Behind The Story Show
Welcome to Behind The Story (BTS) Podcast: Exploring the deeper journeys of entrepreneurs, athletes, artists, creators, and leaders, Behind the Story is a weekly deep dive into the minds of extraordinary people. Each episode uncovers the strategies, innovations, and personal experiences that drive success-revealing the lessons, creativity, and resilience that shape their impact and inspire growth.
We invite you to join us as a featured guest as we explore and tell compelling stories, one conversation at a time.
Behind The Story Show
Daniel Burrus on Human-First AI, Hard Trends, and How to Predict What’s Coming Next
•
Jelani Gonzalez
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
What if the future is more predictable than most people think?
On this episode of Behind the Story, I sit down with world-renowned futurist Daniel Burrus to talk about how leaders, professionals, and everyday people can stop reacting to change and start anticipating it.
We get into Daniel’s powerful framework of Hard Trends vs. Soft Trends, why certainty matters more than ever in a world flooded with uncertainty, and how to spot opportunity before everyone else does.
We also dive deep into AI and the future of work including why Daniel believes AI should augment humans, not replace them, what skills will matter most in the years ahead, and why trust, communication, collaboration, and human judgment are becoming even more valuable.
This conversation also explores autonomous vehicles, aging-tech innovation, lifelong learning, and the mindset shift people need to stay relevant in a rapidly changing world.
If you’ve been wondering how to think bigger, move earlier, and use AI without losing your human edge, this is the episode for you.
#BehindTheStory #DanielBurrus #FutureOfWork #ArtificialIntelligence #HumanFirstAI #Leadership #Innovation #CareerGrowth
speaker-0: Remember I mentioned a few minutes ago the undiscovered self? All right, for all of you listening, I don't want you to go undiscovered. I would like you all to discover what's really inside and to do that, you can't just say, yeah, I'm going to do that. No, no, no, I ain't going to work. You need something to make that happen. So I'm going to give you a suggestion. I know most of you won't do this, but some of you might make a commitment to learn one new thing a year and over time.
speaker-1: Yes.
speaker-0: Holy cow, it adds up. It becomes a force multiplier. It's unbelievably powerful.
speaker-1: Welcome to another edition of Behind the Story. Today I'm joined by Daniel Burris, one of the world's leading futurists and strategist known for helping leaders anticipate disruption before it happens. We're going to talk about how to think ahead, how to adapt faster and make smarter decisions in a world that's changing by the minute. So let's get into it. Daniel, welcome. Hey.
speaker-0: you Thank you so much for having me on. Really appreciate it.
speaker-1: My pleasure. I want to start off with the word futurist because I saw that in your LinkedIn. saw that posted in lots of other documents posted about you online. How would you describe that when I hear futurist? What should I be thinking?
speaker-0: First of all, let's all realize we're going to spend the rest of our lives in the future. But it's amazing how little of us think about it and plan for it. And with so much uncertainty and so many things that you can't predict, it almost seems like a waste of time. What I like to do is flip that and realize actually it's one of the most important things you can do other than enjoying the moment that you're in. And in another little angle on that, anyone is a futurist that makes a prediction. But if you want to be a professional futurist that actually gets paid, you have to have some accuracy in your predictions, which I've had over many decades.
speaker-1: Okay, let's start there. What are some of your predictions that have come to pass?
speaker-0: It's to have been hundreds, but I ⁓ came up with a list of the 20 technologies that would shape the future back, get this over 40 years ago, that included AI, fiber optics, genetic engineering, photovoltaics, and you the list became the list. All right. And then from that, I talked about how that would create a digital transformation over time. If you go back and not quite that far. to one of my books back in 93 called Technotrends. There was a little section called Blockbuster is Busted. And if you read underneath it, you'd get a perfect description of Netflix back in 1993. Also, I talked about the phone being a wireless computer. By the way, we ended up calling that the iPhone. And I've got hundreds of those kinds of examples because I've written seven bestselling books and I've written thousands of articles. So I put a lot out there, but the key here though, I don't want to be the only person that can do this. Hey, was I know I'm on the planet. All right. I'm lucky. I don't have a career. have a calling. I am on the planet to teach, not to tell. So instead of just telling you some trends and saying, keep an eye on these things. I really like to empower people with something that they can use. to help them to turn on the bright lights when they're looking down that night road into the future.
speaker-1: So you talk about teaching, not telling, and talking about your career. Before you got there, take me back to early Daniel, university days. Let's go as far back as university days. What was the transition from university into the workforce before you were, quote unquote, a futurist? In your mind, what was that first, those early career moments like?
speaker-0: Well, there was a couple of things that were really important during those university times. And that is I stopped thinking like a student because I knew that even though I was getting a degrees in biology, physics, and I was a good student, I also put myself through college playing lead guitar in a rock band. And we were popular and there were a lot of groupies and I knew I may not have a four point straight A grades. So I'd have good grades, but they wouldn't be perfect. So I took myself out to the future. See, I was already doing this at graduation, getting a bachelor's to start with and thinking, how am I going to be beyond anybody else, regardless of grades? But what I started doing, and this is like a major shift here that I'm helping people think about, I decided, like all students, undergraduates, they all have ideas on how everything can be better. But we're students, we're busy, we've got to get our grades. I did something different. I asked one of the professors, if you've got a good idea to do something, how do you get money? And he said, ⁓ we apply for a grant. And I said, how do do that? And he said, there's a form we have to fill out. And I said, let me see the form. I filled it out with my idea. I went to the head of the university, the chancellor, and I walked in and again, these are back in time. So I had long hair. Remember I was a guitar player. I go in there and I say, I'm applying for a federal research grant. By the way, no undergraduate had ever gotten a federal research grant in the United States. I'm applying for a federal research grant. I put it in front of him while he was looking at it. I told him what it was. And then I said, if I get the grant, will you give me an office in the library, furniture, and a secretary? And he knew that was impossible. So he looked up at me like this and he said, young man, yeah, sure. And I said, thank you. Then what I did is I went to the heads of all the other departments, like the head of the A.B. department, and I said the same thing except I added at the end. And by the way, if I get the grant, the chancellor is giving me an office in the library, a secretary in furniture, what are you giving me? And he said, ⁓ well, how about video tape equipment and all this stuff? And I said, good, thank you. So I went to all the different places, put it all in the grant, sent it to Washington, D.C., and they said, look at the support, give the kids the money. So as an undergraduate, I had an office of secretary bigger than my professors. had my professors applying to work in my grant and it was really a turnaround time. So that's one of many things I did as an undergraduate that was a little bit different.
speaker-1: And then once ⁓ post-graduation, what was actually your first job out of curiosity?
speaker-0: Yeah, well, this ties into that. originally wanted to teach teachers how to teach science because I thought that science is going to be increasingly important in time. And most teachers do a bad job at it. They don't know how to get students excited, motivated, and they were teaching science instead of turning students into scientists. So what I decided to do was instead of go through, cause they were telling me, just go through, get your PhD. Your research grant already could do that. But I always liked to go, this is a number of thing I want to teach here. Go for the ideal. So I asked myself, what's the ideal teacher of teachers? And it wasn't somebody who got ⁓ a PhD. It was somebody who had experience and got a PhD. So I decided while I was getting my degree, I would teach, not just in one level.
speaker-1: speak.
speaker-0: in a variety of levels, which by the way I did. And my first assignment, I could have been anywhere because I had done what I had done. I had already become a published author before graduating. So I had my pick. What did I pick? An inner city junior high school. I picked the worst possible place. By the way, why did I do that? If I picked the best place with everybody had parents, everybody had money. I could help the students that much. But if I picked the worst place, I could help the students that much. So I did that. I got educator of the year, did a lot of cool things, kept doing that for a while. But then I had an idea for an airplane design. So one summer I didn't work. decided, cause I was a teacher, I built the plane test fluid and I ended up with 37 national locations in the first year. turned out it literally took off. So I left teaching. I had this aviation business that was really growing fast. I had an idea for another company, another company within two years, I had four different companies, all very disruptive doing things that had never been done before. All successful, all profitable in the first year. However, I missed teaching. I missed teaching. So I took myself out into the future. Once again, I always do that. And I took myself out to being a hundred years old. And I asked myself, if this is what I did for the professional part of my life, am I happy? The answer was no. So I sold those companies and I didn't want to go back to teaching because that's another thing. You can never go back. can only go forward. I, I, I ride a Harley Davidson motorcycle. And one of the things I love about it is it does not have a reverse. You can't go back. can only go forward. So I didn't want to go back. So I did another thing that is a principle I want to teach to all of you. It's super powerful. And that is take your biggest problems and skip them. We can talk more about that later, but let me give you how I applied it. Okay. I didn't like the limitation of the classroom because I had a lot of good things to teach. I decided to make the classroom planet earth. And my books have been translated into over 30 languages. I've given speeches in over 51 countries. Obviously that's happened. I didn't like the politics of a university or a school system. So I decided I'm not going to work for one. I skipped that. I'm going to work for me. So I skipped all the things I didn't like so that I could move forward faster. And so that's when I started my research company. I researched all the innovations and science and technology. found all these new things, developed a methodology for teaching people how to predict the future accurately. And I started giving speeches and consulting and writing books and articles. And that was long ago now. And it's been an amazing ride.
speaker-1: But before we talk about the future, still want to, out of curiosity about the past, because you mentioned you had already been published while you were an undergrad. That the first book or was that?
speaker-0: Let me tell you how bad. Interesting stuff. Again, the key is stop thinking like a student. Stop thinking like a student. By the way, how does this apply to all of you adults out there? Stop thinking like whatever your job title is. It's self-limiting. You're limiting yourself. You think you know what you are. You are so much more. You just can't tap into it unless you discover the inner self. Yeah. Right. I call it the hidden self. What's hidden inside you, by the way, I'm going to suggest a lot, but we can come back on that later as well. So how did I get published? Well, I'm writing these assignments, these papers for teachers, right? They give you an assignment, you got to write it. And I thought, why don't I could take control of the assignment? Well, I went up to the professors and I said, I know what you're trying to teach me. I'm going to give myself more work and do this instead of what you asked me to do. It's going to teach me what you want me to learn, but it'll take more. And what it'll do is give me something that I can submit and publish. It was hard for them to say no, because here's a student stepping up to the plate, right? And I did that and I started submitting those, getting them published in professional publications. So they were articles I was getting published, not books.
speaker-1: Got it. Reflecting back then to not teach thinking like a student and not thinking like the traditional teachers, was there a moment when it hit you that you realized you can see things differently to say your peers or the teachers? Or was that just a, was it a process or was there one like the big bang moment where it just hit you and you knew you could look at things differently?
speaker-0: Well, there was a profound big bang moment a little later that I will share with you because you brought up the subject, but I went to one of those high school reunions that as you get older, they have them about every 10 years, right? And I hadn't gone to them for a long time, but I had a chance where I could go. And I thought, Hey, let me go and see if I can talk with some of the people I knew back, way back when I was in high school, long ago. What did they say?
