STOP WORRYING. START CREATING YOUR OWN ECONOMY. An Inconvenient Idea for an AI World That Is Changing Faster Than We Are

There is a whole lot of worrying, waiting and wondering going on.

After taking something he rarely takes—a real vacation—Stan Hustad returned to Inconvenient Ideas with five days away from television, computers and the daily digital noise.

The occasion was a significant wedding anniversary, celebrated with his wife, Karen, along the North Carolina coast. It also came after a difficult season marked by loss, uncertainty and reminders that life can change very quickly.

Perhaps that is why a few days away produced something more valuable than rest: perspective.

Stan returned not pretending that the world had suddenly become easier, but recognizing that, despite difficulties, obstacles and a few genuinely frightening possibilities, he was still living in what he calls a POA—a Place of Opportunity.

And then he turned the television and computer back on.

Welcome back to the world of worrying.

Worrying, Waiting, Wondering—and Wishing

Stan noticed four activities consuming an extraordinary amount of human energy:

Worrying. Waiting. Wondering. Wishing.

People worry about their jobs.

They wait to see what happens next.

They wonder what artificial intelligence will do to their profession.

And they wish somebody—or something—would make the uncertainty go away.

But wishing is not a business strategy. Worrying is not a career plan. And waiting for the world to become predictable may require a very long wait.

The more useful question is:

What can you create?

That question becomes especially important when so many people feel they are reacting to life rather than creating it.

Certainly, much of life is outside anyone's control. But there remains an enormous difference between admitting that reality and surrendering one's ability to act.

That distinction may become one of the essential survival skills of the AI age.

What Is Real?

Artificial intelligence introduces another inconvenient question:

What is real?

Stan has encountered videos, music, images and performances that seemed completely authentic—until closer examination raised another possibility.

Perhaps they weren't.

AI is rapidly moving toward a point where ordinary viewers and listeners may have difficulty determining whether something was created by a human being, a machine, or some collaboration between the two.

Stan describes the strange sensation perfectly:

Sometimes something can seem too fake to be real—and too real to be fake.

That changes the questions we may have to ask.

Instead of simply asking, “Is it real?” perhaps increasingly we will also ask:

Is it true?

Is it good?

Is it useful?

Is it helpful?

Is it beautiful?

Does it make life better—or worse?

That is an inconvenient idea indeed.

Even the new Inconvenient Ideas studio provides a playful example. The glowing neon-style sign, the broadcast environment and the visual presentation can now be created with AI assistance.

Is the neon sign “real”?

Well, you're looking at it.

And perhaps the more useful question is whether it helps Stan communicate an idea worth hearing.

Become an Author of Ideas

Stan also makes a personal confession.

He has spent nearly half a century as a broadcaster and communicator. He talks. He teaches. He coaches. He interviews. And perhaps most importantly, he continually comes up with ideas.

But traditional writing has never necessarily been his greatest strength.

AI has helped him recognize a different possibility:

Maybe he is not primarily an author who writes. Maybe he is an Author of Ideas.

That changes the relationship with artificial intelligence.

The human being supplies experience, judgment, imagination, conviction, stories and ideas. AI can help organize, edit, develop and distribute them.

In that arrangement, AI does not necessarily replace the human creator.

It can multiply the creator.

And that may be one of the great opportunities of this technological revolution.

But Beware of Trojan Horses

Every gift is not necessarily good for you.

The ancient Trojans learned that lesson the hard way.

Artificial intelligence may become one of the greatest productivity tools ever created. It may also eliminate jobs, disrupt professions, destroy established business models and make some previously valuable skills considerably less valuable.

Both realities can be true.

The appropriate response, therefore, is neither blind enthusiasm nor paralyzing fear.

It is preparation.

Create Your Own Personal Economy

Here Stan reaches the central challenge of the program.

In an increasingly unpredictable economy, people should learn how to create their own personal economy.

That does not mean everyone must quit a job tomorrow morning and launch a company by lunchtime.

It means learning to think entrepreneurially.

Can you recognize an opportunity?

Can you solve a problem?

Can you create something useful?

Can you communicate its value?

Can you develop relationships?

Can you serve customers?

Can you adapt when technology changes the rules?

