Not sure what to do with your life? This CEO says you should ask the 'genie question'

• Alpine Investors CEO Graham Weaver teaches at Stanford, where he helps students determine a career path.
• He uses something he calls the "genie framework" to guide them.
• Weaver said in a recent podcast interview that interest and persistence are the keys to success.

Alpine Investors founder and CEO Graham Weaver often finds himself teaching the students of his Stanford class about more than just strategies for growing a business.

The private equity CEO said that students frequently come to him not with questions about business but about life — specifically, what to do with theirs.

Weaver said on a recent episode of "Lenny's Podcast" that he often prescribes a series of exercises that previously helped give him clarity on his own goals. Chief among them is asking yourself the "genie question."

Weaver said a typical meeting on the topic consists of a student laying out possible career paths and talking through the pros and cons of each.

Weaver said he often watches as students consider option A, which they see as more practical, and try to talk themselves out of option B, something that they have their hearts set on.

"First, I try to let them realize that their real energy is for B. Just let them feel that, and understand that," Weaver said. "And then secondly, I try to figure out — what are the limiting beliefs they have? What are the fears? What are the obstacles?"

His students are often held back by external pressures, whether that be a desire for stability, or simply a fear of failure, he said. They then end up pursuing what they think they should, rather than what they want to.

Getting locked into a career for which you have no enthusiasm leads to a life lived on autopilot, the CEO said. Rushing through a familiar daily routine, with no time to consider what you're doing or whether you even want to be doing it, can lead to an increased degree of anxiety and friction, he added.

"But then once I kind of got into the path of the thing that I was excited about, that's when I really felt my energy change dramatically," Weaver said. "And I developed almost like a superpower in that thing, because, you know, I had more energy. I was willing to work longer, I was willing to do it."

He instructs participants to imagine a genie grants them a boon — guaranteed success in whatever career they dedicate themselves to.

"If that were true, and you had that genie blessing you with that wish, what would you wish for?" Weaver said. "And then the students come up with an answer that's really close to their heart. And it's the thing they would do, absent the fear of failure. And then the second part of the exercise is — that's what you should do."

Weaver said he understands that there can be limitations, often manifesting in financial needs. To help demystify them, he recommends writing problems down instead of actively ruminating on any limitations, thereby reducing hurdles to a series of manageable steps.

"When you get it down on paper, it will almost immediately strip that limiting belief of a lot of its power, and a lot of its scariness," Weaver said. "Because now it's just something like, for example, 'How would I fund this?' So, the second thing is that a lot of that scariness becomes just a to-do item."

But Weaver says success isn't just about overcoming fear. The main variable in Weaver's "formula" is time. He's found that people's expectations are often skewed in favor of an unrealistic immediacy.

"You have to go in at the beginning with that mindset and the structural ability to stay at it for a long period of time," Weaver said. "So the missing ingredient in most of the people that fail is time."

Without patience and grit, he said, his own success would instead be a museum of failures. Weaver's philosophy is that pursuing improvement is always uncomfortable.

"The first move is negative to getting in shape, the first move is negative to get out of a bad relationship, to get into a career you want to be in," Weaver said.

We only get one life, Weaver said. He thinks it's best to start making the most of it as soon as possible — before "not now" becomes "not ever."

"Take the time to really figure out and answer the question, 'What does a wonderful, amazing, incredible life look like?'" Weaver said. "And just get as clear as you possibly can on that."