Favorite Question to Ask Entrepreneurs

Every day I get the opportunity to interact with a number of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are great in that they’re always dreaming and seeking the next great idea to improve their business. After hundreds of these conversations, I’ve found one question that continues to be my favorite: what have you learned recently?

• Entrepreneur: We’re working hard to improve our product.
• Me: Great. What have you learned lately?
• Entrepreneur: We’re scaling out our sales team.
• Me: Cool. What are some things you’ve learned lately?
• Entrepreneur: We’re having a hard time finding a great software engineer.
• Me: Finding the right person is hard. What have you learned recently?

Of course, I don’t ask the same question over and over. I do look for ways to both gather ideas personally and share things that have and haven’t worked for me. I enjoy learning from entrepreneurs by asking what they’ve learned lately.

What else? What’s your favorite question to ask entrepreneurs?