Curiousity killed the cat but made the human

I’ve noticed that my blogging has developed into regularly asking questions. Many of my blog entries end with a question mark. Why is that?

It’s because I’m always asking questions. It’s because I cannot accept the way it is. It’s because I want to know more. It’s because I’m curious.

Funnily enough I presented at a meeting the other day. It was all bingo buzzwords and respect for the VP and SVP and SSVP and Chief VVVVP, and such like. As the meeting went on, they used lots of interaction via an interactive app to get people’s input. At one point, they asked “what word describes you best”. The usual things came back like creative, leader, thinker, ideas along with a few you wouldn’t expect like babe and hero. I thought about it and wanted to enter DILF but thought that would be a mistake, so I put in curious, as did a few others.

I like the word curious. It means you’re interested. Interested in life, in change, in the future, in the world, in everything. It’s about learning. Learning something new every day by being curious.

It’s funny as some might use the word ambitious. Ambition means you want to achieve something, but you’ll never achieve anything if you’re not curious. I meet people in their twenties and thirties, and they’re ambitious but not curious. They’re political. They complement the VP and SVP and SSVP and Chief VVVVP, and they spend all their time trying to work out how to get into their good books. Ambition has little to do with curiosity.

Funnily enough, I also meet many people in their fifties and sixties who spend a lot of their time wondering. Wondering is curiosity. I wonder how the world will change. I wonder what life will be like in ten or twenty years. I wonder if banks will survive and how. I wonder if these FinTech start-ups will survive and how.

Wondering is a great way to wake up every day. Living in a world full of wonder is a great way to live. And being curious about everything is key.

Curiosity killed the cat, but it ignites the human. Being curious. Curiouser and curiouser. Wondering and being curious is integral human traits. And maybe curiosity gets suppressed when you grow up. Children are massively curious. Why does the sun shine? Why does the rain fall? Why do you never see a baby pigeon? Children live in wonder and are hugely curious.

Then you get older and it’s all about Because. It’s done that way because the world is this way. You can’t do that because it’s not good. You mustn’t say that because it’s offensive.

Your curiosity is killed and you replace it with ambition. Ambition is the source of life for those who are young in the workforce. Curiosity is the source of life for those who lead.

So, going back to the babes and heroes of our workforce who are creative thinkers with ideas and want to be leaders, be curious. Live in wonder. Focus upon the future and understand the past. Don’t forget the past. The past is important. But the future is more important as it’s the only thing we can change and the only thing we don’t know.

Focus upon the future and be curious about it. Curious. What a wonderful word.