What are two of your most important resources?
There’s a lot of ways to answer this.
If you were in the middle of the desert, you may say water and shade.
Once I was in this discussion group, and as an ice breaker, we had a list of ten items.
We had to choose half that we’d use if we were stranded on an island.
There actually were some sensible answers, it wasn’t like one of those goofy philosophical/psychological questions that don’t have an answer.
Like if you saw a penguin on railroad track, and a box of coconuts, which would you throw overboard first?
(That didn’t even make sense.)
I read this horrible story once about a factory explosion in North Korea that happened many years ago.
Some people actually died, because as their houses were burning down, the rushed back inside to grab their most prized possession.
A giant portrait of their Dear Leader.
Most of us would grab our personal photos, or something else that had huge personal value.
They have those game shows where you go into a supermarket and you have one minute to put as many things in your shopping cart as you can.
Most people go for the meat, or the booze, as it’s the highest cost per weight or volume.
There’s an old saying in business:
“You can have it fast, it can be inexpensive, or it can be high quality. Choose two.”
This is why Economics is referred to as the “Dismal Science.”
Because it forces us to choose.
Contrary to what most politicians tell us, we can’t have everything we want without some kind of cost.
Unfortunately, most politicians today have figured out how to defer the cost a few generations out into the future.
(If we ever make it that far, lol)
So, back to the original question.
What are your two most important resources, especially when it comes to communicating with others?
One useful answer (there are, of course, many) is your time and your attention.
If you waste your time on something that doesn’t work, you’ll never get it back.
If you’re looking at the wrong place at the wrong time, you’ll miss out on opportunities.
Contrary to some gurus, YOU have to find opportunities. There’s seven billion people on Earth, don’t expect them to come looking for you.
What does this mean?
For one, most people kind of know this intuitively. We all know not to walk downtown and stare at a brick wall. We know where the action is.
And we all know to get the heck out of dodge if some homeless person starts yelling at us. We can spend our time doing better things.
Which is why when you choose to focus YOUR time and attention on somebody else, they will feel really good.
ESPECIALLY if it’s the RIGHT attention. Most people walk up and start talking about themselves.
But when YOU walk up and start asking the right questions about THEM, they’ll NEVER forget you.
In fact, they’ll start to wonder how they can help YOU, and do whatever YOU want, just so you’ll hang around.
Which questions should you ask?
These: