What is success? It seems like a simple question. Yet when you take a step back, you soon realize how layered the answer is—and in today’s ever-evolving world, a new question bundles its way forward, one that considers how we’re redefining success with AI.

Will the idea of success remain the same in an AI-driven world?

Will personal success look the same? How about professional/business success?

And how will all this impact you?

Maybe you’re not worried. Maybe you are one of the ones excited about AI and its exponential potential. That’s good. This new world we’re about to step into is one we need to embrace.

BUT… and this is one of those important buts… this will impact you in more ways than you think because everything you thought you knew about “success” is set to change.

redefining success with AI

There are two parts to this article.

The first looks at redefining success with AI, taking into account how it will literally impact the way we measure results, progress, and the pursuit of success.

This first part of the article is important.

But the second part is arguably more so…

Because during that section we look at success in more holistic terms.

How society sees it (and defines it) … and how you do (on a personal level).

Getting clear on this bigger picture won’t only help you better navigate this new AI frontier, but generally live your life in a more wholesome, pressure-free, and meaningful way.

But that comes later… first, we have a light to shine on those oh-so-clever robots.

They’re changing how we live life, and sh*t is set to get really real, real fast.

6 ways we’re redefining success with AI

I’m part of a weird generation that knows life before and after the influx of connected technology.

As a kid, I actually went outside and touched grass.

Yet I’ve also spent most of my life reliant (and partially addicted) to technology.

I didn’t get my first mobile phone until I was seventeen years old. Yet here I am in my late thirties, struggling to survive more than a few hours without it.

A lot has happened in the last two decades, and we millennials have a somewhat unique perspective—like that weird person in those post-apocalyptic movies that remembers what it was like before the “event” but isn’t old and dusty and kept alive by machines.

Does this mean we’re better equipped to adjust to the AI revolution? Hell no.

I’m as blissfully blind as the next person.

But I have developed an awareness (indeed, an appreciation) that we’ve been here before and this isn’t exactly new news. AI and automation have played a fundamental role in our daily lives for a long time now. Sure, it started small… but it picked up steam long ago.

• Sat navs
• Search engines
• Social media newsfeeds
• Predictive text

• to name just a few…

This isn’t new. Yet at the same time, what’s to come will feel new.

How we perceive, measure, and attain success is set to enter completely new realms.

This is both exciting and terrifying, although such feelings don’t matter so much as preparing yourself to take advantage so you don’t get taken advantage of.

1: quantity no longer matters

I was brought up to have a good work ethic.

To work hard. To study and put in the hours. To take pride in what I do.

Indeed, such qualities still matter and are still valuable. Just not as much.

Why? Because you cannot outwork a piece of code that doesn’t eat or sleep.

For many, many years a person’s job centered around the hours they put in. You got paid to turn up at 9 am and stay there until 5 pm. If you wanted to climb the ladder, you hustled hard.

If you wanted more money, you negotiated an increase in your hourly wage.

But will any of this matter in a few years?

For many jobs, no.

Success, productivity, and results won’t be determined by the number of hours you put in or how hard you work. Work ethic will remain important, but the way it’s applied will differ.

2: your logic is lacking

Similar to above, the value of logical thinking will diminish because it doesn’t matter how rational you are, you are a human being with feelings and can’t possibly outthink a robot.

If you can, well, you may need to stop a second and ask yourself…

Having logic will still matter. But again it comes down to how you use it.

Because every business in every industry will no longer rely on a person like you to critically think and come up with a logical solution. It has a better, more effective tool these days.

So how you stay relevant, and how you provide value… that needs to evolve.

3: your impact really matters

For a long time now, there have been rich and powerful people who needed other, less powerful, aware, ambitious, and privileged people to do work for them.

In short, bosses needed someone to boss.

Will that remain the case in five… ten… fifteen years?

Yes, to an extent. Yet they can likely have some form of artificial intelligence to DO the work.

This means you can no longer settle for *just* doing a job. The value of clocking in and out won’t be nearly as valuable. You have to have an impact. You have to bring something to the table that a piece of tech can’t.

