them to see it coming and knew they better have an answer. 
“They always came up with something that led to great conversations.”
More adults should take a message from this but won’t or don’t know better.

Rick admits that he can’t believe adults who claim to want a better life and who have a chance to learn from someone wiser and don’t ask a million questions.
“If it were me, I’d harass and badger that expert with question after question.
“To me, a day without learning something new – lots of things new – is a wasted day. “
Academy Award-winning producer Brian Glazer developed a habit of calling accomplished people once a week.
He would invite them to lunch where he could ask a thousand questions. It expanded his ideas with surprising points of view. 
His guests’ stories suggested plots for his movies. At the time, he said he had conducted up to 900 conversations.
Imagine his breadth of knowledge after 900 meetings with brilliant people.
Ask others about the tragedies and triumphs in their lives and sit back. The reel will start turning in their minds. You will hear many amazing stories.
Inspirational speaker Jim Rohn suggested taking a millionaire to dinner. Too many of us, Jim said, know no millionaires or consider it absurd to buy them dinner.

Business guru Peter Drucker used to say his strength as a consultant was to be ignorant and ask questions. He never assumed he already knew the answers.
Marketing expert Dan Kennedy has clients who hire him to tell them how to attract more customers. When he mentions that Donald Trump’s TV show “The Apprentice” had more than 200,000 applicants for the 1st show, none ask how they did it.
They’re paying Dan good money for business advice and don’t ask what TV did that they might be able to do.
How curious are you? Do you ask a lot of questions? Do you listen to the answers? Do you act n what you learn?
Next: Dealing with covid stress

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