The Power of Doubt

As a kid, one of my favorite words was “why.” This drove my mother insane, but my grandpa always encouraged it. Him doing so reinforced two main axioms of my formative youth – axioms which would develop into my own personal beliefs and creed. First, I grew up in a culture where if you wanted to learn something, all you needed to do was pick up a book or ask a question. Everyone around me encouraged this, and it’s something which I believe is important; it’s one of the reasons, I believe, that one of my StrengthFinder strengths is “Learner.” But probably the greater motivator for encouraging me to ask “why” was because when he was my age, he couldn’t.

My great-grandfather, my grandpa’s father, was an incredibly brilliant man who, among other things, taught himself to play the organ. My grandpa inherited a lot of that intellect and self-starter attitude. One of my favorite stories is about his time in math class. In those days, you were taught to find the answer a certain way and the goal was not to get the right answer, but to follow the pattern. My grandpa would get the right answer by following his own system, but he would get a big fat 0 because he didn’t demonstrate he could follow the proper pattern. Whether out loud or in his head, I know the question he was asking was “why?” Why must we follow a specific process when there are better/faster/more-efficient ways to get to the same result?

By telling me this story, and encouraging me to ask “why”, my grandfather was teaching me doubt: the practice of disbelief or a lack of faith in an idea. Though it may have been annoying, my parents encouraged it as well. Through many experiences, I have grown to understand that doubt is one of our most valuable skills as humans; therefore it should be cultivated, celebrated, and respected. Unfortunately, I fear that doubt is instead discouraged, suppressed, and even treated as taboo.

Lately I’ve been reading several articles by Chuck Blakeman, a speaker, business owner, and advocate for building Participation Age Cultures in companies. He talks about the three S’s of the Industrial Age: Safety, Stability, and Security. Individuals who grew up in the Depression and during WWII longed for these things and encouraged their children to acquire a life a predictability without questioning the system to get there. But now that predictability is readily available, many individuals my age are searching for something more: Significance. But often, these hopes are squandered to make way for that same predictability. Our questioning is answered with “be quiet.”

It’s not just my age-group either. Although it is more prevalent among Millennials and Gen-Z to question authority and preconceived notions, this inclination has been around for years. Essentially, picture any rebellious movement from hippies to hipsters, and doubt is prevalent. And the opposition, whether that be business executives, the church, or the man continue to tell us that the system is good and doubt is bad.

I want to challenge that notion. In business, we’re seeing that several BIG companies from Apple to Amazon, Microsoft to PS4, and even John Deere are adapting Agile principals instead of following the same patterns/systems. Those companies that refuse to challenge the assumption that “the best way to do work is to do it the same way we always have” get left behind: see K-Mart and Sears. Whereas companies who doubt the dogma are able to stay afloat, like Target did even with the intense competition that Amazon brought. So, we see this principal play out in business. We’ve seen the impact that allowing individuals to question the system has had on companies, but what about in other aspects of life?

Whether it be a religion, political party, or social movement, I’ve met too many ‘copy&paste’ or ‘vomit’ followers who don’t have their own beliefs, but have become well-practiced at repeating what the leaders of their group have told them. I truly believe that it is more dangerous to be one of these followers than it is to be a doubter. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t stand for anything, but you should be continually challenging your beliefs. If they continue to hold up against scrutiny and doubt, then you can now better defend your position, and you can rest assured in your decision. And any establishment worth it’s salt knows that a congregation of motivated, questioning, and seeking individuals is better than a stagnant, inactive, and repeating one.

So if you find yourself in a place where doubt and questioning is discouraged, I encourage you to find a new group of followers, or even become a change-agent in that organization. We aren’t machines. Our power comes from our humanity, and part of humanity is our ability to doubt.

An Edit: I wrote this post back in June, but never published it. My grandfather, the same one who taught me the beauty and importance of doubt, passed away only a few weeks ago. This makes this post especially poignant for me, but in no way changes its message. It’s something I think he’d be proud of; I only wish I could have thanked him sooner. Thank you to all of you for reading, and loving, and doubting. Go chase your dreams! Like my grandpa would say, “there’s no better time to start than the present.”

Many love and blessings,
Christopher