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Naveen Jain ON: Ask Yourself These 3 Questions To COMPLETELY CHANGE Your Life! | Jay Shetty

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Naveen JainguestJay Shettyhost
May 15, 20231h 2mWatch on YouTube

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At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Three questions, better framing, and curiosity to pursue audacious purpose-driven work

  1. Naveen Jain says moonshot thinking starts with three questions—“Why this? Why now? Why me?”—to ensure the problem is meaningful, timely, and approached differently than industry norms.
  2. He describes building Viome around the idea of making illness “optional” by empowering individuals, and he contrasts focusing on DNA with focusing on gene expression and on what the microbiome is doing.
  3. He argues that asking better questions (like “why do we eat food?”) expands the range of solutions and can lead to breakthroughs that experts miss when they stay inside standard framings.
  4. He emphasizes environment over genetic determinism, recommending surrounding yourself with people who push you to grow and treating learning as a daily practice.
  5. He shares parenting principles centered on modeling purpose-driven work, teaching that self-worth comes from creation rather than possessions, and exposing children to many “dots” so they can form their own path.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

The questions you ask determine the problems—and solutions—you pursue.

He explains that choosing the question shapes the solution space, and that his own test is whether solving the problem would meaningfully improve life for a billion people; he frames money as a byproduct of that kind of impact.

“Why now?” is about intercepting emerging technology to solve problems at scale.

He describes assessing what has changed recently and what will change in the next few years that makes a large-scale solution newly possible, and he argues that if it could have been solved years ago with existing technology, that’s a different kind of problem.

Reframing a question (from “how” to “why”) can unlock non-obvious solutions.

He contrasts the common “how do we grow food on the moon?” question with “why do we eat food?”, saying the latter opens many more solution pathways than the former.

He claims health insight should focus on changing signals (gene expression and microbial function), not static labels (DNA or organism lists).

He argues DNA doesn’t change and can’t reflect current health status the way changing gene expression (RNA/mRNA) can, and he extends this logic to microbiome testing by focusing on what microbes are doing rather than which organisms are present.

Surrounding yourself with people who challenge and uplift you accelerates growth.

He says the key is to find people who uplift you and push you to become better, and he suggests a daily self-check on becoming intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually better than yesterday.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

Life never stops teaching. It is us who stop learning. The day you stop learning is the day you start dying

— Naveen Jain

To me, the questions you ask is the problem you solve.

— Naveen Jain

Every time I start a new company, I ask myself three questions: Why this? Why now? And why me?

— Naveen Jain

Making money is simply a byproduct of doing things that improve people's life.

— Naveen Jain

Rule number one, when you wake up in the morning, and if you're not jumping out of the bed, you should quit what you're doing because that's not your calling.

— Naveen Jain

Read the available transcript
“Why this, why now, why me” frameworkMoonshot problem selection and scaleMaking illness “optional” and empowermentDNA vs gene expression (RNA/mRNA) framingMicrobiome: organisms vs functionEnvironment shaping identity and growthCuriosity, “imagine/what if,” and exposure to ideas in parenting

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SPEAKERS

  • Naveen Jain

    guest

    Entrepreneur and founder of Viome, known for moonshot-style ventures in health and technology.

  • Jay Shetty

    host

    Podcast host of On Purpose and author focused on purpose, wellbeing, and personal growth.

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