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Letters to a Young Manager


Ask Why Not, #628
LTYM >

Please note that this letter is in-process; the following are my notes

Dear Adam,
***
From 3/27/25 call with Nick:
And then another piece of advice that I got, this was actually Bobby Kennedy. Unfortunately, it's the current Kennedy health secretary's father, but he ran for president in 1968, and he gave a famous speech. And I forget who the originator of this quote was. He said, “Some ask why, but I ask why not?” And so that was the sort of the positive spin on, the opportunities to improve things or the opportunities to change things is a “why not”, type question. Why? Maybe this can also be a positive thing, but it can also be a point of exasperation, why are we experiencing this? So I gave that to our church secretary, who said that every time somebody asks her something, she always figures out a way to do it, to get it done, get them what they need.

And I said, have you ever heard of this quote by Bobby Kennedy? So I sent her a copy of the quote. I said, what you're about is you're the “why not” person. And I thought that was interesting.
***
Sincerely yours,
Ed
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References...

Takeaways:

The flip side of asking why, is asking why not.

Discussion Questions:


For Further Reading:





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