“Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.”

Voltaire

Peter Thiel is known for asking big contrarian questions. You could argue that the success he has achieved as a billionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist (co-founder of PayPal, Palantir, the first investor in Facebook, and co-author of Zero to One), resulted from the size of his questions.

One famous question he likes to ask himself and others is:

“If you have a 10-year plan of how to get (somewhere), you should ask, why can’t I do this in 6 months?”

I love this question as it forces you to think outside the box and be different. Sure, you aren’t going to suddenly achieve your wildest dreams overnight, but it will initiate a change in your thinking. It triggers chain reaction to break outside your normal beliefs, habits, and thought patterns.

You will never achieve 10 years goals in 6 months by continuing to do the status quo. So break things up. Have fun with it.

So, what can you do differently to accelerate those goals? If you absolutely had to do it, what would you do?

It doesn’t even have to be instant massive action. Small changes can add up to something much bigger when applied consistently on a daily basis. It can steer you in a totally different direction. You just need to take the time to ask the questions and then have the courage to implement your answers.

Push yourself to be different. Expand your possibilities. 

Ask bigger questions.