Jim Rohn used to talk about the “seed, sunshine, and soil” as a metaphor for personal improvement. No one can guarantee that a plant will grow. All we can do is create the conditions under which plants usually thrive, and let nature take its course.

The same is true for building brands in the digital age:

Anyone who guarantees business results is either a quack or a charlatan. The market, economics, and consumer behavior are far too erratic to work out with any kind of mathematical certainty.

However, Tony Robbins always used to say “success leaves clues.”

Meaning, you know how your local used car dealership does it:

• An intern creates the email blasts

• Jim’s cousin does the social media

• The website is a Webflow template (or AI generated)

• …and so on.

But you also know how unicorns do it: They ruthlessly focus on things that don’t seem to matter in the short term. Things like beautiful logos, world-class websites, apps that are better than what everyone else is doing, and stunning 3D graphics.

Now clearly, having a beautiful brand does not guarantee unicorn status—nothing does.

But it’s also not an accident that breakthrough companies all tend to focus on seemingly unimportant, pretty-looking frivolities that don’t appear to be connected to the bottom line at first glance.

These are the seed, soil, and sunshine today.

These are the conditions under which brands that deserve to succeed will thrive, and they are as important as any spreadsheet or chart.

I love the Three Body Problem book series by Liu Cixin.

Without giving too much away, at a certain point in the series the Trisolarans send a probe out to the human fleet. It looks something like a metallic Prince Rupert’s Drop. A shiny teardrop with no moving parts. A piece of alien art? A gesture of friendship?

At first glance, it’s nothing special.

But then we study it. At 100x magnification, the surface remains completely smooth.

At 1,000x magnification, the surface remains completely smooth.

At 1,000,000x magnification, the surface remains perfectly smooth down to the atomic level.

And so, in an instant, we go from hopeful to terrified.

Why?

This beautiful object is now the smoothest thing in our entire solar system. We recognize that it’s far smoother than our technology could ever dream of creating.

We can see, from a simple, immobile object, that the alien race is far more technologically advanced than us—that we are completely outclassed.

The ultimate flex.

It doesn’t always take struggle and complexity to show superiority. Sometimes the simplest thing, done remarkably well, can speak volumes.

Unfortunately, no.

The vast majority of people will get mediocre results if they try to replace their favorite web applications with ones of their own.

But coding is easy/free/instantaneous!

Yes, that’s true. But there’s a memory problem: Not the memory contained within your computer, the memory contained within that other computer we sometimes use, the one called our brain.

As easy as coding is now, keeping track of a complicated code base, being able to see a project through from start to finish, and having a technical basis to overcome the very overcome-able challenges we face along the way are vital.

In short: Even with all the help in the world, automating your business with AI still takes real work, know-how, and stick-to-it-iveness. God I love that word. And gumption. It also takes gumption.

So who can benefit here?

Anyone with a vaguely technical background. Any generalized computer expert. Any power-user of computers in general with a sharp mind, limitless determination, and a willingness to try and fail can work miracles today.

Miracles.

You might be someone who previously couldn’t harness the awesome power of web applications. But you can now, if you’ve got the right kind of brain and a willingness to learn.

But it is, without a doubt, not for everyone.

What is the top skill every business owner and organization needs in order to thrive in the AI era?

Easy. Communication.

But don’t get me wrong: I don’t just mean communication in the way that thousands of soft-skills communication coaches have been talking about for the last 100 years.

I don’t mean communication in the sense of “you don’t need to learn the hard stuff because soft skills are all that matter.”

What I’m talking about is a very specific kind of entirely new form of communication.

Yes, the ability to think and speak clearly is, was, and always will be a must-have human skill.

But now? It’s not just about convincing other people and getting your message across to humans.

The new skill is about changing the architecture of how we structure arguments inside our brain to be the most effective at getting things done in the world of computers.

While charm, panache, and a way with language are great in the human world, you’re not going to charm your way to better results with AI.

Case in point: I called Claude m’lady and it banned me for 5 hours! Kidding.

In addition to traditional communication skills, one must now have a profound mastery of logical thinking as it relates to solving complex problems. The new skill I’m describing is the ability to express one’s self flawlessly while being able to comprehend how larger problems are broken down into byte-sized chunks. This is the skill that will serve every human well for the foreseeable future.

But to say “great communication is all that matters” is not a free pass to avoid the hard work of learning and engaging with new technologies. It’s not an excuse to learn nothing and pretend that we don’t need to learn anything because we’ve known everything all along.

Rather, this moment is a call to action to learn how to think and communicate in a new way that most humans never have before.

This is the actual tag line on Supabase's website today, one of the leading database providers for AI coders.

This is the dream that they are (successfully) selling. But is it true?

There are two sides to this: Like NFTs, crypto, and meme stocks during COVID, there is no shortage of people looking for a quick, effortless buck.

Right now, it’s safe to assume that everyone can build something in a weekend with AI.

Most people can even build something that looks impressive/halfway decent.

But aside from looking good, it’s unlikely there’s much depth there, let alone enough depth to actually scale to millions. It’s no different than saying “grab our pickaxe, strike it rich from the gold pouring out of these mountains!”

Maybe ONE person will win that lottery, but it’s exceedingly rare.

The truth? Most people are too lazy to get anything meaningful from software, even with AI help.

Most people will code feverishly for a weekend and then drop it like a New Year’s Resolution.

To build something meaningful takes consistency and patience. Two human traits that are always in short supply.