Curiosity Didn’t Kill The Cat, The Cat Became A Lion

Be A Lion, Not A Cat

I don’t buy for one second that curiosity killed the cat. Curiosity evolved the cat into a lion. A lion is confident, strong, a leader, the king of the jungle. To gain this confidence in yourself and be seen as an effective leader, in other words to become king of your domain, you will need to constantly be learning and become educated about important, relevant topics in your specific area of interest and expertise, and about life in general. You can only learn by asking questions, and it is once you ask those questions and listen with true intent that you will begin the journey to becoming an expert and leader in your field.

“If curiosity killed the cat, it was satisfaction that brought it back.” – Holly Black

We Are All Born with Curiosity

We should envy kids.

No, it isn’t because of the daily naps, guilt-free junk food eating and lack of responsibilities.

It is because of their natural curiosity. As children grow up, they start to experience the world more and more, everyday experiencing a new first. Through their experiences they will learn, and children will often ask many questions, trying to figure out why things are the way they are. Often their question will be as simple as “Why?” over and over… and over… and over again! Good parents will embrace this and encourage the child’s curiosity. Even going the extra mile and helping them research answers to questions they themselves are unsure of.

“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.” -Eleanor Roosevelt

Asking Questions Professionally, Socially, and Academically

Academically

As we grow older being curious is looked at in more of a negative light than a positive one. There seems to reach a point, specifically in America’s school system, where it is no longer ‘ok’ to ask questions and rather you should just accept that certain things just are the way they are. Do not question your teacher and just do the assignment. Accept whatever she says as the absolute truth. This could be crushing for some children, who want to understand the reasoning behind certain subjects, assignments, or activities. I have witnessed this many times and even experienced it firsthand and the result is usually a disconnect between the student and learning.

Professionally

Asking questions does not seem to get better in the workforce as there is a real fear that asking questions will make you seem dumb and incompetent at performing your job. Many would rather stay ignorant or try to complete their project with only half of the full picture, rather than seeming inexperienced for 5 minutes to learn something new and become more effective. Often, we think that if we ask questions then we will appear as:

Dumb
Incompetent
Stupid
Foolish
Inexperienced
Unengaged (this is especially wrong as asking questions makes you more engaged)
Having a bad memory
Unaware

Socially

Even outside school and professional settings, asking questions is not more widely accepted. A handful of times now I have talked to new acquaintances shortly after meeting them and they will say something along of the lines of:

“My friends get annoyed with me because I like to ask a lot of questions”

“Sorry, I’m just a curious person”

“I know it’s bad, but I’m always questioning things.”

I myself as a naturally curious person have been guilty of doing this at times as well. We feel the need to be apologetic about our curiosity. It is considered a nuisance to many. While it is true that no person owes you the time to explain ‘why?’ something is the way it is, it should never stop you from questioning things. To never questions things will lead you down a very slippery slope.

Curiosity Becomes Knowledge

Curiosity turns into knowledge and as we all know, knowledge is power. Truthfully, one of the most important traits we have is curiosity. We are born into this world with nothing, and through our experiences and curiosity mankind has made unbelievable progress throughout our existence. If it wasn’t for curiosity we would never evolve. We would always stay as cats and never become lions. The way to truly understand anything is to keep asking questions about it. If you assume you know the answer, you are taking a chance that you may be wrong. If you say nothing at all, you will never learn. It is only when we display courage, like a lion, and ask questions that we will learn more about life, relationships, interests, and passions. No expert in a field ever thought “I know enough, and therefore I should stop asking questions.”

The truly intelligent are willing to sound initially dumb by questioning things until they understand it. If you do question things, eventually you will understand the topic better than the people judging you in the first place!

“Curiosity is the engine of achievement.” -Ken Robinson

Best,

Eric