This Question Made Me Time Travel

How would I want my daughter’s husband to act in this situation?

I love that question. It makes me time travel.

Anytime I catch myself wanting to compromise on my own morals, I reframe my thoughts by asking myself that question.

I don’t yet have a daughter, but I already picture her inviolable eyes in my mind. God help the man that does her wrong.

She deserves the best the world has to offer. Period. And although it’s her responsibility to go and seek it out, it’s my responsibility to show her how. And the higher I set my own standard, the higher her foundation will be.

That question takes my mind 31 years into the future. I’ll be 50. The thought of embracing my daughter, a beautiful young woman now, I imagine 20 or so, strikes a tender chord in my heart.

She’ll be of age to start committing to romantic relationships. And that’s a beautiful thing. A good man will empower her to be an even better mother. And that’s also a scary thing. A bad man has the power to take her life in the wrong direction.

Thinking of the other young men I know today, only 2 possess the character I would begin to consider suitable. And that, is terrifying.

As a father, your daughter holds every other man in their life against the standard you set. You become the gold standard.

Consequently, the ultimate mark for my success as a father is in who my daughter chooses to marry.

That’s a sobering thought. The standard I hold myself to becomes the standard my daughter considers appropriate.

And that is the utility behind my question. It helps me hold myself to the highest standard.

However, as I mentioned earlier, there is a massive problem. Society lacks good, young men. And this is one of my drivers behind Generation Z(enith). A powerful one too, because it reframes my drive behind this movement not only for myself to find other young, ambitious, like-minded guys, but it is also crucial to propagate out into the world the values that would make a husband I would be proud to see my daughter choose.

My motivation behind Generation Z(enith) isn’t just for me. It’s bigger than me. I’m doing this for them. In this case, that’s my daughter and future son-in-law.

As you can tell, I love questions. They’re powerful.

A good question will not only challenge the way you think about the world, it’ll change the way you think about the world. It’ll broaden your perspective on life. It’ll connect dots you’ve never connected before.

And living in pursuit of the answer to some of these questions will not only give your life purpose, but the harder the question is to answer, the bigger the impact you will have on humanity.

For instance, Elon Musk asked himself “how do I make humankind an interplanetary species?”

Absurd. That’s a reality straight out of a sci-fi book.

Enter - Elon’s conversation with himself:
“Well, how can we make that happen?

For starters, we’ll need to make space travel cheaper. Significantly cheaper.

What’s the biggest cost? Building rockets.

Well, what if we can reuse rockets?”

Then Elon launches a rocket into orbit, successfully lands it back on Earth, and then reuses that same rocket.

That is straight out of a sci-fi book.

And it all started with a hard question. Elon, living his life in pursuit of the answer to that question, is impacting the world like few men ever have.

So how can I apply this to Generation Z(enith)?

What question could I ask that holds the men of Generation Z(enith) to such a high standard, that they excel not only in whatever domain they choose to compete in, but also benefits society as a whole?

That’s a difficult question to answer.

I know if I get that right, I’ll be able to grow Generation Z(enith) into something marvelous.

Even if I don’t have the best answer to that question, I think Generation Z(enith) still has a pretty good chance of becoming something big, just because of the desperate need for good young men in today’s society. However, I’d be robbing the movement of the potential effect it could have - and that potential is measured by millions of lives that could’ve been positively impacted.

This is not a small decision.

But it doesn’t have to be perfect either. I think embarking on a collective journey of answering harder, better questions is pretty noble.

So what do I want the essence of this question to capture?

I want to leave the reader with a sense of duty to pursue a quality of character that is nothing but admirable. A standard so high that living in pursuit of the answer to that question pulls you ahead of gen pop - by a significant degree.

How can you become an admirable man?

Ehh, C- question. Doesn’t invigorate the soul.

I’m not sure. The best question I can think of is the one I ask myself:

How would you want you daughter’s husband to act in this situation?

I think a generation of young men would make the world a better place if they were to live their lives in pursuit of the answer to that question.

What are your thoughts? Can you think of a better question?