No Bad Questions?

Years ago, one of the icons of satirical publishing, Mad Magazine, used to put forth an annual guide titled “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions.” It was an often laugh out loud tome on snarky responses to questions whose answers were painfully obvious.

Years later, comedian Bill Engvall delighted audiences with a sort of similar routine “Here’s Your Sign,” whereupon his contention was that people who ask asinine question should be forced to wear a sign around their neck that simply reads, “I’m stupid.”

Case in point: A man pulls up to a smoking car stopped on the side of the road.

“Is your car on fire?”

Owner: “No every half hour we just have to pull over so it can take a cigarette break.”

At our company we have been applying an oft-used axiom for a number of years now and it simply states, “there are no bad questions.”

Now, since our specialty is succession planning, an area that for many firm owners and principals often veers into uncharted territory, on balance that mantra would seem to be more than fair.

We often field even basic questions on everything from partnership agreements to M&A and even though we may have answered each dozens of times prior, we’ll patiently walk clients or potential clients through it no matter how long it takes.

But there are exceptions that transcend our company philosophy.

Last week I attended the annual AICPA Prac-Tech mega conference along with 1,000 or so others, one of whom meandered to our exhibit booth with a pressing question.

His was a small firm in the Midwest and he was considering an upstream merger. Just when I thought he was a live prospect, he managed to toss the proverbial grenade into the foxhole – since he was mulling an upstream move, did he hurt his chances of finding a successor by recently signing a three-year lease extension?

I bypassed our usual guidelines and casual politeness and point blank told him that was a stupid question.

Not surprisingly he took a bit of umbrage to my response and wanted to know why.

I answered simply, “BECAUSE YOU’VE ALREADY DONE IT!!!” I explained that all the professional advice in the world is useless after the fact.

It was only then that his actions began to sink in.

I figured or at least hoped he’d be somewhat smarter three years down the road.

And if not, then I will personally FedEx him a package that includes his own personal sign.