top of page

Reality Check: In Pursuit of the Right Questions

Updated: Jul 25, 2023




Book Description


Reality Check - In Pursuit of the Right Questions explores different tactics, mental models, and mindsets that improve our ability to identify ourselves and ask the right questions to solve complex problems. It empowers us to address the issues that matter.


It is a tool to help navigate today’s world, filled with uncertainty and distractions, whether on a personal or professional level. It helps us see “what matters in the first place” to ultimately create positive change in the world. It provides a structure to ground our thinking and gain clarity as we explore the most important aspects in life.


In this book, you'll learn:

  • what elements to consider when asking questions.

  • how to measure and deal with ambiguity, extremes, and idea ownership.

  • the ways communication, external challenges, expectations, and speaking the same language affect our outcomes.

  • how to apply this structure.

Carlo Mahfouz speaks to leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators who want to view things differently and challenge the status quo to find solutions that address what matters by asking the right questions.


Book Editorial Review

by Elvira Quirru

5 Stars Review


The central point of this book is to explain that with conscious awareness we can see things differently, while we challenge the status quo, by asking the right questions we will have a better understanding of the problems, and then we can find better solutions to any problem in any area of our lives.

By reading this book, the author says we will be able to challenge our thinking, gain confidence, and enhance our intuition and gut feeling.


The subject is divided into three major parts: context, time, and observer

In the context we need to be aware of the restrictions of the moment, like the rules that exist, we can create a simulated context diverging from the rules but following them.

If we restrict the view of the context it can not direct our attention and also we can be distracted, and we need to be aware so we need to break the circle of distraction, we can see better from the edge than from the center, so we will see the context more from the lens of what we avoid than what we can scope, and we need to prioritize things.

The extremes can take us to uncomfortable situations but if we don't take the extreme too seriously probably we will find, in the periphery a valuable point of view.

Movement and commitment will reveal the direction, and so is motion and no direction which reveals the distant context.

About time, the most important and precious is the here and now because the past and the future are only illusions and frequently they erase the here and now, we need to let go and remember that there is always a door that will let you be free of what you know so you can see what you do not know.

We are just witnesses of time, we can not control it, is immutable, but it also talks of change and many times we are afraid of change.

The observer is a concept about being able to understand the same thing as others, we talk the same language and many times we are not thinking the same thing while we are hearing the same things as others, this is very important, do not assume that we understand the same as others, we need to be sure we are all talking the same language.

Being kind and having courage is the secret intention that allows for difficult questions to be asked. The right questions are difficult.

Finally, we need to be aware of personal context and recognize that clarity is not comfortable, that you always have a door, and that our means of connection are the simplest things.

That all the discussion of the book leads us to the creative context, the professional context, and the personal context and this tells us that anchors can be good or bad depending on how we used them, and that change creates motion that helps us direct our attention to the right questions and decision by listening and being in tuning and connecting. The author reminds us that we also need to consult our hearts.


The book has complex concepts and is difficult to read and I was not able to understand what it was about until I get to chapter 5, from then on I can see the author talks about awareness like in the motion meditation state when you need to be aware of everything you do, and also he mixes it with some quantic physics. Interesting dissertation about what it looks like a very simple subject but it is not: how to ask the right questions.


Get Your Copy of Reality Check: In Pursuit of the Right Questions by Clicking HERE!





About Carlo Mahfouz


Carlo Mahfouz is a Renaissance man. An intrapreneur and product development executive in the healthcare ed-tech space with a deep understanding of technology, he works developing products to help improve patients’ outcomes and driving change in organizations, teams, and individuals.

Always curious, Carlo is a firm believer in tech’s power to create positive global change, a novice opera singer who heads innovation at a classical music non-profit company, and a published author.

Carlo grew up in Lebanon, where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame University. He also holds an Executive MBA from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. In addition to his busy career, he enjoys hiking, drawing, photography, and playing his classical guitar.


Comments


bottom of page