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: Yeah, you're talking about the future all the time. I was shocked. I didn't remember that. So maybe I'm kind of wired that way. Maybe that's just because I have been way before starting my companies, way before any of that. I've always, when I saw a new innovation in any kind of technology, I was always interested, not in the present of it, but in the future impact of it. You could do with it.
speaker-1: Right.
speaker-0: Let me give you a quick example. There was an innovation that I reported about a couple of years ago, and it's a special type of paint that it absorbs energy during the day from the sun and it glows the color of the paint at night. Now, most people would say to that, yeah, cool. And then they go get busy. But when I see something like that, I start thinking, hmm, for example, in India, there's tens of thousands, not millions of people driving little mopeds around at night with a crummy little light on the front. And they often have their family on the back of that little thing. of accidents, a lot of people die. What if they all glow? Would there be less people getting hurt? And I see that's where my mind goes. I start thinking about how do we use these innovations to create a better world for others? So I just kind of go that route.
speaker-1: The key thing from that, what I take from that, something one of my teachers that I really adored told me was it's the questions that you're asking yourselves internally. Like somebody, other people are looking at these things, they're not asking themselves that question, but you're asking yourself a question to get a solution and it's just there for you. And I do understand that whole thing about you saying something and not remembering it because, and I think that has to do with it being a part of who you are, because I've had that happen to me. Like I had somebody say to me recently, you said you were always going to do that. I said, I did? I don't remember that. It has become such a part of you that we don't remember, but obviously other people are listening. But get back to the Big Bang moment.
speaker-0: Let me give you one that was, there's a couple of them, but let me give you one that where I was really young that shaped something that I'd love everyone to consider. That's watching this today. When I was really young, elementary school, little kid, I was down in ⁓ Texas, visiting some relatives and I had a great grandfather that was turning a hundred. He was very feeble, very old, close to death. I don't remember even talking with him. I can see him in my mind's eye right now, but here's what I thought when I was a kid. I thought.
speaker-1: Okay.
speaker-0: Cause I knew he was close to dying. I wondered, did he discover everything that was inside of himself? And I thought to myself, doubt it. And then I asked my, that question of, thought about dad, about mom, about uncles, about aunts. And my answer to myself was, I don't think so. But I would like to discover what's in me. Let's face it. You could be the world's best flute player, but you would never know if you never picked it up. So I made a commitment to myself to. Learn one new thing every single year. I figured one is doable, two is not. One year I learned how to scuba dive. One year I learned how to do fancy dives off a diving board. One year there was an open mic on Thursday nights at a comedy club way before I ever started speaking. And I knew I could get my buddies to laugh. Could I get strangers to laugh? So I went there every Thursday doing that. I learned how to sail. I learned how to fly. I learned how to make an airplane. I learned how to make a motorcycle. I learned how to do art. learned how to make films. Well, many, many, many, many decades ago, every year I'm learning something new. Well, I play a dozen musical instruments. I've been a feature artist at a bunch of universities. Who would have known? I wouldn't have known. So here's what I'm getting at. Remember I mentioned a few minutes ago, the undiscovered self? All right. For all of you listening, I don't want you to go undiscovered.
speaker-1: Yes.
speaker-0: I would like you all to discover what's really inside and to do that, you can't just say, yeah, I'm going to do that. No, no, no, I ain't going to work. You need something to make that happen. So I'm going to give you a suggestion. know most of you won't do this, but some of you might make a commitment to learn one new thing a year. And over time, holy cow, it adds up. It becomes a force multiplier. It's unbelievably powerful.
speaker-1: Let me, before we go on, let me amplify that by saying this. Before we started recording, you mentioned off camera that we have a bunch of things in common. That's something else we have in common because I have this thing where I make a commitment in my job to learn one new thing a month. You said a year, but I know you're talking about a huge project, like building a motorcycle or whatnot. But I've used that for a long time where it's like, it's how I said to myself mentally, I'm not going to be the same person that was hired. six months later, you know, I'm not going to be the same person mentally that you spoke with six months later. I would have accomplished so many things, at least four things a month, one new thing a week. What's one thing I can learn that will help me in my career? So I've attributed that and I want to amplify that so people can really understand the power of that. Whatever your chosen vocation, if you just do learn one new thing, it doesn't matter how big or how small, some things will take longer. Doesn't matter, but one new thing. Think about your personal growth beyond just the experience of being in the job. So I want to amplify that, that what you just said, it's so incredibly important.
speaker-0: Well, let me get throughout one more related subject. All right. That's another one on a personal end. Again, we haven't even talked about the future, but we are talking about the future, aren't About actively shaping the future for ourselves. So here's another thing. I'm really excited about getting older. Now, a lot of people would say at some point when you're really young, of course you want to get older, but at some point as you get to a certain age, you're not so excited about it. And I am because here's why. There's a lot of things as you get older.
speaker-1: Yes, we are.
speaker-0: You can't do because of your body or whatever when you're compared to when you were young. You know, look at athletes when they're 60 is not like when they were 20. You see what I'm talking about. So, so what I do is I've got a list of things I can get better at and I'm working it. For example, I can be a better brother. I can be a better husband. I can be a better author. I can be a better speaker. Well, look, I got a list. And by the way, it's not just a list that's over here static. I'm working it, measuring it, making sure I'm getting better every year. In other words, man, I'm going to be really pretty cool by the time I'm 100. I mean, I'm working it. So I might actually have my act together, you know? So look, work at getting better every year on the things you can get better at. And how can you not get excited about the future and getting older?
speaker-1: Another thing we have in common, one of my favorite authors is Dr. Maxwell Maltz. He was a plastic surgeon that wrote Psycho-Cybernetics as one of my favorite books of all time. And in that book, he talks about being a professional human being. That's sort of what you just described, being a professional human being, know, human being, a brother, you know, sister, father, friend, whatever, all those things, being better, those things, being a professional human being. So another thing that's related that I completely understand. Let's get... get into some of the things about your work. One of your ideas is you talk about hard trends versus soft trends. Break that down for somebody like me, just an average person going about my business.
speaker-0: Absolutely. We live in the most uncertain times we probably ever had globally. There's so much uncertainty. And most people would say, and this includes Fortune 2, CEOs even, that the only thing you can be certain about is death and taxes. And I would say, no, in this hemisphere, we just entered spring. Next will be summer. I'll be right. Matter of fact, there are over 300 known cycles, business cycles, weather cycles, biological cycles. There's even sales cycles. By the way, if there's a sales cycle, I like to have the sale completed before the cycle begins. My point is you can use cycles to your advantage, but what I talk about is, because I think we all have that down, the other kind of change that's predictable, that gives you a certainty in an uncertain world. These are permanent, tend to be exponentially driven changes. And why I separate these trends. because most people don't look at trends because some work and some don't. Into one of two columns, all trends fit into one of two columns. So either a hard trend based on a future fact that will happen. And by the way, the litmus test is it can't be changed. Let me give you a quick example. Let's take the United States. There are 10,000 people every day turning 70 years old in the United States every day. 10,000. By the way, are they going to get chronologically younger? no, our trend, they're going to get older. We know that as a fact. By the way, we could predict a lot of problems and pre-solve them, or we can let them happen. We could predict a lot of opportunities because that's a lot of people, or we just pass on those. So in other words, I gave you a demographic example. Let me give you a technology one. We went from 3G wireless to 4G wireless. Most of us have 5G wireless. Is that it?
