Why You Must Become an Entrepreneur

SUMMARY

Daniel Priestley, an experienced entrepreneur, explains how AI disrupts jobs and the economy, urging everyone to embrace entrepreneurship by leveraging digital assets like intellectual property, data, media, and code in the emerging digital age.

STATEMENTS

• The agricultural age, based on land ownership, declined around 1750 with the rise of the industrial age driven by factories and offices requiring local labor.
• The digital age disconnects success from geography, emphasizing intellectual property, data, media, and code as key assets replacing outdated industrial systems.
• Schooling systems from the 1850s prepared people for the industrial age, which peaked in the late 20th century as depicted in The Simpsons, but are now in decline.
• In the industrial age, rewards followed a bell curve where average workers like Homer Simpson earned comfortable lives through wages for average effort.
• The digital age operates on a power law, where 10% of participants capture 90% of results, making average performance unviable and top 10% expertise essential.
• Income currently enters households mainly through wages (60%), government benefits (15%), performance fees (15%), and asset rents (10%), but AI will erode wages.
• AI automation will eliminate repeatable, average tasks, reducing wage earners to about 30% while pushing others toward benefits or entrepreneurship.
• Governments may introduce universal basic income and wealth taxes to fund benefits, targeting traditional assets while digital entrepreneurs with IP and code become hard to tax due to mobility.
• Building digital assets like personal brands, content libraries, and databases enables high-performance fees, offering freedom and protection from economic shifts.
• Success in the digital age involves niching down to dominate specific intersections, then pivoting to larger markets to climb power laws.

IDEAS

• AI will impact every business and industry, rendering no jobs immune and forcing widespread adaptation through entrepreneurship.
• The decline of the industrial age means geography no longer limits opportunity, allowing digital entrepreneurs to thrive in places like Dubai without farmland or factories.
• Outdated education systems from the 19th century equipped people for a world of factories, but now leave most unprepared for digital asset creation.
• Homer Simpson's comfortable life on an average factory wage represented the industrial peak, a scenario now unbelievable in modern media.
• Power laws in digital environments concentrate rewards at the top, unlike bell curves that rewarded mediocrity in industrial wages.
• Niching at intersections like fitness for busy male executives running marathons positions individuals in the top 10% of a defined market.
• Digital workers can relocate easily with just a laptop, evading high taxes and building global audiences for their content and services.
• AI disrupts monotonous tasks, shifting income from wages to performance-based fees amplified by intellectual property and media.
• Wealth taxes may target traditional assets like houses and shares to fund universal basic income, but digital assets provide untouchable leverage.
• Entrepreneurship evolves through repeated niching and pivoting, starting small to dominate power laws and scaling to broader markets.

INSIGHTS

• Transitioning from industrial to digital eras reveals that clinging to average skills ensures obsolescence, while owning digital assets guarantees resilience.
• Power laws demand deliberate niche mastery over broad averageness, transforming personal expertise into scalable, location-independent value.
• AI's automation of routine work exposes wage systems as fragile, redirecting economic power to creators of intellectual property and code.
• Governments' fiscal responses like wealth taxes highlight the mobility advantage of digital entrepreneurs, who can outpace regulatory grasp.
• Building a personal brand around high-performance niches not only secures income but fosters lifestyle freedom in a disrupted world.
• The digital age inverts traditional success paths, rewarding innovative asset accumulation over physical labor or fixed employment.

QUOTES

• "Unfortunately, the way AI is disrupting the world at the moment, everybody is going to have to become more entrepreneurial."
• "You were raised for a system that no longer exists. You went to a schooling system that was created in the 1850s."
• "Just simply turning up and being Homer Simpson, being average doesn't work anymore. You must be in the top 10% at something."
• "Wages just do not make sense in an AI world. Anything that is average, anything that's repeatable, anything that's just kind of like monotonous, we can automate it."
• "Don't seek out passive income. Seek out massive income. Anything that helps you to be a high performer because of your brand, because of your database, because of your content library."

HABITS

• Continuously niche down expertise to dominate specific markets, then pivot to adjacent areas for growth.
• Invest time in creating intellectual property like books, videos, and courses to amplify performance-based earnings.
• Build and maintain a personal brand through consistent online content to attract global audiences.
• Track economic trends and disruptions to adapt business models proactively, as done over 20 years in multiple ventures.
• Scale businesses rapidly by focusing on digital assets that enable location-independent work and high profitability.

