Intro

People will say that I’m in a Google ads
business, and if Google ads disappears, you have no
business. Say I’m a Facebook ads
business or Facebook ads disappear. No,
people change, people cannot change too
rapidly, and things like AI force us
to change much more rapidly. So,
sometimes it can be very disturbing and
very difficult to deal with. If you’re
not willing to change at all, then
somebody will run you over.

The Skill Every Business Owner Needs to Survive AI Change

Based on the kind of story you have,
you’ve seen over the period of time,
you’ve seen how technology has evolved,
you’ve seen the dotcom bubble, you’ve
seen the days prior to that. Now,
we are getting into this era of AI.
What do you think is the most
important quality
in a business owner to make sure they
are always in the front lines with all the
technological changes that are happening
and making the best out of it? What is one thing that they
really should hammer themselves to
have that skill in them?

So when you said the question about the forefront, right, so they got to stay
ahead.
In the small business world, you got to
stay on the forefront.
And I think it goes down to very basic
basics of business, it’s nothing to do
with marketing, it has nothing to do with
AI, it’s nothing to do with any of that, which is
you know this question many times people
ask, “Hey, what are you in business of?”

The danger of defining your business by a platform

In marketing, you’re a business of
getting a message out, getting more
sales, helping the sales team.
People forget that. People will say that
“I’m in a Google ads business,”
and if Google ads disappears, you have no
business.
Then say, “I’m a Facebook ads business,”
“Oh, Facebook ads disappear.” No,
you know, so in our case now we do, uh,
the way I like to think of it is, at least
if you’re saying ads, you just say
you’re an ads business.
Technology will change how the ads will
be delivered. But will ads disappear?
No. If you’ve seen… I don’t remember if
it’s 5 monkeys or 10 monkeys or
whatever Bruce movie… 12 monkeys… it’s
a future movie. Even there, there are ads
on the screen right when people are
flying around. So, there is no situation
in the world or environment where people
will not pay to get their message across
through some medium. As long as you see
yourself in that way, you will always
look ahead.

It’s never going to change that somebody
will produce something and they want to
sell it to somebody else. So the message
has to get out, right? So if you are
into that business of the person who’s
very good at producing stuff and then
you need that message out to everybody
that this product is good or this
service is good, there’s always work for
you. Based on what I have seen in most
of the cases is,
whenever, for example, like think of
business owners of your age, right? Anyone
who has seen that much success in business or has
experience managing this much
business, many times people at this age,
especially if the CEO is in their 50s
or early 50s or late 50s, they get very,
they are very much bound to the ways that
they know work and not willing to change
or adapt to the things that are
changing. For example, there are a lot
of businesses which were brick and
mortar a few decades back, right? So,
when the internet came into being, the
businesses that did not go e-commerce
faster are the ones that failed. So, is
that what you’re saying? If a business
owner is listening to this, are they the
ones who have to really get ingrained
into AI and understand how they want to
change their mindset about AI? Because a
lot of people are scared of AI for
whatever reason, right?

Why people resist change as they get older

So, there is a more philosophical fact
first. It’s not just the business only. A lot
of people, they don’t like change, or most
people don’t like change in general.
That’s a fact. And as we get older, we
like we are more settled in our ways.
So it’s not uncommon for people
reaching late 40s onwards and 50s, they
just want to do things they were used to.
That’s a common human nature,
right? And so,
does everybody have to change quickly?
No. But some level of change is needed
in life. We got to adjust. So that’s
again, it’s a philosophical question. Now,
as a business, actually there are two
sides to this.

If you are extremely change-loving, like
me, you have another kind of risk. And
Chin is laughing, she knows what I’m
talking about. I love change. I want new
stuff. There is actually another risk you
run into. You’re never going to be
stable and making a lot of money
because you are seeking the change
itself is so much more important. But if
that’s what it is, great. That’s what I
like. I just need to make enough money
to allow me to keep changing. I’m not
recommending this lifestyle for
everybody or this way of doing business.

Why boring businesses make the most money

The business to make money is you have
to find a stable point that I’m going to
embrace change to help me grow. Then I’m
going to become boring for a while and
make a lot of money by being boring. Do
this again and again. Money is always
made by doing boring stuff.

All money in the world is always made by
doing boring stuff. Why boring stuff?
Because most people don’t want to do
boring stuff. You figured out this is
needed and has to be done. I’m going to
do this day in with the team. You will
make a lot more money. So there’s a
balancing act like everything else in
life. You got to, everybody has to
embrace some level of change and still
keep it stable enough so you can do
something with it because otherwise
you’re just looking at this fact that there
are so many courses and things launched
every day. You could just spend all 50
hours a week just learning
and never practice anything. Or you
could do 50 hours a week just practicing
but stuff you’re practicing might be
getting obsolete soon. And if you ended
up practicing the wrong thing, it’s
wasted. So you have to find that balance
somewhere. People have talked about
learning should be 20% of the part and
80% should be actually execution. I
think even there, what kind of execution?
Somebody like me, my execution is I want
to code something new. I want to try
something new. I want the latest
technology, right? So I’m indirectly
learning versus execution of something
which makes money which everybody needs,
customers need, and things like that.
Right? So the answer is you got to find
your sweet spot. Recognize that if
you’re not willing to change at all,
then somebody will run you over. Things
will not work out. You’re going to be
unhappy in life. Generally speaking, if
you are change-seeking, yeah, you’re
great for startups and new ideas and
everything, but you will have difficulty
building big businesses. And it’s not a
surprise. That’s why startup CEOs are
not the right CEOs. The rest, the stable
CEO takes over and builds a big
business, right? I mean, it’s there are
rare instances of course, people who have
stabilized, right? But also that same
stabilization has created the problem
which we talked about, like Apple is
behind in AI right now, right? It was
an innovative company in AI, it’s trying to
catch up, right, even in spite
of all the effort, even Facebook is a
little bit behind because they got very
good at whatever they were doing, so
there is a challenge there, right? So the
answer is that yes, so for people to stay
ahead, you’ve got to embrace a level of
change, you got to get comfortable with
change. And that’s a life lesson, I think,
not just business. The level where you’ll
go, you can decide what you’re
comfortable with, but you got to do some
level.

And I guess I’ll just go back to that
this term for the last year I’ve been using
the “overturn window.” Even business has an
overturn window. Your beliefs can change
only so much over time. This is used usually for
political situations but people change.
People cannot change too rapidly, and AI,
things like AI, force us to change much
more rapidly. So sometimes it can be
very disturbing and very difficult to
deal with. But then there are people
like me, it’s like thinking I was
going to die if AI had not happened 3
years back, because I would have thought
“man, it’s the same boring marketing every
day. What is new to do?” And suddenly we
are, as we are pivoting now to actually
implementing AI, less in marketing. We
are actually doing the implementation of AI
solutions now.