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: Hard trend, we're going to have 6G followed by 7G. And if you don't like AI, can you just turn it off? No, it'll get more powerful over time. So hard trends give you certainty in an uncertain world. And when you have certainty, you have the confidence to make a bold move. When you're uncertain, well, if it's a sale you're trying to make and it's uncertain, the person will say, I'll get back to you. But if you're certain, you'll write the big check. So certainty gives you the power to make a bold move. So it also lets you see these hard trends disruptions before they disrupt. So disruption becomes a choice because today you're either going to be the disruptor or the disrupted because of the rapid pace of change, technological change. There is no middle. I'd like you to have a choice. You're either going to be more, more relevant or less relevant. Well, I would like you to have a choice because there is no middle. So hard trends gives you something solid. can give you some more examples later, but let me tell you about the other kind. Soft trend. Those are based on assumptions that may or may not happen. Now I didn't say they won't happen, but there's a big difference between may and for sure will. Especially when you're innovating, especially when you're planning your future. So what do I love about a soft trend? If you don't like it, it can be, you can change it. What do I love about a hard trend? I can see the future before it happens. I can see problems before I have them so I can pre-solve them. So by dividing trends into those two columns, it's very powerful, but you need one other little element. And that is a trend by itself is academic. So what? That's why most people don't bother. Unless you attach an opportunity to it. The minute you attach an opportunity, a personal opportunity or a business opportunity to a trend, it bursts into actionable life. Let me give you an example. Let's go back to the demographic hard trend of United States baby boomers and the big growth of them. Okay. There are a lot of people that love to, you mentioned before the show, you love to go rowing. You like to go out in the islands. You love to go out in the boat. All right. A lot of people love to go boating. They love to go fishing, but when they get in their mid eighties and nineties, it gets kind of hard to launch the boat. So what if you and I designed the easy launch trailer for seniors and we did a really good job of When we have a growing market, let's just take the United States. Well, yeah, 10,000 a day turning 70.
speaker-1: based on predicting the future.
speaker-0: Not only that, you could take those numbers to the bank because they're solid future facts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. These are based on future facts. By the way, would I know which countries to export to and which countries to not export to? Yeah, I know the aging populations and I know the young populations. I know exactly where to go. Low risk. Let me give you another quick one on that same demographic example, although we could pick Gen Z, Gen Y. Let's stay with this one just to save time. All right.
speaker-1: on projections.
speaker-0: As people get older, and by the way, one other quick question for all of you. Raise your hand right now, mentally, if you want to. If you think, we're not going to see one of those easy launch trailers for boats, for seniors. We're not going to see that. You probably didn't put your hand up. Why? Because if it can be done, it will be done. If you don't do it, someone else will. The opportunity is too big. All right. So here's another one. A lot of people when they get in their 80s or 90s, they fall and they break a hip. Or, and it's painful, it can be deadly by the way, and they may never be the same.
speaker-1: and it increases their mortality after they've got hip replacement.
speaker-0: It happens all over the world. By the way, why does that happen? Well, their fine muscles in their legs and ankles have gotten weak because they sit around too much and they're not athletic like we were when we were young. Their muscles are different. That's why if you're 20 and you stumbled, you will not fall. If you're 80 and you stumbled, boom, you're down. All right. Did you know there's something called an exoskeleton? An exoskeleton is a nurses have been using it in Japan. ⁓ 90 pound nurse can actually lift by herself a 200 pound patient put them in the bed and they're getting smaller and lighter by the way will they continue to get smaller and lighter yes hard trend will the batteries get more powerful yes hard trend see now you're getting the idea we know that is a fact future fact so um why don't we this doesn't exist today why don't we get a exoskeleton for the ankles up to the knees. Matter of fact, why don't we go up to the hips for 80 and 90 year olds so they can have the mobility of a 20 year old. They can go up and down steps, no problem. They don't fall because they have the same kind of strength. That does not exist today. By the way, raise your hand if you think we're not going to see one of those. And I know you didn't put your hand up. By the way, that, I just gave you a billion dollar idea.
speaker-1: was just thinking that you've given a brilliant example of what it means to be a futurist with just that entire segment.
speaker-0: Right, right. Exactly. When I was writing my last book was called the Anticipatory Organization. By the way, there's a reason I did not call it the Reactionary Organization. We've got that down. And the one before that was called Flash Foresight. There's a reason I did not call it Flash Hindsight. I think we got that down. But when I was writing Flash Foresight, back when we had a 2008, 2009, there was a big downturn in all markets. Remember? homes are going into foreclosure everywhere. The the Apple iPhone was still new and there were no good business apps on the iPhone. All the apps were like 99 cents. Make it look like a beer when you do like this. It looks like you're drinking. And so I used the book as I was writing it. I thought, why don't I apply the principles of the book while I'm writing it to starting a business with two rules. I'll not hire anyone and I won't spend any money and see what happens. All right.
speaker-1: Thanks.
speaker-0: By the way, less than a year to get 1.8 million in recurring revenue per month. But I'll tell you what I did. All right. By the way, it wasn't like I had a lot of free time. I gave a hundred speeches that year all over the world. I was writing a book. wasn't like I had free time. See, we all think I don't have free time. You need free time or do you need planned time? Right. You won't just find free time. It's also you have to create it. So let me get back to what I did. I looked at it. at smartphones like the iPhone. Will they get smarter every year? Yes. Will they get more powerful every year? Hard trend. Yes, absolutely. Will there be business apps for it? Yeah, absolutely. So what are those apps? So I made a list of the apps. I made a list of a hundred apps that I knew would happen. By the way, that was back then. Almost all those apps have been created since, but I decided why don't I create one of those apps? Remember, I don't want to pay money. So I went to Google and I did a search because you can search for names that are searched for the most for free. And the word that was searched the most was the word foreclosures. Well, I decided, okay, I'm going to make the first mobile real estate app, which I did. And, but again, I don't program. Well, I skipped that problem. Remember I told you earlier, I love skipping problems. Amazing principle. I skipped the problem. What I did is I called a local university, asked for the head of the computer department. And I said, I like the name of an undergraduate that's smarter than all the professors getting a degree in software programming. And he said, ⁓ you mean Steve? And I said, yeah, Steve. I gave Steve a call, by the way, there's also a Betty or Steve or somebody. I called Steve and I said, Steve, what are you doing to make money on the side? And he said, ⁓ I'm programming websites for businesses. And I said, ⁓ I bet you're bored with that. He said, yeah, I've been doing it since junior high. And I said, so how would you like to make the world's first? really great mobile app for an iPhone. And he said, ⁓ I'm in. And I said, so I made a rule. can't pay you. However, what I will do is give you a 10 % of the profits for the first three years. So he started doing it. By the way, side note, he graduated with honors, has his own software company because of what he made. Now come back to what I was doing. So I was the first guy to make the app free in the Apple store. Because everyone had the 99 cent thing back then. But I, so I decided I could make more money by making it free. So I made it free and charged real estate agents $24 a month for an exclusive zip code. So if you're in that zip code, meaning an area in a country, ⁓ you, you're the only one showing up in there. As long as you kept paying your fee. Well, when all the zip codes are gone, that's where you get the money. so anyway. That it was the 17th most downloaded app in the first week. I was on national news the next week because I was disrupting real estate was starting to get big, but that wasn't my future. My future wasn't being a real estate mongoose. My future was doing what I do now. Cause I would have, I could have got sucked in, but I didn't let myself get sucked in. So what I did was I took that, it to a little company. And today that is what was the foundation for a company called Zillow. So again, what's your future? You know what your future is. Can you get sidetracked from your future? Do you have a vision for it? And one more, because I'm a teacher and I can't help myself, but turn this into a lesson for everybody. Let me give you one other thing I really want you to consider. Think back right now to getting your last degree or whatever it was, no matter how far back in time. I know you were thinking big about your future. I know I was. But if I think back to when I got my last degree and what I was thinking, you know what I was thinking too small. That was a bigger pig. I was thinking way too small. I should have been thinking bigger. Now here's my point. Every single one of you is thinking too small right now. You're thinking too small. You think you're thinking big. No, you're thinking small. And here's what we do. We come up with a really good idea. We develop it all out and then we start doing it and we get busy. Wait a minute. Step back a minute before we get all busy. Look at what you just defined and ask yourself, are there some elements here I could skip? Because I don't need to do them. I think I need to do them, but I don't. Are there some technologies could help me get there faster, sooner? Are there some things that would let me transform instead of just change what I'm trying to do? In other words, what's the bigger big? And that's when you can define the bigger big. You cannot define the bigger big until you have a big defined. So once you have your big, then step back. What is the much bigger big? Here's what I've found in helping companies do it as well as myself, having started, you know, six companies, five were national leaders in the U S in the first year, five were profitable in the first year. And that is I do it myself. It's the bigger big is a powerful principle. So anyway, I wanted to share that with people to make sure I got that out there.
speaker-1: When you, in the current market, because you mentioned AI a little bit ago, speaking as an individual, not as a company or a CEO or entrepreneur, but as a person, and applying your principles and concept of trying to think about the future, for example, why should I not be afraid and why should I be afraid?
speaker-0: Well, let's talk about being afraid first. Let's talk about fear for a second. And then let's talk about AI and fear. When I was teaching, that's with the beginning of my career, right? And I had an airplane design idea and I decided to start an airplane company. had fear. What was the fear? Failure. Heck, I was well known and doing great in education and had a good reputation. And here I'm thinking of starting a business.
speaker-1: Okay.
speaker-0: which by the way, I never had a business course. Side note probably helped me a lot. But anyway, I had fear. Now here's what really helped me. I thought to myself, well, I got more fear than that. I laid out all my fears. Turned out that helped me move forward. You see, the fear of failure was there, but the fear of regret for me was bigger. The regret of not doing it. Had I not laid out all my fears, I may not have done it. So fear can work for you, not just against you. That's a point I wanted to make and I lived it. It helped me move forward. The second thing about the fear, now I'm talking about AI. First of all, the problem isn't AI. The problem is not getting to use it with a human first, augmented mindset first. Here's what I mean by that. AI can be a replacer of you if used poorly. It can be an augmenter and a magnifier of you when used correctly. Because we are not a machine. We're humans and we think different than AI will ever think. And by the way, AI thinks different than we think. Good. I like that. So what I see is we will use it to augment our thinking, not replace it. Let me give you what I consider to be a perfect example. I've used it in many speeches and people love it. Let me share it with you. Let's say that you know someone that has cancer, heaven forbid. Okay. And, ⁓ you'll need a doctor called an oncologist, the other doctors that treat cancer. And right now AI already knows more than any living oncologist. It knows every MRI. It knows every chemotherapy globally that has ever been given. It knows all results. knows the genetics and knows stuff that no human can keep in their head and, you know, draw like that. That's the strength of AI. So. If you know someone that is cancer, I'm going to give you three choices. Choice number one, a really good oncologist. Choice number two, just AI. Choice number three, a really good oncologist that has access to AI. Boom. There's your future. There's your future. You see, we live in an increasingly technical world, but my friends, we live in an increasingly human world. We live in a human world. And by the way, it's all based on relationships and good relationships are all based on trust. So when I'm using AI, what do I have to do? Verify results because it can make things up. By the way, a lot of people say, I don't like AI because it can make things up. And I would say, I got news for you. Humans make things up. Or you got the idea. ⁓ So that means we have to, if we want to be trusted, and by the way, you do, we need to verify results. And make sure that what we're sharing, what we're writing about is actually verified. If you don't, it's very hard to get trust. And once you get it, it's very strong, by the way, very easy to lose it and very hard to get it back. So verify your results. Remember we're augmenting our thinking, not replacing it. And I've done a study of, actually I've got a book I'm writing right now and it starts out with the words, human first AI model is what it's about. And the companies that I've studied of all sizes, including the very biggest that I've had an AI first strategy, replacing humans, getting rid of them and so on, that ended up in trouble. And by the way, many have not reported it, but I work with the CEOs of companies like the Googles and you know, the Microsoft, they've been having to hire them all back. Turns out we need these humans. But we don't need them to do low level tasks. AI can get you 80 % there. fast, it's a first draft, not a last draft. It can get you 80 % there, but not a hundred percent. We need you. We need your humanness. We need all the parts of you that AI doesn't have to bring it to that top level. I mean, it can, it can create a song. I can create a nice song.