FACTS

• Microsoft laid off nearly 4% of its workforce this week to refocus on AI, exemplifying tech-driven job cuts.
• The industrial age peaked in the late 20th century, allowing average workers to afford large homes and family support without dual incomes.
• Currently, 60% of household income comes from wages, 15% from government benefits, 15% from performance fees, and 10% from asset rents.
• Google captures 90% of search traffic, illustrating how power laws dominate digital markets.
• Dubai thrives as a hub for digital entrepreneurs despite lacking farmland or factories, drawing talent with its business-friendly environment.

REFERENCES

• The Simpsons (cultural peak of industrial age lifestyle).
• ScoreApp YouTube channel (@ScoreApp).
• KPI YouTube channel (@KeyPersonOfInfluence).

HOW TO APPLY

• Identify a niche intersection of interests and audiences, such as fitness for busy executives, to position yourself in the top 10% of that space.
• Create digital assets like intellectual property (e.g., books, courses), media (videos, content), data (customer databases), and code (tools, software) to build scalable value.
• Develop a personal brand by producing and sharing content that establishes you as a key person of influence in your niche, attracting global buyers.
• Shift from wage-seeking to performance fees by linking earnings directly to measurable results, such as commissions or project-based work enhanced by digital tools.
• Monitor macro trends like AI disruptions and pivot your niche iteratively: dominate small markets first, then expand to larger ones for sustained growth.

ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY

Embrace entrepreneurship by mastering digital assets to thrive in the AI-driven power law economy beyond average wages.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Prioritize building intellectual property and online content over traditional jobs to secure high-performance income streams.
• Define hyper-specific niches to climb power laws, ensuring you're the go-to expert in underserved intersections.
• Relocate strategically to low-tax havens if needed, leveraging digital mobility to protect earnings from wealth taxes.
• Avoid passive income pursuits; instead, cultivate active, brand-amplified ventures for massive, flexible rewards.
• Prepare for universal basic income by diversifying into untaxable digital assets that enable location-independent lifestyles.

MEMO

In an era where artificial intelligence is reshaping economies at breakneck speed, entrepreneur Daniel Priestley issues a stark warning: the average job is becoming extinct. Drawing from two decades of scaling businesses—from seven startups hitting a million dollars in their first year to three exceeding ten million—Priestley argues that the digital age demands entrepreneurial savvy from everyone. No industry will escape AI's reach, as seen in Microsoft's recent layoffs of 4% of its workforce to pivot toward AI priorities. The Bay Area's largest employers are slashing thousands of positions, signaling a broader unraveling of the wage system that once promised stability.

Priestley traces this disruption back centuries, from the agricultural era's land-based power structures collapsing around 1750 into the industrial age of factories and offices. That system, too, is fading, supplanted by a digital realm where geography holds no sway. Cities like Dubai exemplify this shift: barren of farmland and too scorching for factories, yet booming with digital nomads wielding intellectual property, data troves, media content, and code. Our 19th-century schooling, Priestley notes, primed us for assembly lines and clerical work—ideal from 1850 to 1950, but obsolete today. The cultural zenith of that world shines in The Simpsons, where Homer's factory gig affords a sprawling home, vacations, and a single-income family life—unimaginable now amid skyrocketing costs and stagnant wages.

At the heart of this transformation lies a mathematical pivot: from the industrial bell curve, which rewarded mediocrity, to the digital power law, funneling 90% of gains to the top 10%. Google dominates 90% of searches; average performers like Homer Simpson starve in this arena. To survive, Priestley urges niching ruthlessly—perhaps coaching busy male executives to run their first marathon—claiming the summit of a bespoke power law. Promote yourself as the indispensable authority, drawing global clients to your courses, books, and videos. Start narrow, dominate, then pivot wider, evading the bell curve's trap.

Economically, households today draw income through four streams: wages (60%), benefits (15%), performance fees (15%), and asset rents (10%). AI will automate the mundane, halving wage reliance to 30% while swelling benefits—likely via universal basic income—and birthing more entrepreneurs chasing commissions. Governments, strapped to fund this, may impose wealth taxes on homes and stocks, yielding low returns under 5%. Yet digital assets offer escape: high performers with brands and databases earn exponentially, hopping borders with laptops to tax havens. Priestley scoffs at passive income dreams; pursue "massive income" through portable superpowers.

The path forward? Forge a "lifestyle boutique" business—fun, flexible, anywhere-bound. Priestley's own ventures embody this: zero-to-seven-figure blueprints via IP and code. As AI accelerates, the entrepreneurial mindset isn't optional—it's survival, promising not just security but a "wonderful" life unbound by the old world's chains.