The Life-Changing Power of One Question: Unlock Purpose, Direction, and Connection with One Powerful Ask (Confidence Building, Find your Purpose) - Softcover

Hurd, Holly

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1684818133 ISBN 13: 9781684818136

Verlag: Mango, 2025

Inhaltsangabe

One Powerful Question Can Change Your Life.

In this empowering guide for women, Holly Hurd explores the transformative power of asking the right question at the right moment to unlock self-worth, confidence, and clarity.

Whether you're navigating personal crossroads or professional change, this book will guide you to the breakthrough you've been seeking. With stories, prompts, and real-life examples from women who have radically changed their lives, this book reveals how a single, thoughtful question—posed to yourself or others—can help you find purpose, deepen relationships, and create connection. A former hedge fund founder turned women’s empowerment advocate, Holly Hurd combines business acumen with emotional insight to offer readers a framework for self-reflection, personal growth, and bold action.

This book isn’t just about finding the right words—it’s about discovering your voice. Through guided inquiry and inspiring anecdotes, readers will learn how to identify the question that could open the door to healing, opportunity, or reinvention. Whether it’s a whisper of curiosity or a cry for change, asking that one question may be the first step to a more courageous, connected, and fulfilled life.

Inside, you’ll find:

• Empowering questions to ask in moments of doubt, change, or opportunity
• Real stories from women who found clarity and purpose by asking just one question
• Simple yet powerful tools for reconnecting to your intuition and taking the next step

If you liked How Successful People Think, Supercommunicators, or How to Become a People Magnet, then you’ll love The Life-Changing Power of One Question.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Holly Hurd is a speaker, entrepreneur, and author dedicated to helping women discover their voice, find purpose, and take bold action. At just twenty-five, she was featured in Fortune’s “People to Watch” for launching her own hedge fund, making her one of the youngest women to achieve such a milestone in finance.

After a successful career in the managed futures industry, Holly pivoted toward empowering women by founding VentureMom.com, a platform that showcases the startup journeys of over 400 women entrepreneurs. Her first book, VentureMom: From Idea to Income in Just 12 Weeks, offers a practical roadmap for turning passion into business—and has inspired women across the country.

Through her weekly blog, newsletter, and social media platforms, Holly reaches tens of thousands of women seeking guidance, inspiration, and change. She has spoken at major conferences, including the Women and the Entrepreneurial Spirit Conference in New York City, and has been featured in Darien Magazine, New Canaan Magazine, and more.

With her newest book, The Life-Changing Power of One Question, Holly invites women to reflect deeply and ask the single question that could open the door to a more fulfilling, purpose-driven life.

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Chapter One

One Question—Really?

Yes, just one question can change the direction of your life for a moment, a while, or a lifetime. The world today is filled with magic pills for losing weight, minimizing joint pain, sleeping better, feeling calmer, having more energy, and everything in between. In fact, you can probably find a pill for almost any ailment.

What if I told you one thing you could do that would help solve so many of your health problems? Just doing this one thing would help you feel better in every area of your life. It could be life-changing. This one thing could lower your blood pressure, improve your heart conditions, reduce your stress, improve your cognitive function, provide better coping skills, enhance your self-esteem, give you greater resilience, improve your happiness, and make you live longer. I’d say, “Sign me up!” Wouldn’t you?

Parking at Home Depot can be difficult. Sue and Jim were waiting for a woman to park her car in the pickup area so they could get to a parking spot. Struggling, she kept backing up and pulling forward. Jim was frustrated waiting for her to figure it out. Finally, Sue went over to the woman’s car. The woman rolled her window down and Sue said, “Hi, would you like me to help guide you?” The woman replied, “That would be so wonderful. I’ve been going through chemotherapy and my brain is a mess. I’d appreciate that.” What a gift for all the parties involved. Instead of a frustrating encounter and no connection, the three people felt so good about their encounter. How lucky that Sue got out to ask if she could help.

