—— 选自 DariusForoux 网站（吉玛译）
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned from reading books, interviewing smart people, and having conversations with my mentors is that questions are more important than answers.
从读书、面试智者以及与导师交谈中获得的最重要的经验之一就是，问题比答案更重要。
But that goes against everything you learn in school where you’re rewarded for the quality of your answers.
但这与你在学校里学到的不懂就问背道而驰。
However, that’s not what you should judge a person on. Instead, look at the quality of a person’s questions, like Voltaire famously said:
然而，这不是你判断一个人的准则。相反，而是通过这个人提出问题的质量，如伏尔泰的名言:
“Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.”
“通过一个人提出的问题来判断一个人，而不是他的答案。”
And one of my friends who’s a consultant at one of the big three management consultancies, once told me that, “my job is to be ignorant.” He was referring to Peter Drucker, arguably one of the greatest management consultants of all time, who said:
我的一个朋友是三大管理咨询公司之一的顾问，曾经告诉我，“我的工作就是无知。”他认为彼得•德鲁克，可以说是史上最伟大的管理顾问之一，他说:
“My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions.”
“作为一名顾问，我最大的优点是无知，问一些问题。”
The right question at the right time can spark the right answer that changes your life. I’ve experienced that myself over the last few years.
在适当的时候，正确的问题可以激发正确的答案，从而改变你的生活。在过去的几年里，我自己也经历过这样的事情。
And I’ve formed a habit of asking myself questions all the time. In this article, I want to share 21 questions across four areas that have the potential to change everything about what you do. Let’s get started.
我养成了一直问自己问题的习惯。在这篇文章中，我想从四个方面分享21个问题，这些问题有可能改变你所做的一切。让我们开始吧。
Life In General日常生活
Let’s start with a few yes/no questions to assess how you feel. Like all the questions in this article, I answer them in my journal. I have simply made a note in my note-taking app with these 21 questions.
让我们以一些是/否问题，开始来评估你的感受。像这篇文章里的所有问题一样，我在日记中回答了这些问题。我在我的笔记应用程序中简单地记下了这21个问题。
A few times a month, I open the note and look at the questions (I have added the note to my shortcuts in Evernote so I’m frequently reminded by the questions). I randomly answer a few at a time. I challenge you to use it in the same way. But you can also answer everything chronologically if you prefer.
在一个月内，我打开笔记几次，看看问题(我在Evernote中添加了我的快捷键，经常提醒我这些问题)。我一次随机地回答几个问题。我要求你用同样的方法使用。但如果你愿意的话，你也可以按时间顺序来回答问题。
1. Am I happy? 我快乐吗？
2. Am I grateful? 我庆幸吗？
3. Do I like my job? 我热爱工作吗？
4. Do I feel good? 我感觉良好吗？
5. Do I spend enough time on my education?我在教育上花足够的时间了吗？
The reason why these quick questions are important is that you want to adjust your strategy if you answer no to any one of them.
这些快速问答之所以重要是因为如果你的任一答案是“不”，你要调整你的策略。
Often, we go through life unhappy, ungrateful, and feeling bad for way too long. If something is wrong in your life, acknowledge it quickly, and then find a solution.
通常，我们过着不快乐、不感恩的生活，并且感觉很糟糕。如果你的生活中出现了问题，迅速地接受它，然后找到解决办法。
These questions are not only about yourself. When you’re happy and in a good mood, you can lift the spirits of the people in your life. That’s why I focus on fixing my own happiness first. Otherwise, you can’t make your spouse, family, or others happy.
这些问题不仅仅是关于你自己。当你心情愉快的时候，你就能让生活中的人振奋起来。这就是为什么我优先专注于解决自己的幸福问题。否则，你不能让你的配偶、家人或其他人高兴。
See those first five questions as a quick assessment. Be honest. There’s no one to impress. Think about how youfeel.把前五个问题作为快速评估。要诚实。别人无话可说。想想你的感受。
Recently I read a comment from someone who said that people who think about themselves are selfish — and that we get a selfish world if everyone behaves that way. That’s a very limited and ignorant perspective.
最近，我读到一则评论，有人说，只考虑自己的人是自私的，如果每个人都这样，那么我们会生活在一个自私的世界。这是一个非常狭隘和无知的观点。
When you take care of yourself and make sure you’re happy, you’ll have a good life. You won’t be jealous of others. You’ll smile every day. And most importantly, you’ll have the resources and time to help others.
当你照顾好自己，确保自己快乐时，你就会过上美好日子。你不会嫉妒别人。你会每天面带微笑。最重要的是，你会有资源和时间去帮助别人。
That’s how the world works. Success breeds success. Misery breeds misery.
这就是世界的运作方式。成功孕育成功。痛苦产生痛苦。
Career事业
Let’s move to an important area of our lives. You spend most of your waking hours at work. So it’s crucial that you get satisfaction from it.让我们进入生活的一个重要领域。你醒着的大部分时间都花在工作上。所以从中得到满足是很重要的。
In fact, doing work that you enjoy is more important than “hygiene” factors like income, job safety, resources, location, etc. It’s one of the lessons I’ve learned from Clayton Christensen’s book, How Will You Measure Your Life?
