What would you ask sucesful people and how?

[Rajec]

I am going to create questionnaire for more or less successful people. I like to model successful people and find out why are they successful.

What do you think what would be best questions to ask(best means to get most valuable answer).

If someone will respond, I will be probably only once so I don't waste my chance by asking question which doesn't help


+ Does anybody of you tried something like this? What is best way to get someone stressful answer your email with questions.

[Andy7]

I think if you want to ask someone a question. The best thing to do is to be polite. Since you're asking a favor. And also, don't send mails over and over again. It could be days till they respond.

[Apollo]

I would ask,

"What is the single most important thing about you that you would attribute to your success, and why?"

[Talkofthatown919]

i ask successful people anything i want i talk to them as a friend thats it and i remain my self never pretending to be something i'm not

[Power]

• "If you can offer me one piece of advice about life, what would it be?"
• "What did you have to personally develop or change to achieve what you have achieved?"
• "Tell me your story; from the beginning how you got started until the day you achieved your dream."

Developing a friendship is always good. Once a friendship is developed, it is a lot easier to ask questions that are more personal. Some things are personal and though a successful person would like to share it, sometimes they will feel hesitant with their own personal reasons.

I personally did my own survey over a period of 5 years. I asked people about their income. I asked politely and in a manner stating that they don't have to answer the question if they don't want to. I also told them that it was a survey I was conducting and not just some chit chat. I also asked them if they find the question offensive or intrusive in respect to their feelings being asked by this question.

What I found out was that 95% of my friends told me their personal income. They never had any negative feelings associated to my question. They even stated that it wasn't offensive or intrusive.

70% of people who I don't know or don't have a close relationship were quite hesitant. Some felt offended, while some didn't want to answer the question. A few indicated that it was an invasion to their privacy. In this group, the percentage were very close (answering the survey), whether they are a low, medium or high income earning.

[MartinP]

I'm always curious to know how successful people structure their day.

Are they nightowls or early risers?
How do they structure their time to be more effective?
What habits do they have?

[nhaasch]

Questions:
What kind of questions do you hear all the time?
What kind of questions grab your attention?
In what ways have you not been sucessful?
What challenges you today?

[Remiel]

What important lessons have you learned from your failures?

[Brutha]

What question should I have ask you?

[ChaosKiwi]

What single action has got you the most measurable results when divided by the effort you put in to it?

[simonlight]

"How do you define success?" That will tell you an awful lot about their motivation.

But even better, is to just have a comfortable conversation. You'll learn a lot more when you just converse with someone one on one without an agenda.

As to the asking part, I have found that successful people enjoy talking about success. I'll often go out for drinks with people I consider successful. There's always some chit-chat, but I find the conversation really gets going once you start discussing topics that revolve around success and achievement.

[Dreamline]

What, in your life, have you worked the hardest at, that yielded the worst results and what did you learn from it?

What is your number 1 method for overcoming procrastination?

What do you wish they taught in school that they don't, currently?

Jennifer

[Amandaaa]

I would ask him...(or her):


What is one thing that you learned from observing your parents?

Did you know exactly what you wanted to be when you were little?

How did you acquire the knowledge that gave you the courage to start your own business? Was there a particular experience that you learned the most from?

Do you tend to plan things out in detail, or just make decisions as you go?

Did you ever have an idol or a mentor when you were younger?

What is one thing that you've learned about life in the past 10 years?


(I'm sure I could think of other questions, but they would all be specific to the individual..and probably not universally applicable.)