Give People the Tool. After Two Weeks, They Won’t Give It Back.

Last updated: 2026-09-04

Today’s AI skeptics look a lot like the people who scoffed at the early internet.

Plenty of leaders talked as if the old tools were enough. Meanwhile they were already approving laptops and mobile devices. The talk was one thing. The behavior was another.

The lesson from that era is the one I keep repeating: give people the tool and let them try it. After two weeks, a lot of them will refuse to give it back.

Are you still arguing about AI in the abstract? Or have you actually put it in someone’s hands?

Start with one workflow, not a transformation

No leader can afford to ignore AI. That part is not up for debate. The smart move is also not to sit around waiting for a perfect all-in-one solution.

Start with a sprint. Automate or improve one defined workflow. Test it. Learn from it. Then build from there.

Early places to look: legal drafting, customer communication, email responses, writing, and back-office work. Pick one. Make it small enough that you can actually finish the test.

I know the temptation. You want the whole company “on AI” by next quarter. That’s how you end up with a pile of tools, no change in the work, and a team that’s more skeptical than when you started.

Give people one tool on one job. Two weeks. See who hands it back.

The market looks empty until you change the lens

There’s an old story about two people sent to assess a market where everyone was barefoot.

One comes back and says, “There is no market here.” The other says, “The market is endless. Send as many shoes as possible.”

Same street. Same facts. Completely different report.

Uncertainty does that. Economic disruption does that. Rapid change does that. Depending on the lens you bring, the same situation looks like a threat or an opening.

A useful framing of luck: luck is when opportunity meets preparation.

So the question is not “is this moment risky?” Of course it is. The better question: where are you only seeing risk, and what would preparation actually reveal?

If you have no preparation, every new tool, every new market, every new invitation looks like noise. If you do, the same noise starts to look like inventory.

Going broad too early is a disaster

Here’s a hot take I agree with: going broad too early can be a disaster.

Early-stage companies need to break through in one thing first. Build a strong profile. Become clearly known for something. Once that works, then you broaden.

An undefined profile makes it harder to win customers, raise capital, and explain why the company matters. That applies to a company two to five years from going public. It also applies to a team, and to you as a solo professional.

What are you known for, in one sentence, without squinting?

If you can’t answer that, more partnerships will not help. More features will not help. More “we’re also exploring this” will not help. Focus until the profile is obvious. Then expand.

If you know your true north, saying no gets easier

Fast-growing businesses often drown in speaking invitations, partnerships, acquisitions, and shiny side doors. You can feel busy and still be lost.

The filter is straightforward. Once you know your true north, it gets easier to say no. Evaluate the opportunity against a few questions:

Does this help create more value for the customer?

If the answer is fuzzy, it’s a no. “It might be good for brand” is not the same as value.

Does this improve the customer’s top line or bottom line?

Revenue up, cost down, or both. If you can’t point to one, you’re collecting activity.

Does this move the company closer to its core mission?

Without that clarity, growth creates distraction instead of momentum. You get bigger, louder, and harder to steer.

Write those three questions somewhere you will actually see them. Next time a shiny thing shows up, run it through the filter before you feel polite.

Energy is a system, not a mood

Performance breaks into body, mind, and soul. You can gain or lose energy in each layer. Most people underinvest in the mental, emotional, and spiritual ones and then wonder why a full night of sleep didn’t fix the week.

Physical energy covers sleep, breathing, hydration, and movement. The basics. Skip them and every other layer has to compensate.

Mental energy is focus and compartmentalization. Can you do one thing without dragging the last meeting into this one?

Emotional energy starts with a hard idea: we create our own emotional responses. That does not mean the situation is fake. It means the reaction is yours to work with.

Spiritual energy comes from purpose, values, and the belief systems that replenish you and point your effort. When that layer is empty, even a “good” opportunity feels heavy.

Do a weekly check. Where did you gain energy this week, and in which layer? Where did you leak it? You don’t need a new personality. You need an honest scoreboard.

Recover in under a minute

Old-school discipline says plow through. A different habit shows up in sports and special forces: trained recovery.

Micro-recovery can take less than a minute.

Step out for a short walk and leave your phone behind. Use a breathing exercise during a meeting, eyes open, so nobody has to pause the agenda for you. Build a reset ritual the way elite tennis players do between serves.

The goal is small, practiced resets that lower stress and restore focus quickly. You do not need a one-hour break for every hour of work. You need a move you can run between meetings, on demand, without negotiating with your calendar.

Practice it when the stakes are low, so it is available when they are not.

Do this today

Don’t try to overhaul your strategy, your energy, and your AI stack in the same afternoon.

Pick one defined workflow. Legal drafting, customer communication, email, writing, or back-office. Put the tool in your hands, or in one teammate’s hands, and run it for two weeks.

Then notice who refuses to give it back.