And can you create another source of usefulness and income when an old one disappears?

Those questions are becoming important whether someone is 22, 42, 62—or 82.

Everyone Is Also Becoming a Broadcaster

There is another skill Stan believes people increasingly need.

They need to learn how to communicate through modern media.

You may never have a radio program.

You may never call yourself a podcaster.

You may never dream of becoming a YouTube personality.

But we live in a mass-media marketing world. At some point, most professionals, entrepreneurs, leaders and creators will need to become comfortable behind a microphone, in front of a camera, on a screen or communicating through digital media.

That makes broadcasting no longer merely a profession.

It is becoming a life and business skill.

The Four People We May Need to Become

Stan's challenge can be reduced to four roles worth developing in this new world:

Become an Entrepreneur.
Learn to recognize opportunities, create value and build your own personal economy.

Become a Broadcaster.
Learn to communicate clearly, confidently and persuasively through modern media.

Become a Transformer.
Develop the ability to change yourself, your work and perhaps the lives of people around you.

Become an Author of Ideas.
Bring distinctly human experience, imagination, wisdom and judgment to AI tools capable of helping those ideas travel farther and faster.

None of this guarantees an easy future.

There will still be plenty to worry about.

But perhaps there will be considerably less to fear.

THINGS TO REMEMBER

• Worry is information, not instruction. Fear may tell you that something deserves attention. It doesn't necessarily tell you what to do.

• AI is both opportunity and disruption. Refusing to acknowledge either side leaves you unprepared.

• Your ideas still matter. AI can generate words, pictures and possibilities, but human experience, judgment, character and wisdom remain extraordinarily valuable.

• Entrepreneurship is becoming a basic life skill. You don't necessarily need to own a company to learn how to create value.

• Broadcasting is becoming a basic communication skill. The ability to speak effectively through microphones, cameras and digital media will increasingly matter.

• Transformation requires action. Waiting for certainty may simply mean waiting forever.

THINGS TO SHARE

Ask someone you care about:

“If your present job disappeared because of AI, what useful thing could you create, teach, communicate or sell?”

Then ask a second question:

“What could AI help you do that you could not realistically have done five years ago?”

Those two questions may start a far more productive conversation than another hour of worrying about artificial intelligence.

THINGS TO TAKE NOTE OF

Pay attention this week to the places where AI is already changing your life.

Notice what it does extraordinarily well.

Notice where it makes mistakes.

Notice what frightens you.

But especially notice where it gives you new capabilities.

Instead of merely asking, “What will AI do to me?” begin asking:

“What can I now do with AI that I could never do before?”

That is the entrepreneur's question.

THINGS TO DO

Choose one idea you have been postponing.

Write it down—or speak it into your phone.

Use AI to help organize it.

Turn it into something tangible: an article, presentation, proposal, podcast, video, course, business idea or conversation.

Then put it into the world.

Don't merely worry.

Don't merely wait.

Don't merely wonder.

And don't merely wish.

Create.

THE INCONVENIENT CHALLENGE

The AI digital world will undoubtedly produce disruption. Some careers will disappear. Others will change dramatically. New professions will emerge that hardly anyone can describe today.

So the goal cannot be to make the future perfectly safe.

The goal is to become the kind of person who is increasingly capable of meeting it.

Stan Hustad has spent decades as an entrepreneur, broadcaster, communicator and coach. Today he is helping people learn how to become entrepreneurs, world-class broadcasters, transformational thinkers and Authors of Ideas who can work intelligently with artificial intelligence rather than merely worry about what it might do to them.

If the new world has you worrying, waiting, wondering or wishing, perhaps it is time for a different conversation.

Stan's invitation is simple:

Learn to create your own economy.
Learn to communicate your own ideas.
Learn to use the new tools.
Learn to become more useful.
And learn to become less afraid of the future by becoming better prepared for it.

Stan Hustad and What It Takes Radio are available to help.

[e-mail]

Because in the end, the future may belong neither to the people who blindly embrace AI nor to those who desperately resist it.

It may belong to the people who learn how to remain fully human while becoming remarkably good at using it.

And remember:

If an idea is interesting and important, there's a pretty good chance it will also be inconvenient.