speaker-1: I've heard them. have a friend of mine that's running a show called AI Idol, like American Idol, but he's doing it for people creating music with AI. yeah, they can. But to interrupt for just a moment, Daniel, something going back to your talks earlier about being a futurist and talking about the hard trends and whatnot, it would seem to me, and you being a teacher and then going through that thing is that we're going to get to a place if people are sensible, a hard trend would probably be. start to study things at university that are high skilled. So get away from the communications degrees and the speech degrees and the, you know, maybe the criminal justice degrees and the degrees of things that you can literally go look on AI for and start focusing on things that actually require skills like strategic thinking and technological advances. Because like you said, those lower level jobs, AI is going to take care of those, but then the higher level, that requires thinking and strict strategy and all that. That's where the future is going to be. So would you agree that if you were advising a young person that that would be a hard trend to possibly look at for the future?
speaker-0: What I would want to do is to modify what you just said a bit. Please do. And by the way, I've written quite a bit about this. In other words, how do humans beat AI? I've written a lot of what are the skills that we need to win the AI war? And by the way, on Burris, B-U-R-R-U-S.com, I've got a lot of articles. You could search for free and find whatever you want in there. If you want to dig a little deeper, help yourself. So let me talk about that.
speaker-1: ⁓ please.
speaker-0: First of all, there's an art and a science to every profession. There's an art and a science to what you do. There's an art and a science to what we all do. And we go to school to learn the science and the art we learn later, usually when we get out of school. For example, all doctors, all medical doctors did well in school, but they're not all equal, are they? No, some of them are better at the art part. Right? Right. So. There's an art and a science. Now what's happening is AI is flipping it a bit. AI can handle the science part. It's the art part where humans really flourish. So here's where I would disagree with a couple of things that you mentioned. And that is AI is really good at informing. It's not really good at communicating and creating dialogue because it's not very good at listening and understanding the nuances. For example, as you're listening to me, I can see you and you're telling me a lot of things without saying a single word. And you see what I'm talking about. And by the way, collaboration is not something that AI does well. Trust building is not something that AI does well. Relationship creating is not something that AI does well. And it's really out of the box thinking. Actually, it's not very good at that because everything.
speaker-1: Exactly. Yes.
speaker-0: thinking comes from something that it's already found. So I would say that taking and being able to speak, I think it is powerful. I mean, you could have a robot give a speech, I hope you get well soon. And as a matter of fact, they might even say, I hope you get well soon. It's still a robot. It doesn't care whether you get well. so I'm getting at, we need to have those human skills and get better at them. Cause a lot of people are not good at communicating. Not good at collaborating when they get out of college. They're not good at those kinds of things. And they should be, because that's a weakness. But we also have to be aware and able to, willing to learn new things like technical skills, learning about the sciences. But we don't have to just learn about science. You could learn about art. There's a future for artists. There's a future for musicians. There's a future for live performance. Absolutely. And by the way. Here's a future for a show with virtual artists. I call it the both and principle. So I'm not going to give you another teaching moment. Okay. And that is I've been really good at predicting the future. One of the reasons I've been good at it is I leave out the parts I can be wrong about. And of course that relates to hard trends and soft trends, of course. So I'm going to give you another secret ingredient to make sure you're right about the future. When most of us see something new, we assume the old is gone. It's the either or default. Either the future is this or that. It's either going to be all crypto or it's going to be all regular money. It's going to be all, you know, this or that, this or that. It's not the way to see the future. doesn't work that way. It's this and that. I call it the both and rather than the either or. So the key is how do we integrate? The old with the new, so the integration has more value than the older, the new by themselves. How do we integrate crypto with the ways that we manage our money? other words, we've got, so it's a both and world, it's not either or. Elon Musk made a prediction back in 2015 that by 25, where we are today, we would have no cars sold with a steering wheel, a pedal, they would all be autonomous. And in 2015, when he made that prediction, I said, sorry, Elon, you'll be wrong. You could find the article I wrote about it. I said, I can't imagine Porsche or much less Lamborghini saying that they got a car you can't control, but it's got nice seats. You know what I mean? I like to drive. I don't like accidents. What we're doing is making the cars increasingly safe. And so far all of our cars will whistle and beep and vibrate, we ignore it and have the accident anyway. So the next phase is you can't have the accident. They're already starting to put that in some of the cars now where you can't have the accident. By the way, what's the impact of that? A lot less people in our ERs and emergency rooms.
speaker-1: monetary too. That's lot less insurance money, lot less that sort of thing too. It's human economic at the same time.
speaker-0: The auto repair store, the collision repair stores. In other words, all of a sudden you can start seeing the future. you start seeing this as a way to look ahead and to see where the opportunities are. So again, so back on, we will have autonomous vehicles are already are some, but instead of saying that we'll all be autonomous. It's like, some will be and some won't be. For example, can you imagine little kindergartners, first and second graders in a school bus with no adult supervision? No, no, no, no, no. And by the way, there's an adult in there, why not put them behind the wheel? Now I want that bus to not be able to have an accident, but just in case, because we all know things can get hacked. I'd like a steering wheel, a brake and some ways for that human to control it. But then again, we will have vehicles that are fully autonomous. It's a both and work.
speaker-1: No, no parent was too Yeah. I'm completely aligned with you when it comes to that and AI too, because I'm a big proponent of using it in my job and in my career and whatnot. And, and I use it from the perspective of making myself better, not replacing myself. And, and when you know the topic that you're using it for, you can recognize when it's inaccurate, when it's not correct. And I've had to adjust it in lots of ways. And going back to what you said about the human part of it, I adjust the wording all the time because I look at things and go, that's how I speak. I would never say it that way. It's correct. It's grammatically sound, but nobody speaks like that. I have to change it. It's not going to resonate. I hear of people talking about using AI for therapy and I'm thinking, are you bananas? Are you out of your head? Not having that human empathic connection? There's just going to be somebody, you know, a thing, not somebody, a thing, regurgitating things that you would hear. It's not going to have the same impact. As whether or not I'm listening to Daniel tell me and seeing the empathy and compassion in his eyes as he's telling it to me, because he's connecting with me on a deeper level of what I'm actually experiencing. So yeah, I'm completely aligned and I get your point from that perspective. I always joke about it and say, I'm a big Marvel fan and I grew up reading comic books. Yes, I called it a comic book. I'm that old. It wasn't graphic novels. When I grew up, it was a comic book and I'm a big Marvel fan and I love. The analogy I use for AI and when people ask me is, I think of myself as Tony Stark and Jarvis is my AI. Jarvis was not better than Tony. No one would replace Iron Man with Jarvis. Jarvis helped Iron Man be a better Iron Man. But even he would call out Jarvis on certain things. Hey, do I need to reboot you? That doesn't sound accurate. Like, because he had the knowledge of what he was using Jarvis to do. And I use the AI from that perspective to where... tasks like you, you call it the 80 % can get you 80 % there. People see where I output and they think, do you have an assistant? Do you have a company? said, no, I don't. ⁓ it's just me. But the things that you're thinking that takes eight hours, it's taken me maybe 45 minutes because I know how to use the AI to get what I need done, but it can't replace me. It can't have this conversation we're having now because it can't predict what I'm going to say, what you're going to say and how we're going to respond to each other. I'm completely aligned with you when you talk about AI from that perspective. Putting on your teaching hat for a moment. Somebody just comes into your orbit, not a CEO or some leader or founder or entrepreneur, but a normal person, normal student comes into your orbit and all the books you've written, the articles you've published, the essays you've read, you've written and everything there at Burris.com. Where would you suggest they start? What should be their introduction to you and your work?
speaker-0: Well, I think a good place to start is going to BRUHRUS, R-U-S dot com, because they can find a, I'm happy to say an award winning learning system in there. They can find books in there. They can find articles they can download. There are free resources. There's some other kind of resources. Also, if you, can go to LinkedIn. I've got just under 1.2 million followers because I do a lot of sharing there. Daniel BRUHRUS, that's how you find me there. But ⁓ what I would advise people to do. The core of what I'm trying to get people to do is to be less reactionary and more anticipatory. And as as kind of a wrapping up closing concept moment here, right? What I'd like you to think about is most people are trying to look at being agile as a way of dealing with rapid change. But agility came from sports. It's reacting as quickly as you can to a problem after it occurs. As quickly as you can to disruption after it disrupts. It's a reactionary strategy. faster you react, better. But the world is changing so fast, that's having less value. So I want you to be agile. There's a lot of things you can't predict. You better be agile. But what I'm saying is I'm teaching you how to do the other thing, how to anticipate problems before you have them so can pre-solve them. Anticipate disruptions before they disrupt so disruptions becomes a choice. I'm trying to give you certainty to balance against uncertainty. They both exist, but if everything is uncertain, man, you're going to have a tough life. I'd like you to have that other part. So I'm all about helping people to get better at being anticipatory and using certainty to give them the confidence to make bold moves.
