Existentialism says that people have the freedom to make their own choices, and it opposes the need to depend on other institutions and people to decide for oneself, it is of the thought that dependency will hinder our personal growth. Existential questions hold a very important place in the lives of business founders and leaders.
Existential questions or deep conversation topics, are arduous questions that require you to dig deeper and express your inner feelings and thoughts in a straightforward way without complicating the things.
The existential questions are not the type of questions that you will be asked in an interview. Why most people fail in their jobs or their business is because of a lack of self-discernment. These existential questions will let you form a perception about yourself and you can set your goals accordingly.
Once you answer these questions, compassion to work better will be accentuated and you will be able to feel a natural and congenital elevation in you that will push you to do better in every aspect of life, especially in your business.
We are here with three existential questions for you that are important for businessmen and hold a lot of significance in our lives. If you are able to answer these questions for yourself, then no one can stop you from being on the crest of the wave.
Now let’s discuss the most important three existential questions for business founders and leaders.
1. Who are we?
The very first question that one needs to ask is,” Who are we?’. Ask this question to yourself and get your answers. Know your preferences, likes, and dislikes, conduct a SWOT analysis to determine your Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, know who your competition is, your achievements, pinpoint all those moments and happenings that shaped your character, your family background, what are your beliefs, what do you value the most, what are the things that don’t have any significance in your life, what do you do in your leisure time, what is your history, where do you come from and how do you see yourself, what knowledge do we have of the business, do we have the right skill set, etc. Jot down all these questions on a sheet of paper along with the answers. This is the most difficult question you will be answering, but once you have the answer, you will have clarity and things will be easy for you.
Now as you have answered all these questions for yourself, ask these questions from the point of view of your business. What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your business, what was the thought behind setting up the business, and so on?
2. What is our purpose?
Every person who has been working for the past many years, a fresher who is just about to start his journey towards his goals should ask this question-What is our purpose? Once you know what your purpose is you will find a difference in yourself, you will notice enthusiasm and passion towards your work. It often happens that when we are so occupied with our work and our juggling between our personal and professional life we forget the purpose behind our decisions and actions and feel less motivated and misdirected. At such a point of time, we must sit in silence and look for an answer to this question.
The same is for your business- when you think that you are not able to decide your goals or lead your business on the correct path, then just sit and ask questions like:
- What is our purpose?
- What was the reason behind the formation of the business?
- What are our duties towards society?
- What are the gaps in society that we all are fulfilling?
- What are the goals that we are going to meet?
Once you have an answer to these questions, you can direct your business on the right path, you can guide your employees and lead them. The captivating answers to these questions will help you in attaining your goals and stimulate you to work harder towards your goals.
3. What do we want to do and achieve in life?
Mr. Anton Halushko, the CEO of California Movers, has an answer to this question. He says that starting a business is just like starting a new life, when you start a business, there is no coming back, either you will succeed or you will fail. But something that helps you succeed in life and business is clear cut goals. Goals can be any short term or long term. Before defining your goals ask yourself the following questions:
- What do you want to achieve?
- Where do you see yourself in the next 7 years?
- Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years, in the next 3 years, next one year?
- How do you see your business in the next 6 months?
- What are the assets and liabilities?
- Who would be your staff members?
Pen down these questions and try and answer them. The answers to these questions are going to decide the rest of your journey. And once you have a clear vision of your goals and success in monetary terms, you can lay down the strategy for your business.
These questions are profound and surely you will be reluctant at first in answering these questions, but these answers shape the success and future of your business. And businessmen, founders, leaders must ask these questions to them again and again.
We can take inspiration from those organizations who answer these questions at regular intervals and this habit has helped them surmount from failures. The need of the hour is to self-introspect and adapt according to the situation in order to survive in the competition.