A Question of the Right Question

Sometimes asking the right question can make all the difference in the world.

In 1987, Tony Taylor was fascinated by a fellow at a conference. The man was a natural—so self-confident. Taylor watched him as he went up to total strangers, shook their hands and introduced himself.

“That was amazing to me,” he says. “I got up enough nerve to ask him, ‘How do you do that?’”

Taylor, now 56, was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and moved to Florida to learn his trade as a golf course superintendent. The conference was part of his training. It just so happened the man in question was a Scientologist.

“He took my question seriously, and asked me why I wanted to know. For some reason I found it easy to talk to him. This was unusual as communication was my downfall. I couldn’t get along with people. I couldn’t tell them what I thought,” says Taylor, to which he adds—“I couldn’t believe I was telling him all this!”

The man described a course he said would change Taylor’s life. And as luck would have it, the conference was a couple of miles from the spiritual headquarters of the Scientology religion.

“The next day I enrolled on the Scientology Communication Course, where I learned exactly what I needed to break out of my shell,” says Taylor. “I’ve used those basic communication skills every day since. It turned my life around.”

The course not only answered “how do you do that?”—it answered questions Taylor had been trying to answer all his life.

“I always wanted to know ‘Who am I really?’ and ‘Why are we here?’ and ‘What’s this all about?’” says Taylor.

Through receiving Scientology spiritual counseling, he answered those questions and many more and became completely certain of himself as a spiritual being.

“I left that counseling session 10 feet tall,” he says.

In 1992, after completing his certification as a golf course superintendent and seeing the potential for the sport in Asia, Taylor moved to Thailand. There, he founded Quality Golf International where he trains regional golf course superintendents in state-of-the art construction and maintenance practices for more than 20 Asian facilities.

Before moving to Bangkok, Taylor asked another question: “Are there any Scientologists in Thailand?” And the answer he got was a list of names and telephone numbers so he could meet them when he got there.

In 1995, he decided to invite every Thai Scientologist he could find for a Thanksgiving Day celebration.

One of them arrived with a guest and an ulterior motive. Her friend Diana was visiting from Los Angeles and she was sure Diana and Tony were destined to be together. It took no time at all for Taylor to agree.

He made sure to ask Diana the right question—“Will you marry me?” Her answer was “yes.”

“I still have questions, I’ll never stop wanting to learn,” says Taylor, “but one thing is for sure—I have used Scientology to build a life I never dreamed I could have, and there is no question about that at all.”

View the Tony Taylor video at www.scientology.org.

The popular “Meet a Scientologist” profiles on the Church of Scientology International Video Channel at Scientology.org now total 200 broadcast-quality documentary videos featuring Scientologists from diverse locations and walks of life. The personal stories are told by Scientologists who are educators, teenagers, skydivers, a golf instructor, a hip-hop dancer, IT manager, stunt pilot, mothers, fathers, dentists, photographers, actors, musicians, fashion designers, engineers, students, business owners and more.

A digital pioneer and leader in the online religious community, in April 2008 the Church of Scientology became the first major religion to launch its own official YouTube Video Channel, which has now been viewed by millions of visitors.