A Motivational Story: THE MAGIC OF THE RIGHT QUESTION

What can be set in motion by asking the right question? You can see it through the wisdom of Albert Einstein in the following story:

A journalist from a scientific magazine requested an interview with Einstein for a special article titled “The Great Questions Asked by Great Scientists.” When the scientist agreed to meet, the journalist arrived at his home. Einstein was sitting on his porch, smoking his pipe and watching the sunset.

“I’d like to ask you a question,” the journalist began, a sharp but slightly nervous young man with a notebook. “This is the key question I ask every scientist: What is the most important question a scientist can ask?”

Einstein sat in his rocking chair, blinking. Then, he stretched and spent the next ten minutes thinking. “That is a good question, young man, and it deserves a serious answer,” he said. He rocked slowly and puffed on his pipe. For several minutes, he remained silent, deep in thought, while the journalist anxiously awaited a profound mathematical formula or quantum hypothesis.

Instead, the journalist received a question that made him—and everyone who hears it—stop and reflect. “Young man,” Einstein said in a serious tone, “the most important question any person can ask is whether the universe is a friendly place.”

“What do you mean?” the journalist asked, puzzled. “How can that be the most important question?”

Einstein replied, “Because the answer we discover determines what we do with our lives. If the universe is a friendly place, we will spend our time building bridges. Otherwise, people will spend their time erecting walls. We decide.”