MY RAPID-FIRE QUESTIONS
If you ended up sitting next to a Nobel Prize winner or billionaire, what would you ask them? If you only had 2 to 5 minutes and they were willing to talk, how could you make the most of it?
Below are questions I’ve collected or concocted for just this hypothetical situation. Many of them are the “rapid-fire questions” that I ask nearly every guest on The Tim Ferriss Show. A handful are adapted from questions I picked up from guests themselves (such as Peter Thiel, here, and Marc Andreessen, here).
- ► When you think of the word “successful,” who’s the first person who comes to mind and why?
- ► What is something you believe that other people think is insane?
- ► What is the book (or books) you’ve given most as a gift?
- ► What is your favorite documentary or movie?
- ► What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last 6 months?
- ► What are your morning rituals? What do the first 60 minutes of your day look like?
- ► What obsessions do you explore on the evenings or weekends?
- ► What topic would you speak about if you were asked to give a TED talk on something outside of your main area of expertise?
- ► What is the best or most worthwhile investment you’ve made? Could be an investment of money, time, energy, or other resource. How did you decide to make the investment?
- ► Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?
- ► What is the worst advice you see or hear being dispensed in your world?
- ► If you could have one gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it, what would it say?
- ► What advice would you give to your 20-, 25-, or 30-year-old self? And please place where you were at the time, and what you were doing.
- ► How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Or, do you have a favorite failure of yours?
- ► What is something really weird or unsettling that happens to you on a regular basis?
- ► What have you changed your mind about in the last few years? Why?
- ► What do you believe is true, even though you can’t prove it?
- ► Any ask or request for my audience? Last parting words?