{"id":4260,"date":"2011-04-20T09:50:58","date_gmt":"2011-04-20T09:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/?p=4260"},"modified":"2011-04-20T09:50:58","modified_gmt":"2011-04-20T09:50:58","slug":"the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Asking &#8220;What if&#8221; and &#8220;So What&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4261 size-medium\" title=\"Male headshot - facial expression\" src=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/istock_000001876559xsmall-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"image\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/>How many times have you run across an innovative product and service and thought \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I think of that?!\u201d \u00a0Or maybe you\u2019re like me and have these \u201chairbrained\u201d ideas, decide that they are silly and ignore them only to see them advertised or written about as the next great innovation!<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"><br \/>\n<\/span>The really neat thing about this interconnected internet and social media culture is that we all have the ability to actually reach out to those people and simply ask them how they got the idea and what they did after that.<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"><br \/>\n<\/span>One of my new-year\u2019s resolutions was to do exactly that; reach out to people I thought had an amazing idea, product or service and start a conversation with them about what they were thinking and how they made that idea come to life.<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"><br \/>\n<\/span>And you know what? \u00a0The answers I got were not earth-shattering. \u00a0They were actually very simple and driven by two questions most typically asked by your average three-year-old: \u201cWhat if\u2026.\u201d And then \u201cSo what?\u201d<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"><br \/>\n<\/span>Here are just a few snippets of interesting conversations that illustrate this point:<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"><br \/>\n<\/span>Prasad Thammineni, CEO<a href=\"http:\/\/www.officedrop.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> OfficeDrop<\/a>. \u00a0When Prasad graduated from the Wharton School he found himself in possession of thousands of paper documents that contained the sum of his hard work during graduate school. \u00a0Inside these paper folders and files was some potentially useful stuff \u2013 but it was taking up tons of space. \u00a0He asked himself the question \u201cWhat if \u2026.I scanned all this stuff and made it electronic?\u201d \u00a0Not a novel idea exactly, but this got him thinking about the fact that other grad students wanted to do the same thing. \u00a0Then he asked \u201cWhat if there were other people that had documents they wanted to keep, but not in boxes?\u201d \u00a0And OfficeDrop, the online document storage site was born.<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"><br \/>\n<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.therisetothetop.com\/about-the-rise-to-the-top.php\">David Garland<\/a> is a young entrepreneur who had already sold his successful hockey-themed web site and was on to another entrepreneurial venture. \u00a0He and his partner sat in a coffee shop and chatted about Donnie Deutsch\u2019s show \u201cThe Big Idea.\u201d \u00a0They loved the show but it made them ask the question \u201cSo what?\u201d \u00a0That simple question started a brainstorm of \u201cWhat if we did a TV show that focused on young entrepreneurs and provided education as well as entertainment?\u201d \u00a0In less than two months David had sponsors and a show.<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"><br \/>\n<\/span>I\u2019m going to stop at these two very-very brief examples. \u00a0But I can tell you that I have at least five more and am averaging at least one per month. \u00a0\u00a0That means that in an economy that everyone says is down, there are people who are choosing NOT to participate. \u00a0These people \u00a0have consciously set aside their adult mind-set and are asking the \u201cchild-like\u201d questions that lead to opportunity.<br \/>\nAsking \u201cWhat if\u2026\u201d brings out the idea. \u00a0But asking \u201cSo what?\u201d makes it marketable. \u00a0These two simple questions are the root of real, authentic and buzzable differentiation.<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"><br \/>\n<\/span>I can already hear you saying \u201cIf it were only that easy!\u201d \u00a0Have you considered recruiting some kids as an advisory group? \u00a0I\u2019m completely serious about that. \u00a0I\u2019ve heard of large companies recruiting kids as problem solvers and brainstormers because of their un-fettered ability for unconstrained thought. \u00a0What have you got to lose?<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"><br \/>\n<\/span>Kids of all ages (especially elementary school age) love being included in what we are doing. \u00a0What makes it boring for them is the cumbersome corporate speak that we use to hide the fact that we are basically unclear about what our value is to customers.<\/div>\n<div>In addition to the personal benefits that you\u2019ll gain by engaging kids in your business, think about what you\u2019ll be teaching them? \u00a0You\u2019ll be showing them that their unbridled creativity has value. \u00a0You\u2019ll be showing them that just by thinking in a certain way, they can create opportunities for themselves and for others.<\/div>\n<div>And in an economy that has so many people seeing themselves as victims, what kind of a gift would you be giving by creating a new economy of entrepreneurs?<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How many times have you run across an innovative product and service and thought \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I think of that?!\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[708,428,826,891,892,342,882,893],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Power of Asking &quot;What if&quot; and &quot;So What&quot; | QuestionPro<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How many times have you run across an innovative product and service and thought \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I think of that?!\u201d \u00a0Or maybe you\u2019re like me and have these\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Power of Asking &quot;What if&quot; and &quot;So What&quot; | QuestionPro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How many times have you run across an innovative product and service and thought \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I think of that?!