speaker-1: Well said. Before I let you go, since you just talked about it, share the name of the book on the anticipatory response. Sounds like it's relevant.
speaker-0: book is the Anticipatory Organization. It sounds like it's for business, but really you'll see it's for people as well, for individuals and not just for leaders, because it's got a lot of great examples. And by the way, there's a lot more in that book than hard trends and soft trends. talked about problem skipping, how opposites work better, how to do a time travel audit to find out whether you're in the past, the present, or the future. I mean, there's so many cool things in there. I think you'll really enjoy it.
speaker-1: Good. Thank you for sharing with us and everybody listening, go to burus.com, B-U-R-R-U-S.com for more information on Daniel Burress and his works and his writings. And thank you for being with me.
speaker-0: Thank you so much. ⁓
speaker-1: the store
speaker-0: you
speaker-1: I'm still
speaker-1: Yes.
speaker-0: Holy cow, it adds up. It becomes a force multiplier. It's unbelievably powerful.
speaker-1: Welcome to another edition of Behind the Story. Today I'm joined by Daniel Burris, one of the world's leading futurists and strategist known for helping leaders anticipate disruption before it happens. We're going to talk about how to think ahead, how to adapt faster and make smarter decisions in a world that's changing by the minute. So let's get into it. Daniel, welcome. Hey.
speaker-0: you Thank you so much for having me on. Really appreciate it.
speaker-1: My pleasure. I want to start off with the word futurist because I saw that in your LinkedIn. saw that posted in lots of other documents posted about you online. How would you describe that when I hear futurist? What should I be thinking?
speaker-0: First of all, let's all realize we're going to spend the rest of our lives in the future. But it's amazing how little of us think about it and plan for it. And with so much uncertainty and so many things that you can't predict, it almost seems like a waste of time. What I like to do is flip that and realize actually it's one of the most important things you can do other than enjoying the moment that you're in. And in another little angle on that, anyone is a futurist that makes a prediction. But if you want to be a professional futurist that actually gets paid, you have to have some accuracy in your predictions, which I've had over many decades.
speaker-1: Okay, let's start there. What are some of your predictions that have come to pass?
speaker-0: It's to have been hundreds, but I ⁓ came up with a list of the 20 technologies that would shape the future back, get this over 40 years ago, that included AI, fiber optics, genetic engineering, photovoltaics, and you the list became the list. All right. And then from that, I talked about how that would create a digital transformation over time. If you go back and not quite that far. to one of my books back in 93 called Technotrends. There was a little section called Blockbuster is Busted. And if you read underneath it, you'd get a perfect description of Netflix back in 1993. Also, I talked about the phone being a wireless computer. By the way, we ended up calling that the iPhone. And I've got hundreds of those kinds of examples because I've written seven bestselling books and I've written thousands of articles. So I put a lot out there, but the key here though, I don't want to be the only person that can do this. Hey, was I know I'm on the planet. All right. I'm lucky. I don't have a career. have a calling. I am on the planet to teach, not to tell. So instead of just telling you some trends and saying, keep an eye on these things. I really like to empower people with something that they can use. to help them to turn on the bright lights when they're looking down that night road into the future.
speaker-1: So you talk about teaching, not telling, and talking about your career. Before you got there, take me back to early Daniel, university days. Let's go as far back as university days. What was the transition from university into the workforce before you were, quote unquote, a futurist? In your mind, what was that first, those early career moments like?
speaker-0: Well, there was a couple of things that were really important during those university times. And that is I stopped thinking like a student because I knew that even though I was getting a degrees in biology, physics, and I was a good student, I also put myself through college playing lead guitar in a rock band. And we were popular and there were a lot of groupies and I knew I may not have a four point straight A grades. So I'd have good grades, but they wouldn't be perfect. So I took myself out to the future. See, I was already doing this at graduation, getting a bachelor's to start with and thinking, how am I going to be beyond anybody else, regardless of grades? But what I started doing, and this is like a major shift here that I'm helping people think about, I decided, like all students, undergraduates, they all have ideas on how everything can be better. But we're students, we're busy, we've got to get our grades. I did something different. I asked one of the professors, if you've got a good idea to do something, how do you get money? And he said, ⁓ we apply for a grant. And I said, how do do that? And he said, there's a form we have to fill out. And I said, let me see the form. I filled it out with my idea. I went to the head of the university, the chancellor, and I walked in and again, these are back in time. So I had long hair. Remember I was a guitar player. I go in there and I say, I'm applying for a federal research grant. By the way, no undergraduate had ever gotten a federal research grant in the United States. I'm applying for a federal research grant. I put it in front of him while he was looking at it. I told him what it was. And then I said, if I get the grant, will you give me an office in the library, furniture, and a secretary? And he knew that was impossible. So he looked up at me like this and he said, young man, yeah, sure. And I said, thank you. Then what I did is I went to the heads of all the other departments, like the head of the A.B. department, and I said the same thing except I added at the end. And by the way, if I get the grant, the chancellor is giving me an office in the library, a secretary in furniture, what are you giving me? And he said, ⁓ well, how about video tape equipment and all this stuff? And I said, good, thank you. So I went to all the different places, put it all in the grant, sent it to Washington, D.C., and they said, look at the support, give the kids the money. So as an undergraduate, I had an office of secretary bigger than my professors. had my professors applying to work in my grant and it was really a turnaround time. So that's one of many things I did as an undergraduate that was a little bit different.
speaker-1: And then once ⁓ post-graduation, what was actually your first job out of curiosity?
speaker-0: Yeah, well, this ties into that. originally wanted to teach teachers how to teach science because I thought that science is going to be increasingly important in time. And most teachers do a bad job at it. They don't know how to get students excited, motivated, and they were teaching science instead of turning students into scientists. So what I decided to do was instead of go through, cause they were telling me, just go through, get your PhD. Your research grant already could do that. But I always liked to go, this is a number of thing I want to teach here. Go for the ideal. So I asked myself, what's the ideal teacher of teachers? And it wasn't somebody who got ⁓ a PhD. It was somebody who had experience and got a PhD. So I decided while I was getting my degree, I would teach, not just in one level.
speaker-1: speak.
speaker-0: in a variety of levels, which by the way I did. And my first assignment, I could have been anywhere because I had done what I had done. I had already become a published author before graduating. So I had my pick. What did I pick? An inner city junior high school. I picked the worst possible place. By the way, why did I do that? If I picked the best place with everybody had parents, everybody had money. I could help the students that much. But if I picked the worst place, I could help the students that much. So I did that. I got educator of the year, did a lot of cool things, kept doing that for a while. But then I had an idea for an airplane design. So one summer I didn't work. decided, cause I was a teacher, I built the plane test fluid and I ended up with 37 national locations in the first year. turned out it literally took off. So I left teaching. I had this aviation business that was really growing fast. I had an idea for another company, another company within two years, I had four different companies, all very disruptive doing things that had never been done before. All successful, all profitable in the first year. However, I missed teaching. I missed teaching. So I took myself out into the future. Once again, I always do that. And I took myself out to being a hundred years old. And I asked myself, if this is what I did for the professional part of my life, am I happy? The answer was no. So I sold those companies and I didn't want to go back to teaching because that's another thing. You can never go back. can only go forward. I, I, I ride a Harley Davidson motorcycle. And one of the things I love about it is it does not have a reverse. You can't go back. can only go forward. So I didn't want to go back. So I did another thing that is a principle I want to teach to all of you. It's super powerful. And that is take your biggest problems and skip them. We can talk more about that later, but let me give you how I applied it. Okay. I didn't like the limitation of the classroom because I had a lot of good things to teach. I decided to make the classroom planet earth. And my books have been translated into over 30 languages. I've given speeches in over 51 countries. Obviously that's happened. I didn't like the politics of a university or a school system. So I decided I'm not going to work for one. I skipped that. I'm going to work for me. So I skipped all the things I didn't like so that I could move forward faster. And so that's when I started my research company. I researched all the innovations and science and technology. found all these new things, developed a methodology for teaching people how to predict the future accurately. And I started giving speeches and consulting and writing books and articles. And that was long ago now. And it's been an amazing ride.
speaker-1: But before we talk about the future, still want to, out of curiosity about the past, because you mentioned you had already been published while you were an undergrad. That the first book or was that?
speaker-0: Let me tell you how bad. Interesting stuff. Again, the key is stop thinking like a student. Stop thinking like a student. By the way, how does this apply to all of you adults out there? Stop thinking like whatever your job title is. It's self-limiting. You're limiting yourself. You think you know what you are. You are so much more. You just can't tap into it unless you discover the inner self. Yeah. Right. I call it the hidden self. What's hidden inside you, by the way, I'm going to suggest a lot, but we can come back on that later as well. So how did I get published? Well, I'm writing these assignments, these papers for teachers, right? They give you an assignment, you got to write it. And I thought, why don't I could take control of the assignment? Well, I went up to the professors and I said, I know what you're trying to teach me. I'm going to give myself more work and do this instead of what you asked me to do. It's going to teach me what you want me to learn, but it'll take more. And what it'll do is give me something that I can submit and publish. It was hard for them to say no, because here's a student stepping up to the plate, right? And I did that and I started submitting those, getting them published in professional publications. So they were articles I was getting published, not books.
speaker-1: Got it. Reflecting back then to not teach thinking like a student and not thinking like the traditional teachers, was there a moment when it hit you that you realized you can see things differently to say your peers or the teachers? Or was that just a, was it a process or was there one like the big bang moment where it just hit you and you knew you could look at things differently?
speaker-0: Well, there was a profound big bang moment a little later that I will share with you because you brought up the subject, but I went to one of those high school reunions that as you get older, they have them about every 10 years, right? And I hadn't gone to them for a long time, but I had a chance where I could go. And I thought, Hey, let me go and see if I can talk with some of the people I knew back, way back when I was in high school, long ago. What did they say?