事实上，做你喜欢的工作比“保健”因素更重要，比如收入、工作安全、资源、位置等等。这是我从克莱顿·克里斯坦森的《生命该如何衡量》书中学到的一课。
That’s why I regularly ask myself:
这就是我经常问自己的原因:
6. What new things am I learning? This is the most important thing for me. When I learn, I feel like I’m moving forward. When I’m moving forward, I feel good.
我学到了什么新东西?这对我来说是最重要的。当我学习的时候，我觉得我在进步。当我进步的时候，我感觉良好。
7. Where is my career going? You need a vision. If you don’t have one — create one.
我的职业生涯将走向何方?你需要一个愿景。如果你没有，那就创建一个。
8.How meaningful is my work? I want to feel satisfied with my work at the end of the day.
我的工作有什么意义?我希望在一天结束的时候对我的工作感到满意。
9. What can I do that I’m currently not doing? I’m always looking for things to do around the office and at home. That’s how you learn new things.
有什么是我现在能做但是没有做的?我总是在办公室和家里找事情做。这就是你学习新事物的方式。
10. How can I get better at what I do? When you get better at what you do, you can make a bigger impact and solve bigger problems. That gives you more satisfaction. And also more income.我怎样才能做得更好呢?当你做的更好的时候，你可以产生更大的影响，解决更大的问题。这会让你更满意。拥有更多的收入。
Business买卖
As an entrepreneur, I need to take care of my business. Without it, there will be no income and no money to pay our team.
作为一名企业家，我需要照顾好自己的买卖。没有它，就没有收入，也没有钱支付给我们的团队。
Sure, you can raise capital or take out a loan. But I believe that you should always be able to make money as a business.
当然，你可以筹集资金或贷款。但我相信，你应该始终能够以商业的方式赚钱。
It’s simple: If your business doesn’t generate money, it’s not a business — it’s a hobby.
这很简单:如果你的买卖不赚钱，那就不是买卖——这是一种爱好。
To make sure we generate income, we ask:
为了确保我们的收入，我们问:
11. What is the biggest pain point that our clients/customers have? We only solve actual problems that other people or businesses have.
我们的客户/客户最大的痛点是什么?我们只解决了其他人或企业的实际问题。
12.What is the ideal solution in the eyes of our clients/customers? Give people what they truly want.
在我们的客户/顾客眼中，理想的解决方案是什么?给予他们真正想要的东西。
13.How can we give away more value without charging more? Over-deliver.
我们怎样才能在不增加收费的情况下卖出更高的价格呢?超值服务。
14.Where can we reach our potential clients/customers?Go where your audience is instead of trying it the other way around.
我们在哪里可以找到潜在的客户/客户?去一个有你的听众的地方，而不是去当听众。
15. How can we decrease our costs? We always operate our business with low costs. We negotiate prices of everything — even simple things like office supplies. That’s better for us and our customers.
我们怎样才能降低成本呢?我们总是以低成本经营我们的业务。我们讨论与价格有关的一切——甚至包括办公用品等简单的东西。这对我们和我们的客户来说都是好事。
Productivity生产力
All the above things sound great on paper, right? But they are nothing without execution. You and I both know that.
字面上来说，上述所有的东西都很好，对吧?但是，如果没有执行，他们什么也不是。我们都知道这个道理。
16.But there’s still a difference between how effective we are. That comes down to one thing: How GOOD are you at executing?
但我们之间的效率是有差距的。归结为一件事:你在执行方面有多出色?
These questions can help you to figure that out:
这些问题可以帮助你找到答案:
17. How can I achieve my #1 priority faster? It’s not about being impatient. It’s about pushing yourself to think of creative ways to get faster results.
我怎样才能更快地达到我的第一优先级?与没有耐心无关。而是促使你自己想出创造性的方法来获得更快的结果。
18.What tasks should I stop doing? We all waste time. Identify those tasks and stop doing them.
我应该停止做什么任务?我们都浪费时间。确定那些浪费时间任务并停止做它们。
19.What tasks am I procrastinating? Use the time you’re saving by answering the previous question for this. We all avoid important tasks — things that we should be doing. Things that we avoid.
我在拖延什么任务?通过回答前面的问题来节省时间。我们都逃避重要的任务——我们应该做的事情。我们避免的事情。
20. What questions am I not asking myself? There are a lot of things in the universe that we don’t know that we don’t know. So always try to look for the unknown. Keep an open mind.
什么问题是我没有问自己?宇宙中有很多我们不知道的东西。所以一定要试着去寻找未知的事物。保持开放的心态。
There are a lot of questions that I’m not asking myself. That’s why I will keep questioning everything — all the time.
很多问题我都没有问自己。这就是为什么我会一直质疑一切的原因。
One thing I do know is that life has more meaning when you give more. That’s why I want to close with this:
我所知道的一件事是，付出更多，生命更有意义。这就是我想要接受的原因:
21. How can I help one person today?
现在我可以如何帮助一个人?
A simple gesture is enough. Give your family member a call. Cheer your friend up. Start by helping the people in your life. And then ask them to pay it forward.
一个简单的动作就足够了。给你的家人打电话。使你的朋友振作起来。从帮助你生活中的人开始。然后得以回报。
You see, it all starts with questions. Just don’t be surprised if you receive everything you ask for like Maya Angelou once said:
你看，一切都是从问题开始的。如果你得到了你所有问题的答案，不要惊讶，就像玛雅·安吉罗曾经说过的.
Link:The 21 Most Important Questions Of Your Life