\u201d \u00a0Or maybe you\u2019re like me and have these\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"QuestionPro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/questionpro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-04-20T09:50:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/istock_000001876559xsmall-300x199.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ivana Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@questionpro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@questionpro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ivana Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ivana Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5a547e9ba0ad62a9ffa6f12466a7a244\"},\"headline\":\"The Power of Asking &#8220;What if&#8221; and &#8220;So What&#8221;\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-20T09:50:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-04-20T09:50:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/\"},\"wordCount\":688,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Entrepreneur\",\"Essay\",\"Facebook\",\"Pixily\",\"Prasad Thammineni\",\"Social Media\",\"Twitter\",\"Wine tasting descriptors\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/\",\"name\":\"The Power of Asking \\\"What if\\\" and \\\"So What\\\" | QuestionPro\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-20T09:50:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-04-20T09:50:58+00:00\",\"description\":\"How many times have you run across an innovative product and service and thought \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I think of that?!\u201d \u00a0Or maybe you\u2019re like me and have these\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Uncategorized\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/category\/uncategorized\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"The Power of Asking &#8220;What if&#8221; and &#8220;So What&#8221;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"QuestionPro\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"QuestionPro\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/questionpro-logo.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/questionpro-logo.svg\",\"caption\":\"QuestionPro\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/questionpro\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/questionpro\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/questionpro\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5a547e9ba0ad62a9ffa6f12466a7a244\",\"name\":\"Ivana Taylor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d23fe73ba92b9a95ce057e280755df6b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d23fe73ba92b9a95ce057e280755df6b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ivana Taylor\"},\"description\":\"Ivana Taylor provides DIY Marketing advice, marketing trends and marketing how-to tips and strategies for small business owners and CEOs.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/author\/thirdforce\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Power of Asking \"What if\" and \"So What\" | QuestionPro","description":"How many times have you run across an innovative product and service and thought \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I think of that?!\u201d \u00a0Or maybe you\u2019re like me and have these","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Power of Asking \"What if\" and \"So What\" | QuestionPro","og_description":"How many times have you run across an innovative product and service and thought \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I think of that?!\u201d \u00a0Or maybe you\u2019re like me and have these","og_url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/","og_site_name":"QuestionPro","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/questionpro","article_published_time":"2011-04-20T09:50:58+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/istock_000001876559xsmall-300x199.jpg"}],"author":"Ivana Taylor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@questionpro","twitter_site":"@questionpro","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ivana Taylor","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/"},"author":{"name":"Ivana Taylor","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5a547e9ba0ad62a9ffa6f12466a7a244"},"headline":"The Power of Asking &#8220;What if&#8221; and &#8220;So What&#8221;","datePublished":"2011-04-20T09:50:58+00:00","dateModified":"2011-04-20T09:50:58+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/"},"wordCount":688,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["Entrepreneur","Essay","Facebook","Pixily","Prasad Thammineni","Social Media","Twitter","Wine tasting descriptors"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/","url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/","name":"The Power of Asking \"What if\" and \"So What\" | QuestionPro","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-04-20T09:50:58+00:00","dateModified":"2011-04-20T09:50:58+00:00","description":"How many times have you run across an innovative product and service and thought \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I think of that?!\u201d \u00a0Or maybe you\u2019re like me and have these","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/the-power-of-asking-what-if-and-so-what\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Uncategorized","item":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/category\/uncategorized\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Power of Asking &#8220;What if&#8221; and &#8220;So What&#8221;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/","name":"QuestionPro","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"QuestionPro","url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/questionpro-logo.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/questionpro-logo.svg","caption":"QuestionPro"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/questionpro","https:\/\/twitter.com\/questionpro","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/questionpro\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5a547e9ba0ad62a9ffa6f12466a7a244","name":"Ivana Taylor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d23fe73ba92b9a95ce057e280755df6b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d23fe73ba92b9a95ce057e280755df6b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ivana Taylor"},"description":"Ivana Taylor provides DIY Marketing advice, marketing trends and marketing how-to tips and strategies for small business owners and CEOs.","url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/author\/thirdforce\/"}]}},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Ivana Taylor","author_link":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/author\/thirdforce\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4260"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}