Jane had her car filled up at the local gas station in town. She would often have the young, shy boy with pimples on his face who worked at the station pump the gas. Each time, she would work to begin a conversation. She had kids and knew puberty was such a difficult time. One day, she asked about the dog that sat in the office every time she was there. Another day, she asked if he was in school and learned that it was his family’s station that he planned to take over when his uncle and father retired. Over time, she became acquainted with Chris. She would go in for an oil change or a tire rotation and catch up. It was a pleasant connection and Chris felt seen. Each time she went, she and Chris would have a great talk. Fifteen years later, Jane still goes to the same station and Chris is now a confident, grown man, but they have a connection that makes them each smile when they see each other and it all started with a question about the dog.

Hannah lost her husband. She had lots of friends and a support system, but she still felt lonely. She began to go to her local library to check out books and one day asked the librarian for a suggestion for a good fiction book. Yes, she had a long list of books from multiple sources, and she could have gone in and picked one up off the shelf and done the self-checkout without speaking to anyone. She had this option but chose to connect with someone even though it wasn’t necessary. This day she decided to ask a question that would start a conversation. After she read the book that the librarian had recommended, Hannah would return her book and talk with the librarian about how she liked the book and what she planned to read next. Over time, the two women became friends. It turns out that the librarian was a widow as well. They are now friends who share lunch and other outings together and it all started because Hannah asked a question and made an effort to connect.

These stories show you how easy it is in your everyday life to connect by using a question. Why is it so important to connect? Connection leads to happiness, health, and a longer life. So many lonely people are in the world—in fact, loneliness is at epic levels right now. Scientists contend that if you work toward connecting with everyone you see every day, you will be happier. Using a question to make that happen is easy and can be practiced. If you work toward talking with everyone you see, it will get easier, and you’ll be happier.

Relationships Lead to Longer, Happier Lives

Here’s my theory. If happiness is the ultimate currency and the number one thing everyone strives for, and relationships provide more happiness than success, money, and material things, then pursuing relationships in every aspect of your life should be everyone’s goal. My theory is that asking one question can lead to a better relationship with everyone you encounter.

And I’m not the only one who believes happiness is achieved through your relationships. In the last year, three different studies have come out supporting this idea. One from Ohio State University, one from the University of Southern California, and a long-term study from Harvard University. In each one, they conclude that relationships lead to longer, happier lives.

In his book The Gift of Influence, Tommy Spalding says that over the course of our lives, we each will influence 80,000 people for better or worse. He talks about being in an imagined football stadium with all the people that you’ve encountered over the course of your life and wondering whether they will be cheering for you or throwing tomatoes. He contends that how you deal with everyone you meet makes a difference in those people’s lives and, importantly, in yours too.

I, too, believe strongly that having some kind of relationship and connecting in some way with the people that you see every day from the coffee barista to the gas station attendant to the grocery store checkout person, and everyone in between, will make you happier. Learning how to ask everyone you see, over the course of your day, a connection question will give you more happiness in your life. Questions can begin and improve your relationships, wellness, happiness, and possibly change the overall course of your life.

You’d be surprised how one moment of connection can add to your happiness and the fulfillment you experience in your life. Another benefit that has been proven is that connections can have amazing health benefits. Studies have shown that connecting with people and having a support system in your life lowers inflammation. Connecting with people is a health process that should be as important as lifting weights and doing aerobic exercise.

In his book Outlive, Peter Attia states, “Feeling connected and having healthy relationships is as imperative as maintaining efficient glucose metabolism or an optimal lipoprotein level.” Attia believes that connecting with people should be a priority in your life, given the health benefits. Asking a single question of each person you encounter can lead to that connection.

David Brooks talks about being a diminisher or an illuminator in his new book, How to Know a Person. “There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen—to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood.”

Brooks believes that your approach to people can diminish them or illuminate them and that stems from whether you are a diminisher or an illuminator. If you ask questions about the other person, from how they are that day to how they are in life, you’ll be more connected. Ask about a person’s life story or how they came to believe what they believe. When you are an illuminator, you listen. You allow the other person to share their stories, concerns, and beliefs. Asking questions of someone and listening to them so they know they...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Mango
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2025
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1684818133
• ISBN 13: 9781684818136
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 234
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: MANGO; https://mangoeditions.com; ; 32 rue jean jaures; St zacharie; VAR; 83640; Frankreich