Inquiring about the “Good Life”
Two master questioners are interviewed by another—creative entrepreneur Jonathan Fields
For those who aren’t familiar with Jonathan Fields, he’s a well-known entrepreneur, author, and blogger who has emerged as a leading authority on “tribal marketing,” particularly for book authors (among other things, Fields shows authors and creative entrepreneurs how to build an online community to support their work). I occasionally read Fields’ popular “Tribal Author” blog; he’s also written best-selling books, starting with Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love
But I had no idea Fields was such a good questioner until I stumbled upon his online video interview series, “Good Life Project.” It consists of conversations with interesting and successful people in the areas of book publishing, entrepreneurial business, online marketing, and beyond. The 40-minute sessions cover a lot of fertile ground, and end with Fields asking his subject, “What does it mean to live a good life?”
So far I’ve watched two of the interviews in their entirety, and I’d recommend them both. One video is with the prolific author and marketing guru Seth Godin; the other is with another best-selling author, Susan Piver, who’s also a Shambhala Buddhist and meditation teacher.
Fields & Godin talking on the Good Life website
Some great questions come up in both segments. In “Books, Business, Choices, and Life,” Godin addresses the issue of what creative people should want from life. He talks about structuring your life’s work as a series of “art projects,” which, by his definition, means you’re always starting each new project or venture with “a clean sheet of paper,” instead of doing the same work over and over again. Over the past century or so, Godin observes, many people have been conditioned to think that having a routine job is the only safe and normal way to live—and that way of thinking served the needs of our industrial society quite well. But now we’re in a new age, powered by the Internet and social media, where it’s more acceptable and more feasible to go your own way, pursue your own opportunities, and do the kind of work you really want to do.
When asked what a “good life” is, Godin remarks: “A good life is when you get to decide what good is.”
Mindfulness, Serendipity and the Unplanned Life
Fields & Piver talking on the Good Life website
Piver’s interview, titled “Mindfulness, Serendipity, and the Unplanned Life,” is no less fascinating. She talks about how she stumbled into success as an author when she wrote a book called The Hard Questions: 100 Questions to Ask Before You Say “I Do”
Kudos to Fields for posing deep, provocative questions in these interviews. I’m looking forward to checking out some of the other installments in the series.
“Why has a book like this never been written before? Here is a persuasive case for the simple and yet extraordinary power of a question. Fascinating, engaging stories give life to a strong argument about how much can be accomplished, in every domain of our lives, ‘just’ by asking questions. Innovators, entrepreneurs, citizens, parents, teachers, idealists and realists—all of us have much to gain by reading 
“Questions have literally moved mountains, powered rockets, and instantly developed images. Berger focuses on what he calls ‘Beautiful Questions’… that can lead to game-changing answers and results. These are questions that, once raised, tend to get people thinking in a different way.”
“The desire to ask bigger and better questions is on the rise… Warren Berger has been tracking a movement toward questioning that is running very strong in Silicon Valley, but also seems to be spreading throughout the business, nonprofit and education sectors.”
Warren on the web