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: Yeah, you're talking about the future all the time. I was shocked. I didn't remember that. So maybe I'm kind of wired that way. Maybe that's just because I have been way before starting my companies, way before any of that. I've always, when I saw a new innovation in any kind of technology, I was always interested, not in the present of it, but in the future impact of it. You could do with it.
speaker-1: Right.
speaker-0: Let me give you a quick example. There was an innovation that I reported about a couple of years ago, and it's a special type of paint that it absorbs energy during the day from the sun and it glows the color of the paint at night. Now, most people would say to that, yeah, cool. And then they go get busy. But when I see something like that, I start thinking, hmm, for example, in India, there's tens of thousands, not millions of people driving little mopeds around at night with a crummy little light on the front. And they often have their family on the back of that little thing. of accidents, a lot of people die. What if they all glow? Would there be less people getting hurt? And I see that's where my mind goes. I start thinking about how do we use these innovations to create a better world for others? So I just kind of go that route.
speaker-1: The key thing from that, what I take from that, something one of my teachers that I really adored told me was it's the questions that you're asking yourselves internally. Like somebody, other people are looking at these things, they're not asking themselves that question, but you're asking yourself a question to get a solution and it's just there for you. And I do understand that whole thing about you saying something and not remembering it because, and I think that has to do with it being a part of who you are, because I've had that happen to me. Like I had somebody say to me recently, you said you were always going to do that. I said, I did? I don't remember that. It has become such a part of you that we don't remember, but obviously other people are listening. But get back to the Big Bang moment.
speaker-0: Let me give you one that was, there's a couple of them, but let me give you one that where I was really young that shaped something that I'd love everyone to consider. That's watching this today. When I was really young, elementary school, little kid, I was down in ⁓ Texas, visiting some relatives and I had a great grandfather that was turning a hundred. He was very feeble, very old, close to death. I don't remember even talking with him. I can see him in my mind's eye right now, but here's what I thought when I was a kid. I thought.
speaker-1: Okay.
speaker-0: Cause I knew he was close to dying. I wondered, did he discover everything that was inside of himself? And I thought to myself, doubt it. And then I asked my, that question of, thought about dad, about mom, about uncles, about aunts. And my answer to myself was, I don't think so. But I would like to discover what's in me. Let's face it. You could be the world's best flute player, but you would never know if you never picked it up. So I made a commitment to myself to. Learn one new thing every single year. I figured one is doable, two is not. One year I learned how to scuba dive. One year I learned how to do fancy dives off a diving board. One year there was an open mic on Thursday nights at a comedy club way before I ever started speaking. And I knew I could get my buddies to laugh. Could I get strangers to laugh? So I went there every Thursday doing that. I learned how to sail. I learned how to fly. I learned how to make an airplane. I learned how to make a motorcycle. I learned how to do art. learned how to make films. Well, many, many, many, many decades ago, every year I'm learning something new. Well, I play a dozen musical instruments. I've been a feature artist at a bunch of universities. Who would have known? I wouldn't have known. So here's what I'm getting at. Remember I mentioned a few minutes ago, the undiscovered self? All right. For all of you listening, I don't want you to go undiscovered.
speaker-1: Yes.
speaker-0: I would like you all to discover what's really inside and to do that, you can't just say, yeah, I'm going to do that. No, no, no, I ain't going to work. You need something to make that happen. So I'm going to give you a suggestion. know most of you won't do this, but some of you might make a commitment to learn one new thing a year. And over time, holy cow, it adds up. It becomes a force multiplier. It's unbelievably powerful.
speaker-1: Let me, before we go on, let me amplify that by saying this. Before we started recording, you mentioned off camera that we have a bunch of things in common. That's something else we have in common because I have this thing where I make a commitment in my job to learn one new thing a month. You said a year, but I know you're talking about a huge project, like building a motorcycle or whatnot. But I've used that for a long time where it's like, it's how I said to myself mentally, I'm not going to be the same person that was hired. six months later, you know, I'm not going to be the same person mentally that you spoke with six months later. I would have accomplished so many things, at least four things a month, one new thing a week. What's one thing I can learn that will help me in my career? So I've attributed that and I want to amplify that so people can really understand the power of that. Whatever your chosen vocation, if you just do learn one new thing, it doesn't matter how big or how small, some things will take longer. Doesn't matter, but one new thing. Think about your personal growth beyond just the experience of being in the job. So I want to amplify that, that what you just said, it's so incredibly important.
speaker-0: Well, let me get throughout one more related subject. All right. That's another one on a personal end. Again, we haven't even talked about the future, but we are talking about the future, aren't About actively shaping the future for ourselves. So here's another thing. I'm really excited about getting older. Now, a lot of people would say at some point when you're really young, of course you want to get older, but at some point as you get to a certain age, you're not so excited about it. And I am because here's why. There's a lot of things as you get older.
speaker-1: Yes, we are.
speaker-0: You can't do because of your body or whatever when you're compared to when you were young. You know, look at athletes when they're 60 is not like when they were 20. You see what I'm talking about. So, so what I do is I've got a list of things I can get better at and I'm working it. For example, I can be a better brother. I can be a better husband. I can be a better author. I can be a better speaker. Well, look, I got a list. And by the way, it's not just a list that's over here static. I'm working it, measuring it, making sure I'm getting better every year. In other words, man, I'm going to be really pretty cool by the time I'm 100. I mean, I'm working it. So I might actually have my act together, you know? So look, work at getting better every year on the things you can get better at. And how can you not get excited about the future and getting older?
speaker-1: Another thing we have in common, one of my favorite authors is Dr. Maxwell Maltz. He was a plastic surgeon that wrote Psycho-Cybernetics as one of my favorite books of all time. And in that book, he talks about being a professional human being. That's sort of what you just described, being a professional human being, know, human being, a brother, you know, sister, father, friend, whatever, all those things, being better, those things, being a professional human being. So another thing that's related that I completely understand. Let's get... get into some of the things about your work. One of your ideas is you talk about hard trends versus soft trends. Break that down for somebody like me, just an average person going about my business.
speaker-0: Absolutely. We live in the most uncertain times we probably ever had globally. There's so much uncertainty. And most people would say, and this includes Fortune 2, CEOs even, that the only thing you can be certain about is death and taxes. And I would say, no, in this hemisphere, we just entered spring. Next will be summer. I'll be right. Matter of fact, there are over 300 known cycles, business cycles, weather cycles, biological cycles. There's even sales cycles. By the way, if there's a sales cycle, I like to have the sale completed before the cycle begins. My point is you can use cycles to your advantage, but what I talk about is, because I think we all have that down, the other kind of change that's predictable, that gives you a certainty in an uncertain world. These are permanent, tend to be exponentially driven changes. And why I separate these trends. because most people don't look at trends because some work and some don't. Into one of two columns, all trends fit into one of two columns. So either a hard trend based on a future fact that will happen. And by the way, the litmus test is it can't be changed. Let me give you a quick example. Let's take the United States. There are 10,000 people every day turning 70 years old in the United States every day. 10,000. By the way, are they going to get chronologically younger? no, our trend, they're going to get older. We know that as a fact. By the way, we could predict a lot of problems and pre-solve them, or we can let them happen. We could predict a lot of opportunities because that's a lot of people, or we just pass on those. So in other words, I gave you a demographic example. Let me give you a technology one. We went from 3G wireless to 4G wireless. Most of us have 5G wireless. Is that it?
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: Hard trend, we're going to have 6G followed by 7G. And if you don't like AI, can you just turn it off? No, it'll get more powerful over time. So hard trends give you certainty in an uncertain world. And when you have certainty, you have the confidence to make a bold move. When you're uncertain, well, if it's a sale you're trying to make and it's uncertain, the person will say, I'll get back to you. But if you're certain, you'll write the big check. So certainty gives you the power to make a bold move. So it also lets you see these hard trends disruptions before they disrupt. So disruption becomes a choice because today you're either going to be the disruptor or the disrupted because of the rapid pace of change, technological change. There is no middle. I'd like you to have a choice. You're either going to be more, more relevant or less relevant. Well, I would like you to have a choice because there is no middle. So hard trends gives you something solid. can give you some more examples later, but let me tell you about the other kind. Soft trend. Those are based on assumptions that may or may not happen. Now I didn't say they won't happen, but there's a big difference between may and for sure will. Especially when you're innovating, especially when you're planning your future. So what do I love about a soft trend? If you don't like it, it can be, you can change it. What do I love about a hard trend? I can see the future before it happens. I can see problems before I have them so I can pre-solve them. So by dividing trends into those two columns, it's very powerful, but you need one other little element. And that is a trend by itself is academic. So what? That's why most people don't bother. Unless you attach an opportunity to it. The minute you attach an opportunity, a personal opportunity or a business opportunity to a trend, it bursts into actionable life. Let me give you an example. Let's go back to the demographic hard trend of United States baby boomers and the big growth of them. Okay. There are a lot of people that love to, you mentioned before the show, you love to go rowing. You like to go out in the islands. You love to go out in the boat. All right. A lot of people love to go boating. They love to go fishing, but when they get in their mid eighties and nineties, it gets kind of hard to launch the boat. So what if you and I designed the easy launch trailer for seniors and we did a really good job of When we have a growing market, let's just take the United States. Well, yeah, 10,000 a day turning 70.
speaker-1: based on predicting the future.
speaker-0: Not only that, you could take those numbers to the bank because they're solid future facts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. These are based on future facts. By the way, would I know which countries to export to and which countries to not export to? Yeah, I know the aging populations and I know the young populations. I know exactly where to go. Low risk. Let me give you another quick one on that same demographic example, although we could pick Gen Z, Gen Y. Let's stay with this one just to save time. All right.
speaker-1: on projections.
