While navigating different channels on social media, whether it's X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and many others, I started recognizing some patterns that are really eye-opening. Too many people are racing to become the next really big successful thing, but my observation is that they all do the same thing.

How can we all achieve big things while doing the same exact thing? Just think about it...

Let's take the digital space as an example.

This includes software devs/builders of apps, digital marketers, e-commerce experts, business consultants, coaches, etc. We tend to attract an audience through advice, informative or educational formats, in an era where the information we are already publishing is one prompt away from our target audience's fingertips.

So, as experts say everywhere, we don't live in a scarcity of information.

For those who use AI as a complementary tool for their business and produce tangible goods, let's say someone selling clothes, gifts, physical products in general, they also use AI the same way we already try to offer it as a service.

Non-builders became builders, non-designers became designers, non-anything became that thing. This concept means that our roles/jobs/skills/unique selling propositions became obsolete? Definitely not.

But the question that we should ask is: How do we adapt in a world that changes by the second? How do we acquire, master, and offer skills as service providers nowadays, in really short periods of time, at a fraction of the price that used to exist, and at the same time convince our prospects that we can do it for them better than others, and maybe better than them?

When you start thinking this way, you'll notice that the differentiator is not a product that is impossible to replicate, nor a really innovative way to create new market offerings, nor your inner thoughts that what you are doing is needed.

The real differentiator is your ability to acquire a new skill that is in demand, that you can productize or offer as a service, and in a very fast way, while securing a payment from the initial stage. Remember that you cannot keep prototyping and building pseudo-projects forever. You have to get paid, and you have to deliver what you promised.

Now, this will take me back to my business degree, which many will say is not important nowadays. AI has made us rush into building and producing various types of content and work-related items without researching what people need first, which means doing a proper Marketing Plan.

Remember that those marketing plans are not some random AI-generated titles and blocks of text to feed the ego. It's a deep understanding of industries, sectors, market sizes and their trends, changes in behavior, statistical analysis, demographics, geographies, and many, many other components.

The research phase that used to take weeks or even months now could be done in record time, BUT without the right foundations, AI research will turn into a nightmare when you go to market with your half-baked solution.

You make sure you have the management process very clear for the tiniest endeavors you have:

You Plan - Organize - Lead and Implement - then Control, whether you want it or not. That's for successful entrepreneurs, so the rules haven't changed.

You do risk management, like spotting the risks associated with your work, creating a risk register, and classifying and categorizing them based on their probability of happening and their potential impact on your business. This will save you lots of problems in the future, from loss of sales to operational disruptions or even total failure and shutdown of your business, plus reputation damage that could be near impossible to fix sometimes.

You do financial forecasts, sales planning, breakeven analysis, you calculate your product/service direct and indirect costs, contribution margins, and many other accounting and financial-related studies. The goal is to have a plan, quantified, well communicated with your stakeholders, and achievable given the marketing plan, operational plan, and different other components of your business.

All of this is to go back to the Strategic Management that we always hear about. It's a science and art for sure. With AI, we completely skipped the science part, which is the foundation, and jumped to create stuff for people who don't care, at a price point they cannot afford, and call ourselves some sort of creator/builder/founder/entrepreneur, etc.

My final thoughts, so I can keep everything intact for you, are to plan realistically given your own resources and circumstances. A plan is good right after you've done some scanning (research) of what is happening. An implementation or execution roadmap will help you put your work and your feet on the ground, and finally, the metrics that measure what you've done, like KPIs or targets, etc. These will definitely hold you accountable for your personal projects or for a bigger-scale endeavor.