This and this alone is set to redefine how we see success.

4: perfection is pointless

We all know that special someone who has incredible attention to detail.

They see a spelling mistake from three streets over.

They can spot a wayward fact before it leaves your lips.

They see what most mere mortals can not.

Yet once again… these people are still people.

And that means their attention to detail will become somewhat redundant in a world that relies more and more on AI to spot and fix errors before they even appear.

5: innovation trumps all

So far, grim reading… right?

But is it all doom and gloom?

Maybe. I mean, if you’ve ever seen any film with any sort of advanced AI, we humans tend to get “canceled”.

Yet for now, at least, I sense there’s much to remain excited about because we still bring something beautiful to the table—and part of that centers around innovation and creativity.

Sure, AI can do much of this. But does that mean we want AI to do everything? For the foreseeable, I sense not; I sense we will still value ingenuity, creativity, innovation, and a touch that only a human made of meat and bones can offer.

(if for anything else that it just feels somewhat normal)

This is good news for you and me, so long as we’re able to bring fresh ideas to the table. Our success may center less around what we can do, and instead on what we can dream & incept.

6: hello empathy

Following on from the last point—and it is this that gives me hope when it comes to the human race—empathy is set to play a huge role in our future.

In time, maybe this too will become irrelevant.

For now, it’s all we have that those dreaded robots cannot claim.

To be human is to have a conscious. We feel. Not just for ourselves, but for others.

Empathy can drive us forward like no other feeling or emotion can. It humbles us. It inspires us. It causes us to come together and work with each other, even during times when we feel apart.

This gives me the fuzzy feeling they often talk about it Rom Coms featuring Kate Hudson

Because maybe just maybe, the new AI frontier will lead us humans to value one another more and place a greater meaning on the very nature of what is and is not “success”.

This, my friend, transitions us from the first part of this article into the second…

AI be damned, what actually is success?

Chances are, you’ve built a large part of your life around a notion of success that was placed upon you by others—your parents, teachers, the media, and society at large.

Do the work. Work even harder. Fall in line and comply. Climb the ladder!

If you do, you’ll get money. You can have the car. The house. Status!

Maybe this means something to you. Then again, maybe not.

In fact, the likelihood is that none of this is exactly what you crave.

Yet you pursue it anyway because you haven’t been taught to question.

Quite the opposite, in fact… you were taught to not think or question this!

But if you do take a step back and “think” about what matters to YOU, what comes to mind? At first, this exercise is tough because we’re immediately met with boilerplate answers.

money. cars. status. power. clothes. etc.

Yet if you sit on this for a while and strip one layer away after another, you begin to see what actually does matter to you. It isn’t to say all that other stuff doesn’t… it just does not have the same meaning or importance.

And this is something that AI may be able to help us with.

Because if our jobs in the future revolve less around doing, it opens us up to have more time to think about what actually matters to us—as well as then pursue it in a meaningful way.

Success will focus less on climbing the ladder because there will be no ladder to climb.

at least, not in the same way.

The good news is you don’t have to wait for this to happen. Today, you can choose to draw a line in the sand and start a new path — a path that takes you toward your version of success.

What this is… well, that’s the point. I do not know. Chances are, neither do you.

But it’s in there. Maybe deep below the surface, but it is there awaiting you to discover it.

So take the opportunity to take this opportunity!

Over the next day or so, reserve some time to think about what success looks like.

To You!!

Go for a walk. Open your journal. Write or talk or record yourself. Whatever helps you tap into that inner voice, follow it and see where it takes you.

To help get you started… think about the version you’re currently pursuing.

Have an honest look at your life and the path you are on; and then, question it.

• Is it what you want?
• When did you first want this?
• Where did the desire for this come from?

You’ll likely go down a surprising path. Follow it. Strip those layers away.

Doing so may just give you a head start during this period where redefining success with AI is set to become a hot topic.

hi, i’m turndog and I wrote this article … i am a writer, ghostwriter, anti-hustler & a guy on a mission to ensure you too escape the hustle — come be part of the [no hustle] movement