# The Most Important Question 

*also the one you don't ask enough...*

By [Stream of Consciousness](https://paragraph.com/@soc) · 2023-08-06

product management, thinking

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Have you been around 3 or 5 year old kids or are a parent of one?

If yes, then you would observe something interesting. They are compulsive Why'ers or atleast most of them start out that way.

That is, all 5-year olds ask one question, _again and again and again_.

WHY??

I tell her not to eat chocolates, her response: why papa?

Other day we were all watching a 🎥 together and an actress was crying 😭, she asked, why is she crying? I

We had to stop at the red light, and while we wait, she fired her why weapon a few times.

Why was the car red?

Why are so many folks on the road?

Why were there pot holes on the road? She answered this as well, saying I think they didn't construct it properly🤣

I told her not to touch power sockets and her response was, you guessed it, why Papa?

The curiosity of a kid is wonderful (for the kind of questions) and [torturous](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSGf_vVKoI8) (because you know you will not have answers) at the same time.

While the inevitable institutionalisation (schooling & society) is likely to drive out some of the curiosity out of every child, it may not be too late for us to stop.

Take a step back.

And ask \*\*\*why\*\*\*, more often than we presently do.

After all, accomplished author and speak Simon Sinek became world famous, pivoted his career and had the breakthrough insight to [Start With Why](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4).

Or if you are still wondering why should you still worry about why! Here's [Taiichi Ohno](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrlYkx41wEE) the father of Toyota production system.

German philospher, Friedrich Nietzsche had this to say: _He who has a why to live can bear almost any how_.

If you are still not convinced, here's another quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson an American philosopher and essayist to ponder upon especially if you (like me) are working for a boss and might be one someday. _The man who knows how will always have a job. The man who knows why will always be his boss_.

Besides, he (she in this case) who has the last _why_ also has the [last laugh](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSGf_vVKoI8&t=4s).

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*Originally published on [Stream of Consciousness](https://paragraph.com/@soc/the-most-important-question)*