What can your business learn from 2 struggling rent payers in San Francisco?
A few simple questions, asked at the right time, can have a profound effect on your future business success.
Take time out with your team, away from the day-to-day running of the office, and you might be surprised at the questions they ask.
Some questions are born out of necessity and others relate to a long-standing problem, issue or idea that someone has perhaps wanted to mention but has not had the courage or the right platform to do so.
The key to this time with your team is that it’s ‘no holds barred’ time – no question is too basic, no question will be rejected, everything will be considered.
Here is a perfect example of a simple question, asked at the right time, which had a dramatic effect on the lives of 2 men.
Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky had one question uppermost in their minds: ‘How are we going to pay our rent?’
This was their main issue at the time, as they had no jobs and not much money. But they did have a nice apartment in San Francisco, which provided a roof over their heads and a place to sleep. At the same time, newspapers were reporting on the lack of hotel beds in the city….
So, what question would you ask given these two facts? How about asking…
‘Why do people coming to our town have so much trouble getting a hotel room?’
Joe and Brian were ‘problem-finding’ with this question.
And so was born the idea of an ‘air bed and breakfast’. It’s now called Airbnb and is valued at more than £20 billion.
Click here to learn that Why? What If? and How? questions all contributed to the creation and success of Airbnb and how Joe and Brian became successful by asking the right questions and by challenging assumptions.
Apply this formula to the questions asked of your business by you and your team and maybe you too can be as successful as Joe and Brian!
