Ep 438 | The Ultimate Question

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Today we are going to talk about what I would call the ultimate question. It is the Dan Sullivan question. We've actually talked about it a time or two. Here at the No Days Off Podcast. We even did a full episode on it at one point. But, you know, having been at this now for a little while, there's a couple topics, a couple subjects that I think we need to go through again. We need to review, we need to talk about. And, you know, as we all grow and as we all improve, we end up with different perspectives on things. And that certainly applies to me. And as it pertains to this question, I just used it the other day and I used it differently in a different scenario than I ever had before. And it made me think, you know what? We got to bring this back to the No Days Off Nation. So, the Dan Sullivan question. Just the other day, I was meeting with an individual and we did not really know each other all that well. We were trying to figure out, or I was trying to figure out, is there an opportunity for us to work together in some way? And as I was thinking through, like, what, what could I— what could we talk about? What would be the best approach? I remembered the Dan Sullivan question, the ultimate question, and what a thought-provoking tool it happened to be. And I decided to break it out. Here's the question. The question is, if we were having this discussion 3 years from today and you were looking back over those 3 years, What has to have happened during that period, both personally and professionally, for you to feel happy with your progress? I'll repeat the question one more time. If we were having this discussion 3 years from today, if we were looking back over those 3 years, what has to have happened during that period, both personally and professionally, for you to feel happy with your progress? Now I asked this individual that question and then I just stopped talking. And for the next 25 minutes, this individual broke down this question, thought deeply about it, gave me a multi-part answer for 25 minutes, kind of talked all about, you know, his upbringing and how he got to where he's at and what he wants to do in the future. I didn't start there, but it naturally progressed to that. And at the conclusion said, "This is one of the best conversations I've had in a long time." All I did was ask one question and listen. I love this question for so many different scenarios, be it interviewing or just getting to know somebody. I like it so much because it provides clarity on goals. It helps people articulate their vision. What they truly value. It gets them thinking around outcomes, measurable outcomes. It gets them thinking strategically, right? They're— you're now asking them to proactively think around the future versus how we tend to react in life, which is reactively. It emphasizes intentional actions over time. It brings a personal and a professional balance to the conversation, and it obviously highlights that that's important to me, right? An alignment between work and life. I really, really like this question for all of those reasons. We're asking, hey, if we were talking about, you know, if I happen to bump into you 3 years from today, you know, a different version of the question I sometimes ask. If, if I happen to bump into you 3 years from today, for whatever reason we stopped talking today, in 3 years from today we run into each other and I say to you, hey, how you been? And you say, life is absolutely amazing. Personally and professionally, I am so happy with what's transpired, how things have progressed. If you said that to me, if I asked you the question, hey, what happened over those 3 years for you to make such a statement? What would your answer be? Just a different variation of that question. Now, how can you use it, right? I used it in a scenario to get to know somebody a little bit better. But I think you could use it for reflection. Maybe it's something you personally reflect on. You consider this question and you identify what success would look like for you in 3 years. You got to be specific about your outcomes. You got to understand, you know, maybe what the financial goals are or what the relationship goals may be or what certain milestones may be out there. So, I think you can use this question personally as an opportunity to reflect. I think you could also use it personally to visualize. I want you to picture yourself looking back over the 3 years, like really envision yourself, you know, 3 years in the future looking back and reflect on what's, what's happened in your life, what achievements you've had, what gave you satisfaction. So I think you can use it for reflection. I think you could usually use it for visualization. I think you can use it for planning, just action planning. Like if you forecast out, now you can start to break that vision down into actionable steps and and milestones. You could set goals, you could set timelines, you could track progress. This thing just works so well because of its future orientation, because it's empowering, and because it focuses, like so many things we talk about here at No Days Off, it focuses on progress. Now, one other, one other thing to mention with respect to this question, you know, this Dan Sullivan question, this ultimate question, there's actually a follow-up question, a bonus question that comes along with this. And here's the bonus question. Specifically, what dangers do you have now that need to be eliminated? What opportunities do you need to capture? And what strengths need to be maximized? So specifically, what dangers do you have now that need to be eliminated? What opportunities need to be captured? And what strengths need to be maximized? So this would be a follow-up add-on question to the core question that we'll go through one more time just to make sure you tie it out and you're thinking about it today. Here it is. If we were having this discussion 3 years from today and you were looking back over those 3 years, what has to have, have happened in your life, both personally and professionally, for you to feel happy with your progress? Specifically, what dangers do you now have What dangers do you have now that need to be eliminated? What opportunities need to be captured? And what strengths need to be maximized? That's the add-on. Pretty darn powerful itself. So, I don't think I have to leave you with any focusing questions other than maybe, where do you think you could leverage this question and the add-on question today? Is it in reflection? Is it in your own planning? Is it in a coaching conversation or an interview? Where can you use this question and the add-on question today to give you greater clarity, greater focus, greater understanding, and in doing so, aid your path to success, to greater success? That's all I have for you today. The No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get out.