So often we are afraid to ask questions. Why is that? Mulling this over the other day, I came to the realization that we so often don’t ask questions in fear of how others might react. Fear of being judged creeps in. Well guess what? You will be judged regardless so you might as well just ask the question and gain the knowledge. In fact, if you ask the “stupid” question you will likely find that the answer won’t make you feel so stupid for having asked. Those who ask questions get answers. Those who do not ask questions will always wonder. Why not educate yourself?

A recent routine task in my life made me think differently about how I approach situations and why it is that I hold back from asking questions in some circumstances. Allow me to paint you a picture of one such scenario. My car is in need of a routine oil change. I’m constantly on the go so the Valvoline Instant Oil Change which is less than a mile from my apartment is the most convenient option. I have a small window of time on a Sunday afternoon before they close to swing in for an oil change. I pull in and think to myself, “Yes! No line!” As I pull into the bay and put my car into park, a friendly mechanic greets me, he pulls up my information in his computer and briefs himself with my car history. I tell him that I am there for an oil change and that is all. As he is pulling up my information, the manager on duty walks over to my car and without knowing a single thing about my car instantly asks me if I’ve had a transmission flush recently. The manner in which he approached me as a customer with basically no introduction already had me on guard. I respond with a smile and a laugh, “Actually, you asked me that the last time I was here and I recently had a new transmission put in my car so, no thank you, I do not need a transmission flush today.” {The new transmission bit is a whole OTHER story…I don’t have time for that today;-}

He continues running through the checklist of things they routinely ask you about: windshield wipers, air filter, tires, etc. Windshield wipers are a simple thing to change out and much cheaper if you buy them from Walmart so I always do that on my own. My air filter was long overdue to be replaced the last time I was there so it had just been replaced as well. When he asked about my tires it reminded me I was due for a tire rotation. I asked him to check my tires and see if they would be ok until my next oil change. He came back and recommended that I have them rotated. I got out of my car and was about to go inside to to the waiting room so they could rotate my tires, but for some reason felt prompted to ask him the stupid question. “How do you check the level of the tires to see if they need rotated?” I know, this is probably a stupid question in the minds of so many of you reading this, but I wanted to know about this in further detail. I didn’t know if they check the back tires vs. the front tires or the inside of the tire vs. the outside of the tire, so I just asked him to show me how he measures the wear of the tires and how he decides whether or not they need to be rotated.

As he showed me not only how he checked the wear of the tires, but also the actual measurements I saw for myself there was basically no variation in the wear of the tires. When I pointed this out to him, I asked him if he would choose to have his tires rotated if this was his car and not mine. I love to flip the script like that, because all of a sudden you get a very real response or at least a true reflection through reaction. Prefaced with a long pause, his response was, “Well………………..” As he attempted to formulate an answer, it was very clear that a tire rotation was not needed. Without asking the “stupid” question I would have spent the money on a service that I really didn’t need at the time. More importantly though, I now understand a little bit more about my car and the “stupid” questions that I need to continue asking.

We are so conditioned not to ask the the questions that make us feel a little uncomfortable.  Since it is understood that a mechanic is (or should be) skilled in his or her trade or craft, we shy away from asking questions about routine services they provide and trust in their trade. That being said, it was still my car they were working on, so I had the right to ask the “stupid” question and, therefore, learned my question wasn’t so stupid after all.

Always ask questions, especially the “stupid” ones.