Be the Scary Person

A 12-year-old girl in China just changed how I think about everything.

Her name is Candy Tang. A reporter found her reel online. And what she said in less than 30 seconds stopped me cold.

The reporter asked Candy if AI scared her. She said, "AI never scares me, because I think AI is a tool. If I use AI, I will be the scary person."

She's 12. She's already built apps that make her money. An AI tool that connects people to doctors. A reservation system for her local pool. She didn't wait for permission. She didn't wait until it was safe or proven or socially acceptable. She just picked up the tool and went to work.

Then I looked at the next reel.

American college students. Booing AI at graduation. Signs that say "AI is slop." One kid in Alaska tore an AI art piece off the wall and actually ate it. On camera. Put the paper in his mouth and chewed it.

Same technology. Completely different future.

The Luddites Lost. They Always Do.

The original Luddites were English textile workers in 1811. They smashed factory machines. They had real grievances. Their wages were getting cut and their trade was disappearing. They fought hard. They lost harder.

Innovation won. It always wins.

And yet here we are again. People forming Luddite clubs in 2026. Using words like "slop." Eating paper in protest. I'm not mocking the fear. The fear makes sense. What doesn't make sense is letting the fear make your decisions.

You've got three ways to meet a tool like this. Fear it. Ignore it. Or embrace it. Only one of those puts you ahead, and it has nothing to do with age, country, or background. It's a choice you make.

The Choice Is Already Happening in Your Industry

Here are the facts. Not opinion. Facts.

Yes, somewhere around 85 to 92 million jobs may be displaced by AI by 2030. But 97 to 170 million new ones get created. About half of all jobs get augmented, not erased. The person who learns AI does the augmenting. The person who resists gets augmented around. (BCG)

Companies that actually get good at AI run revenues and efficiencies 7.2 times higher than those that don't. 56% of properly run AI projects show measurable gains in financial performance.

The question was never if. The question is always who.

Candy Tang is 12. She chose who. Your competition is making that same choice right now. The window to get ahead of this is still open, but it won't be forever.

My Daughter Gets It Too

My daughter Imana is 16. Five AP classes last semester. She uses AI to quiz herself on material, not to cheat, to learn faster. She treats it like a study partner who never gets tired. She also uses it to help create YouTube thumbnails.

She didn't wait for me to teach her. She didn't wait for school to catch up. She just started.

Candy didn't wait. Imana didn't wait.

The kids who are winning aren't winning because they're gifted. They're winning because they started.

Your 10-Minute Rep This Week

Here's the move. Pick one small annoyance in your day. One tiny thing. A tip calculator for your team. A checklist for onboarding a client. A simple habit tracker. Then hand it to an AI builder in plain English and let it build you a tool.

The point isn't a perfect product. The point is to feel it work once.

Download Claude Code or Codex. Both build working apps from a plain-English description. Then describe what you want in detail. Not just "make me an app." Say what it does, who uses it, and what each button should do. The clearer you are, the better it comes out.

Use the thing you built. That's your rep. Do it this week.

You're not learning to code. You're learning to direct. That's a completely different skill, and it's one that compounds fast.

This Week on the Pod

This week on King Moves (Ep. 132), I get into how to build more margin into your life and your business. I recorded it after a brutal travel day. Canceled flight. Two delays. Then a truck hit my taxi on the way to the venue. Everyone walked away fine, but my whole week got knocked sideways. I still made it to the stage. I still pushed through the book launch days right after. And I finally caught up on sleep that Saturday.

Margin is what made that possible. Toward the end, I tie it directly to this: if you feel like AI is bullying you, bully the bully. Learn it. Make it create more margin in your life and business. Listen here.

One More Thing

My book Done: Let A.I. Do Your Work So You Can Live Your Life hit #1 International Bestseller on Amazon. 63 bestseller categories across the US, Canada, and Australia. 28 of them at #1, including categories where it outranked Elon Musk's book.

That happened because of people who showed up on launch day. I don't take that lightly.

If you've read it, one favor: leave an honest review on Amazon. Two minutes. That review puts the book in front of the next reader who needs it.

If you haven't grabbed it yet, it's at donebook.ai. No Kindle device required. The free Kindle app works on any phone or tablet.

Be the scary person.