Every single person you meet has something to offer that you can learn from. The onus is on you to figure that out. This need not be from a super achiever or a world champion. Everyone has hacked something that they are super proud of. More importantly, the hack has worked for them. I’m somewhat of a lazy guy and figured what if I could ask people what they have tried and tested? This would save me time, money and effort to figure out the hack.

You’re probably thinking - yeah, right?! Let me give you some examples of things I’ve learnt by asking simple questions. These have been transformative to my life.

How do you lose weight?

In 2016, I noticed one of my dear friends, Kaushal Dalal, looking fitter and stronger than ever. The curious cat in me, immediately asked - what gives? Are you working out a lot more ? I repeated this question with several folks. The universal answer was:

Weight loss is primarily about nutrition, not exercise.

Not only this, Kaushal introduced to an expert, Shona Prabhu, who helped me figure out that it was neither exercise nor my diet per-se. It was my diet composition. As a vegetarian, my nutrition intake was severely protein-deficient. With some discipline and morphing my diet (just eating more protein!), I went back to my body weight from over 10 years ago! In 3 months!

How's that for a growth hack?

How do you start writing longer form content?

I consider myself a good communicator. However, I could not write to save my life. In the summer of 2016, I was in a social gathering of some Twitterati in Bangalore that included some veteran journalists. While everyone was discussing politics, cricket, and startups (what else!), I asked all of them - how could I start writing? At that point, even penning some blog posts seemed daunting if not impossible. Prem Panicker suggested I do what one professor taught him in journalism school several decades ago.

Practice Free Writing.

It has done wonders for me. I have written over a dozen blogs (mostly on LinkedIn) and have got featured several times. My 4th piece comparing Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffet went viral garnering over 200K views. Just from implementing a small bit of advice!

How do you beat jet lag when you fly a lot?

Many of us fly a lot. Over the years, I’ve asked various Air Stewards/Stewardesses about how they deal with incessant air travel. Especially, for long haul international travel. The universal answer -

Drink lots of water when flying long haul.

Some people have been as specific as saying 1L of water per 6 hours of flying. Of course, you need to use SeatGuru (another hack) to be a few seats away from the washroom!

What’s the best financial investment and/or process that has worked for you?

This can lead to immediate and long lasting financial gain. One of the recent personal finance lessons I learnt from my partner at Prime Ventures, Shripati Acharya and another friend Rajesh Navar, who is also a prolific public market investor, is:

Invest SIGNIFICANT amounts of money when you have conviction.

Corollary - don’t invest in something unless the returns will meaningfully affect your financial net worth and/or your lifestyle. Only if I’d known this 16 years ago, when I invested in Amazon and Costco (didn’t invest nearly enough), I’d be retired by now :)

What is the biggest life lesson learnt by a senior citizen?

Recently, I was at a large family reunion and with a highly accomplished, globe trotting, wealthy octogenarian. I asked him what was his learning from all the years. His answer:

Be in the PRESENT moment!

Quite simple and yet quite profound from someone successful and is twice my age! Isn't it? Why spend the next 40+ years figuring that out? This is not in any self-help book but from someone who's reflecting on 80+ years of his life.

I'm hopeful you both see and appreciate where I’m going with this. There are innumerable such questions that you can ask anyone.

The inspiration to learn something new can come from anyone and anywhere.

It could come from kids, teenagers, job applicants, entrepreneurs, investors, elders, neighbours, fellow travellers, Uber drivers, etc. Really, just about anyone and everyone!

Just to get you started, I’ve listed a few more questions:

• What are your favorite 'X's in recent or of all time - where, X could be restaurants, movies, books, travel destinations ?
• What advice would you give your 21 year old self? (Credit: Shripati Acharya).

We ask this to many of the stalwarts we interview in our #PrimeTime Podcasts. I personally really liked Kunal Shah and Deep Kalra's answers.

• What’s the best US $150 (INR 10,000) rupees you have spent on something material? (Credit: Timothy Ferris)
• What are two or three mobile 'apps' (other than Google, Facebook) that have transformed your life?

Next time you meet with someone, anyone, just ask a "meaningful" question.
Look for THAT insight.

The insight may not always be life changing, and needn’t be. Often, you could just be entertained, amused or at the least not have wasted your time. Regardless, it will be well worth it. See Google Co-founder Sergey Brin's trick for getting something from job interviews that are not going well.

So, what are some questions like these that you have asked ? More interestingly, what are some answers to simple questions that have transformed your life? Please do share your thoughts so all of us get healthier, happier, wealthier and wiser :)

About the Author -

(Amit Somani is a Managing Partner at Prime Venture Partners, an early stage Venture Capital firm based out of Bangalore, India. Prime VP invests in category creating, early stage companies founded by rock star teams. Prior, Amit has held leadership positions at Makemytrip, Google and IBM. He is also deeply engaged with the early stage startup ecosystem in India and actively volunteers with iSpirt, TiE and NASSCOM. He tweets at @amitsomani)

This article was originally published on Linkedin