speaker-0: As people get older, and by the way, one other quick question for all of you. Raise your hand right now, mentally, if you want to. If you think, we're not going to see one of those easy launch trailers for boats, for seniors. We're not going to see that. You probably didn't put your hand up. Why? Because if it can be done, it will be done. If you don't do it, someone else will. The opportunity is too big. All right. So here's another one. A lot of people when they get in their 80s or 90s, they fall and they break a hip. Or, and it's painful, it can be deadly by the way, and they may never be the same.
speaker-1: and it increases their mortality after they've got hip replacement.
speaker-0: It happens all over the world. By the way, why does that happen? Well, their fine muscles in their legs and ankles have gotten weak because they sit around too much and they're not athletic like we were when we were young. Their muscles are different. That's why if you're 20 and you stumbled, you will not fall. If you're 80 and you stumbled, boom, you're down. All right. Did you know there's something called an exoskeleton? An exoskeleton is a nurses have been using it in Japan. ⁓ 90 pound nurse can actually lift by herself a 200 pound patient put them in the bed and they're getting smaller and lighter by the way will they continue to get smaller and lighter yes hard trend will the batteries get more powerful yes hard trend see now you're getting the idea we know that is a fact future fact so um why don't we this doesn't exist today why don't we get a exoskeleton for the ankles up to the knees. Matter of fact, why don't we go up to the hips for 80 and 90 year olds so they can have the mobility of a 20 year old. They can go up and down steps, no problem. They don't fall because they have the same kind of strength. That does not exist today. By the way, raise your hand if you think we're not going to see one of those. And I know you didn't put your hand up. By the way, that, I just gave you a billion dollar idea.
speaker-1: was just thinking that you've given a brilliant example of what it means to be a futurist with just that entire segment.
speaker-0: Right, right. Exactly. When I was writing my last book was called the Anticipatory Organization. By the way, there's a reason I did not call it the Reactionary Organization. We've got that down. And the one before that was called Flash Foresight. There's a reason I did not call it Flash Hindsight. I think we got that down. But when I was writing Flash Foresight, back when we had a 2008, 2009, there was a big downturn in all markets. Remember? homes are going into foreclosure everywhere. The the Apple iPhone was still new and there were no good business apps on the iPhone. All the apps were like 99 cents. Make it look like a beer when you do like this. It looks like you're drinking. And so I used the book as I was writing it. I thought, why don't I apply the principles of the book while I'm writing it to starting a business with two rules. I'll not hire anyone and I won't spend any money and see what happens. All right.
speaker-1: Thanks.
speaker-0: By the way, less than a year to get 1.8 million in recurring revenue per month. But I'll tell you what I did. All right. By the way, it wasn't like I had a lot of free time. I gave a hundred speeches that year all over the world. I was writing a book. wasn't like I had free time. See, we all think I don't have free time. You need free time or do you need planned time? Right. You won't just find free time. It's also you have to create it. So let me get back to what I did. I looked at it. at smartphones like the iPhone. Will they get smarter every year? Yes. Will they get more powerful every year? Hard trend. Yes, absolutely. Will there be business apps for it? Yeah, absolutely. So what are those apps? So I made a list of the apps. I made a list of a hundred apps that I knew would happen. By the way, that was back then. Almost all those apps have been created since, but I decided why don't I create one of those apps? Remember, I don't want to pay money. So I went to Google and I did a search because you can search for names that are searched for the most for free. And the word that was searched the most was the word foreclosures. Well, I decided, okay, I'm going to make the first mobile real estate app, which I did. And, but again, I don't program. Well, I skipped that problem. Remember I told you earlier, I love skipping problems. Amazing principle. I skipped the problem. What I did is I called a local university, asked for the head of the computer department. And I said, I like the name of an undergraduate that's smarter than all the professors getting a degree in software programming. And he said, ⁓ you mean Steve? And I said, yeah, Steve. I gave Steve a call, by the way, there's also a Betty or Steve or somebody. I called Steve and I said, Steve, what are you doing to make money on the side? And he said, ⁓ I'm programming websites for businesses. And I said, ⁓ I bet you're bored with that. He said, yeah, I've been doing it since junior high. And I said, so how would you like to make the world's first? really great mobile app for an iPhone. And he said, ⁓ I'm in. And I said, so I made a rule. can't pay you. However, what I will do is give you a 10 % of the profits for the first three years. So he started doing it. By the way, side note, he graduated with honors, has his own software company because of what he made. Now come back to what I was doing. So I was the first guy to make the app free in the Apple store. Because everyone had the 99 cent thing back then. But I, so I decided I could make more money by making it free. So I made it free and charged real estate agents $24 a month for an exclusive zip code. So if you're in that zip code, meaning an area in a country, ⁓ you, you're the only one showing up in there. As long as you kept paying your fee. Well, when all the zip codes are gone, that's where you get the money. so anyway. That it was the 17th most downloaded app in the first week. I was on national news the next week because I was disrupting real estate was starting to get big, but that wasn't my future. My future wasn't being a real estate mongoose. My future was doing what I do now. Cause I would have, I could have got sucked in, but I didn't let myself get sucked in. So what I did was I took that, it to a little company. And today that is what was the foundation for a company called Zillow. So again, what's your future? You know what your future is. Can you get sidetracked from your future? Do you have a vision for it? And one more, because I'm a teacher and I can't help myself, but turn this into a lesson for everybody. Let me give you one other thing I really want you to consider. Think back right now to getting your last degree or whatever it was, no matter how far back in time. I know you were thinking big about your future. I know I was. But if I think back to when I got my last degree and what I was thinking, you know what I was thinking too small. That was a bigger pig. I was thinking way too small. I should have been thinking bigger. Now here's my point. Every single one of you is thinking too small right now. You're thinking too small. You think you're thinking big. No, you're thinking small. And here's what we do. We come up with a really good idea. We develop it all out and then we start doing it and we get busy. Wait a minute. Step back a minute before we get all busy. Look at what you just defined and ask yourself, are there some elements here I could skip? Because I don't need to do them. I think I need to do them, but I don't. Are there some technologies could help me get there faster, sooner? Are there some things that would let me transform instead of just change what I'm trying to do? In other words, what's the bigger big? And that's when you can define the bigger big. You cannot define the bigger big until you have a big defined. So once you have your big, then step back. What is the much bigger big? Here's what I've found in helping companies do it as well as myself, having started, you know, six companies, five were national leaders in the U S in the first year, five were profitable in the first year. And that is I do it myself. It's the bigger big is a powerful principle. So anyway, I wanted to share that with people to make sure I got that out there.
speaker-1: When you, in the current market, because you mentioned AI a little bit ago, speaking as an individual, not as a company or a CEO or entrepreneur, but as a person, and applying your principles and concept of trying to think about the future, for example, why should I not be afraid and why should I be afraid?
speaker-0: Well, let's talk about being afraid first. Let's talk about fear for a second. And then let's talk about AI and fear. When I was teaching, that's with the beginning of my career, right? And I had an airplane design idea and I decided to start an airplane company. had fear. What was the fear? Failure. Heck, I was well known and doing great in education and had a good reputation. And here I'm thinking of starting a business.
speaker-1: Okay.
speaker-0: which by the way, I never had a business course. Side note probably helped me a lot. But anyway, I had fear. Now here's what really helped me. I thought to myself, well, I got more fear than that. I laid out all my fears. Turned out that helped me move forward. You see, the fear of failure was there, but the fear of regret for me was bigger. The regret of not doing it. Had I not laid out all my fears, I may not have done it. So fear can work for you, not just against you. That's a point I wanted to make and I lived it. It helped me move forward. The second thing about the fear, now I'm talking about AI. First of all, the problem isn't AI. The problem is not getting to use it with a human first, augmented mindset first. Here's what I mean by that. AI can be a replacer of you if used poorly. It can be an augmenter and a magnifier of you when used correctly. Because we are not a machine. We're humans and we think different than AI will ever think. And by the way, AI thinks different than we think. Good. I like that. So what I see is we will use it to augment our thinking, not replace it. Let me give you what I consider to be a perfect example. I've used it in many speeches and people love it. Let me share it with you. Let's say that you know someone that has cancer, heaven forbid. Okay. And, ⁓ you'll need a doctor called an oncologist, the other doctors that treat cancer. And right now AI already knows more than any living oncologist. It knows every MRI. It knows every chemotherapy globally that has ever been given. It knows all results. knows the genetics and knows stuff that no human can keep in their head and, you know, draw like that. That's the strength of AI. So. If you know someone that is cancer, I'm going to give you three choices. Choice number one, a really good oncologist. Choice number two, just AI. Choice number three, a really good oncologist that has access to AI. Boom. There's your future. There's your future. You see, we live in an increasingly technical world, but my friends, we live in an increasingly human world. We live in a human world. And by the way, it's all based on relationships and good relationships are all based on trust. So when I'm using AI, what do I have to do? Verify results because it can make things up. By the way, a lot of people say, I don't like AI because it can make things up. And I would say, I got news for you. Humans make things up. Or you got the idea. ⁓ So that means we have to, if we want to be trusted, and by the way, you do, we need to verify results. And make sure that what we're sharing, what we're writing about is actually verified. If you don't, it's very hard to get trust. And once you get it, it's very strong, by the way, very easy to lose it and very hard to get it back. So verify your results. Remember we're augmenting our thinking, not replacing it. And I've done a study of, actually I've got a book I'm writing right now and it starts out with the words, human first AI model is what it's about. And the companies that I've studied of all sizes, including the very biggest that I've had an AI first strategy, replacing humans, getting rid of them and so on, that ended up in trouble. And by the way, many have not reported it, but I work with the CEOs of companies like the Googles and you know, the Microsoft, they've been having to hire them all back. Turns out we need these humans. But we don't need them to do low level tasks. AI can get you 80 % there. fast, it's a first draft, not a last draft. It can get you 80 % there, but not a hundred percent. We need you. We need your humanness. We need all the parts of you that AI doesn't have to bring it to that top level. I mean, it can, it can create a song. I can create a nice song.
