Most people and organizations play it safe. They follow proven formulas, stick to best practices, and avoid asking uncomfortable questions. This approach is failing them.
I was recently in conversation with a collaborator, and we discussed how everyone is carrying a Leonardo Da Vinci in their phone (if they have ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc., installed). We also discussed recent articles that claim these tools are making us dumber when we use them to delegate our thinking to them completely.
I believe this is the case (we were saying the same thing about Google and social media back in the day), and I also believe that the people and businesses that will have the advantage are the ones who use these tools to enhance them, not to replace them.
The people and businesses who will drive and create the future are the curious ones, because curiosity always wins.
“Curiosity always wins” evokes a powerful mindset, one that values exploration over certainty, learning over ego, and questions over assumptions. Over the past twenty years, as I’ve built businesses and led teams, I’ve witnessed this principle consistently separate the winners from the also-rans.
Here’s what comes to mind:
1. The Ultimate Competitive Advantage
In a world saturated with information and sameness, curiosity fuels differentiation.
The most innovative companies and individuals don’t stop at “what works.” They ask, “what else is possible?”
Take Netflix in 2007. While Blockbuster was perfecting its retail model, Reed Hastings was asking a different question: “What if people never had to leave their house to watch movies?” That curiosity-driven pivot to streaming didn’t just change Netflix; it destroyed an entire industry.
The problem: Most leaders get comfortable with success and stop questioning their assumptions.
The reality: Your biggest competitive threat isn’t your current competitor, it’s the curious outsider asking questions you’ve stopped asking.
2. First-Principles Thinking
Curiosity is the foundation of first-principles thinking. Instead of copying the playbook, curious minds rebuild it from scratch. That’s how breakthroughs happen.
I learned this lesson the hard way in 2016. My startup, iAir Platform, was struggling to develop our proof of concept; we kept trying different motors for the internal fan, but nothing was working. Then I started asking: “What if we use foam for the cover (we were using cardboard, which was heavier and kept the interior hotter, which burned the motors)?”
That curiosity led to proving our proof of concept, which in turn led to an opportunity to pitch to Honeywell.
The question: When was the last time you challenged the basic premises of how your industry operates?
3. Survival Strategy in the AI Era
In a time when knowledge is commoditized and AI can regurgitate answers, the winners are the ones who ask better, deeper, and more original questions.
ChatGPT can write your marketing copy. It can analyze your data. It can even code your website and app. What it can’t do is determine which problems are worth solving in the first place.
The professionals thriving in this new landscape aren’t the ones with the most technical knowledge; they’re the ones asking questions like:
- “What customer pain are we ignoring?”
- “Which industry conventions are actually just historical accidents?”
- “What would this look like if we started from zero today?”
The shift: From being a knowledge worker to being a questioner.
4. Magnetic Leadership
Curious leaders spark better conversations, build stronger teams, and make fewer blind decisions. Curiosity creates a culture of exploration, not fear.
I once worked with a CEO who started every leadership meeting with the same question: “What did we learn this week that surprised us?” Not what went well or what went wrong, but what surprised them.
The result: Teams became more experimental, more honest about failures, and more innovative in their solutions. Psychological safety increased because curiosity was rewarded over certainty.
The distinction: Insecure leaders need to have all the answers; secure leaders know how to ask all the right questions.
5. Endless Growth
Curiosity transforms failure into feedback, boredom into possibility, and routine into discovery. It’s the mindset that makes reinvention possible, again and again.
Consider Sara Blakely’s journey with Spanx. She didn’t start as a fashion expert or retail genius; she started with curiosity about a personal problem: “Why don’t pantyhose exist without feet?” That single curious question led to a billion-dollar business.
The multiplier effect: One curious question doesn’t just solve one problem; it opens doors to problems you didn’t even know existed.
The Implementation Framework
Here’s how to operationalize curiosity in your professional life:
Daily Practice:
- End each day by writing down one thing that surprised you
- Start meetings with “What assumptions are we making here?”
- Replace “That won’t work” with “What would need to be true for that to work?”
Weekly Discipline:
- Spend 2 hours learning something completely outside your domain
- Interview someone who disagrees with your approach
- Read one article from an industry you’ve never worked in
Monthly Challenge:
- Question one fundamental assumption about your business model
- Experiment with one “impossible” idea for 30 days
- Seek feedback from your biggest critics
The Curiosity Paradox
Here’s what most people miss: Curiosity isn’t about having all the answers; it’s about becoming comfortable with not knowing. The most successful people I know are the ones who can hold uncertainty without anxiety.
They ask questions not because they’re insecure, but because they’re confident enough to admit what they don’t know.
Your Next Move
Stop trying to be the smartest person in the room. Start being the most curious.
The question that changes everything: “What if I’m wrong about this?”
That single question has saved me from countless bad decisions, opened up new business opportunities, and deepened every important relationship in my life. Curiosity always wins because it’s the only sustainable competitive advantage in a world where everything else can be copied, automated, or commoditized.
What question will you start asking today?
Bottom line: The greatest skill you can have is being curious and loving to learn. Curiosity fuels creativity and innovation!
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