The Power of Question?
An African proverb says “He who asks questions cannot avoid the answers?”
What is a
question? It is probing into an issue, it means interrogation, and it means asking
or inquiring. Simply put questioning is the process of evaluating, assessing or
appraising a thing. If you are asking yourself series of questions in your
heart, you are said to be thinking. Thinking is a process of asking question
and answering questions. Our questions determines our thoughts, therefore if we
want to change the quality of our lives, we should change our habitual
questions. These questions direct our focus, and therefore how we think and
feel. Remember as a man thinks in his heart so is he, and our thinking is
nothing but series of questions and answers that we google up in our minds. The
human mind is the most complex and advanced super computer that provides
answers to the series of questions we ask.
When we ask questions, we put the search engines in our mind to work
thereby coming up with possible answers to our questions.
Successful
people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers. Quality question create a quality life. Every
human progress or development is preceded by new questions. Everybody saw apple
fell from apple tree, but it was only Sir Isaac Newton that asked why? He got
the answer ‘The Law of gravity’.
Everybody saw bird fly in the sky, but it was only the wright brothers that ask
the question ‘can’t man fly’? They got the answer, the aeroplane. The
technological advancement in human history is always preceded by questions asked
by great minds. The answer to their questions is what led to the technological
development of our society.
George
Bernard Shaw said “Some men see things as
they are, and say, ‘why’? I dream of things that never were, and say ‘why not?”.
We should learn to question everything; conformity is the killer of creativity
and ingenuity. George Carlin said “Children
should be taught to question everything they read and hear”. I strongly
agree with George because questioning start up children’s creative instinct. It
is high time we begin to ask questions like: “How can we effective reduce
corruption in our society?” “How can we as a nation sustain stable power
generation, distribution and transmission?” I believe that these questions will
lead to the emergence of new generation Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and the
likes in Africa. It is not only the question we ask, but the questions we fail
to ask that shape our destiny. JF Kennedy the former American president spark
up a great creative consciousness by say on the national television “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask
what you can do for you country”. It is this mentality of asking the right question
that got American Astronaut in the moon in July 20 1969. American stopped thinking
self and started thinking of their country first. American started to build
institutions that is stronger than individuals and hence emerged as the most powerful
nation in world. It all started by asking the right questions. The same
principle was employed by Donald Trump who said “Hire American, buy America,
American first.” Quality questions leads
to quality answers.
OluwaSegun
Olaniyan (08062152405)