speaker-1: I've heard them. have a friend of mine that's running a show called AI Idol, like American Idol, but he's doing it for people creating music with AI. yeah, they can. But to interrupt for just a moment, Daniel, something going back to your talks earlier about being a futurist and talking about the hard trends and whatnot, it would seem to me, and you being a teacher and then going through that thing is that we're going to get to a place if people are sensible, a hard trend would probably be. start to study things at university that are high skilled. So get away from the communications degrees and the speech degrees and the, you know, maybe the criminal justice degrees and the degrees of things that you can literally go look on AI for and start focusing on things that actually require skills like strategic thinking and technological advances. Because like you said, those lower level jobs, AI is going to take care of those, but then the higher level, that requires thinking and strict strategy and all that. That's where the future is going to be. So would you agree that if you were advising a young person that that would be a hard trend to possibly look at for the future?
speaker-0: What I would want to do is to modify what you just said a bit. Please do. And by the way, I've written quite a bit about this. In other words, how do humans beat AI? I've written a lot of what are the skills that we need to win the AI war? And by the way, on Burris, B-U-R-R-U-S.com, I've got a lot of articles. You could search for free and find whatever you want in there. If you want to dig a little deeper, help yourself. So let me talk about that.
speaker-1: ⁓ please.
speaker-0: First of all, there's an art and a science to every profession. There's an art and a science to what you do. There's an art and a science to what we all do. And we go to school to learn the science and the art we learn later, usually when we get out of school. For example, all doctors, all medical doctors did well in school, but they're not all equal, are they? No, some of them are better at the art part. Right? Right. So. There's an art and a science. Now what's happening is AI is flipping it a bit. AI can handle the science part. It's the art part where humans really flourish. So here's where I would disagree with a couple of things that you mentioned. And that is AI is really good at informing. It's not really good at communicating and creating dialogue because it's not very good at listening and understanding the nuances. For example, as you're listening to me, I can see you and you're telling me a lot of things without saying a single word. And you see what I'm talking about. And by the way, collaboration is not something that AI does well. Trust building is not something that AI does well. Relationship creating is not something that AI does well. And it's really out of the box thinking. Actually, it's not very good at that because everything.
speaker-1: Exactly. Yes.
speaker-0: thinking comes from something that it's already found. So I would say that taking and being able to speak, I think it is powerful. I mean, you could have a robot give a speech, I hope you get well soon. And as a matter of fact, they might even say, I hope you get well soon. It's still a robot. It doesn't care whether you get well. so I'm getting at, we need to have those human skills and get better at them. Cause a lot of people are not good at communicating. Not good at collaborating when they get out of college. They're not good at those kinds of things. And they should be, because that's a weakness. But we also have to be aware and able to, willing to learn new things like technical skills, learning about the sciences. But we don't have to just learn about science. You could learn about art. There's a future for artists. There's a future for musicians. There's a future for live performance. Absolutely. And by the way. Here's a future for a show with virtual artists. I call it the both and principle. So I'm not going to give you another teaching moment. Okay. And that is I've been really good at predicting the future. One of the reasons I've been good at it is I leave out the parts I can be wrong about. And of course that relates to hard trends and soft trends, of course. So I'm going to give you another secret ingredient to make sure you're right about the future. When most of us see something new, we assume the old is gone. It's the either or default. Either the future is this or that. It's either going to be all crypto or it's going to be all regular money. It's going to be all, you know, this or that, this or that. It's not the way to see the future. doesn't work that way. It's this and that. I call it the both and rather than the either or. So the key is how do we integrate? The old with the new, so the integration has more value than the older, the new by themselves. How do we integrate crypto with the ways that we manage our money? other words, we've got, so it's a both and world, it's not either or. Elon Musk made a prediction back in 2015 that by 25, where we are today, we would have no cars sold with a steering wheel, a pedal, they would all be autonomous. And in 2015, when he made that prediction, I said, sorry, Elon, you'll be wrong. You could find the article I wrote about it. I said, I can't imagine Porsche or much less Lamborghini saying that they got a car you can't control, but it's got nice seats. You know what I mean? I like to drive. I don't like accidents. What we're doing is making the cars increasingly safe. And so far all of our cars will whistle and beep and vibrate, we ignore it and have the accident anyway. So the next phase is you can't have the accident. They're already starting to put that in some of the cars now where you can't have the accident. By the way, what's the impact of that? A lot less people in our ERs and emergency rooms.
speaker-1: monetary too. That's lot less insurance money, lot less that sort of thing too. It's human economic at the same time.
speaker-0: The auto repair store, the collision repair stores. In other words, all of a sudden you can start seeing the future. you start seeing this as a way to look ahead and to see where the opportunities are. So again, so back on, we will have autonomous vehicles are already are some, but instead of saying that we'll all be autonomous. It's like, some will be and some won't be. For example, can you imagine little kindergartners, first and second graders in a school bus with no adult supervision? No, no, no, no, no. And by the way, there's an adult in there, why not put them behind the wheel? Now I want that bus to not be able to have an accident, but just in case, because we all know things can get hacked. I'd like a steering wheel, a brake and some ways for that human to control it. But then again, we will have vehicles that are fully autonomous. It's a both and work.
speaker-1: No, no parent was too Yeah. I'm completely aligned with you when it comes to that and AI too, because I'm a big proponent of using it in my job and in my career and whatnot. And, and I use it from the perspective of making myself better, not replacing myself. And, and when you know the topic that you're using it for, you can recognize when it's inaccurate, when it's not correct. And I've had to adjust it in lots of ways. And going back to what you said about the human part of it, I adjust the wording all the time because I look at things and go, that's how I speak. I would never say it that way. It's correct. It's grammatically sound, but nobody speaks like that. I have to change it. It's not going to resonate. I hear of people talking about using AI for therapy and I'm thinking, are you bananas? Are you out of your head? Not having that human empathic connection? There's just going to be somebody, you know, a thing, not somebody, a thing, regurgitating things that you would hear. It's not going to have the same impact. As whether or not I'm listening to Daniel tell me and seeing the empathy and compassion in his eyes as he's telling it to me, because he's connecting with me on a deeper level of what I'm actually experiencing. So yeah, I'm completely aligned and I get your point from that perspective. I always joke about it and say, I'm a big Marvel fan and I grew up reading comic books. Yes, I called it a comic book. I'm that old. It wasn't graphic novels. When I grew up, it was a comic book and I'm a big Marvel fan and I love. The analogy I use for AI and when people ask me is, I think of myself as Tony Stark and Jarvis is my AI. Jarvis was not better than Tony. No one would replace Iron Man with Jarvis. Jarvis helped Iron Man be a better Iron Man. But even he would call out Jarvis on certain things. Hey, do I need to reboot you? That doesn't sound accurate. Like, because he had the knowledge of what he was using Jarvis to do. And I use the AI from that perspective to where... tasks like you, you call it the 80 % can get you 80 % there. People see where I output and they think, do you have an assistant? Do you have a company? said, no, I don't. ⁓ it's just me. But the things that you're thinking that takes eight hours, it's taken me maybe 45 minutes because I know how to use the AI to get what I need done, but it can't replace me. It can't have this conversation we're having now because it can't predict what I'm going to say, what you're going to say and how we're going to respond to each other. I'm completely aligned with you when you talk about AI from that perspective. Putting on your teaching hat for a moment. Somebody just comes into your orbit, not a CEO or some leader or founder or entrepreneur, but a normal person, normal student comes into your orbit and all the books you've written, the articles you've published, the essays you've read, you've written and everything there at Burris.com. Where would you suggest they start? What should be their introduction to you and your work?
speaker-0: Well, I think a good place to start is going to BRUHRUS, R-U-S dot com, because they can find a, I'm happy to say an award winning learning system in there. They can find books in there. They can find articles they can download. There are free resources. There's some other kind of resources. Also, if you, can go to LinkedIn. I've got just under 1.2 million followers because I do a lot of sharing there. Daniel BRUHRUS, that's how you find me there. But ⁓ what I would advise people to do. The core of what I'm trying to get people to do is to be less reactionary and more anticipatory. And as as kind of a wrapping up closing concept moment here, right? What I'd like you to think about is most people are trying to look at being agile as a way of dealing with rapid change. But agility came from sports. It's reacting as quickly as you can to a problem after it occurs. As quickly as you can to disruption after it disrupts. It's a reactionary strategy. faster you react, better. But the world is changing so fast, that's having less value. So I want you to be agile. There's a lot of things you can't predict. You better be agile. But what I'm saying is I'm teaching you how to do the other thing, how to anticipate problems before you have them so can pre-solve them. Anticipate disruptions before they disrupt so disruptions becomes a choice. I'm trying to give you certainty to balance against uncertainty. They both exist, but if everything is uncertain, man, you're going to have a tough life. I'd like you to have that other part. So I'm all about helping people to get better at being anticipatory and using certainty to give them the confidence to make bold moves.
speaker-1: Well said. Before I let you go, since you just talked about it, share the name of the book on the anticipatory response. Sounds like it's relevant.
speaker-0: book is the Anticipatory Organization. It sounds like it's for business, but really you'll see it's for people as well, for individuals and not just for leaders, because it's got a lot of great examples. And by the way, there's a lot more in that book than hard trends and soft trends. talked about problem skipping, how opposites work better, how to do a time travel audit to find out whether you're in the past, the present, or the future. I mean, there's so many cool things in there. I think you'll really enjoy it.
speaker-1: Good. Thank you for sharing with us and everybody listening, go to burus.com, B-U-R-R-U-S.com for more information on Daniel Burress and his works and his writings. And thank you for being with me.
speaker-0: Thank you so much. ⁓
speaker-1: the store
speaker-0: you
speaker-1: I'm still