I have been reading Ken Fisher’s The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don’t. Ken’s focus and business is managing stock portfolios at Fisher Investments but his questions and methods can also be applied to running a business.

Here are Ken’s three questions:

Question 1 - What do you believe that is actually false?

This one really set me back because it can be applied to everything you do. Life, investing and business are filled with myths. You think you know what your customers want, but have you asked them? You think you know what your competitors are up to, but have you gone into the market to see? You suspect that some of your employees are not happy working for you, but have you tried to find out why?

Question 2 - What can you fathom that others find unfathomable?

This is classic specialist, niche marketing for business owner/CEOs. How can you own a particular market segment? What products or services could address an unmet need? Or meet that need better, quicker, or cheaper? What knowledge, organizational, facility, design or production investments need to be made to position your company uniquely in that market?

Question 3 - What the heck is my brain doing to blindside me now?

This question could be summed up as “we see what we expect to see and we are simply blind to what we do not expect to see.” Each of us have pre-conceived notions or screens that filter the information we receive from our environment. Problems arise when the information we expect to see is incorrect or irrelevant to our situation, or worse, the information we filter out (are blind to) is warning us of impending disaster!

Business success is partly about the ability to challenge and vet what we see and hear. We might do well to start by challenging ourselves first.


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