March 14, 2026 | Read online​

Well, not really.

I’m currently on a European tour with my wife and daughter looking at potential colleges for my daughter when she graduates in about 2.5 years.

We’re visiting Barcelona, Monaco, Amsterdam, and Switzerland.

I coordinated the trip with a training session I had in Barcelona for the first three days of the adventure. As I write this, I’m on a flight to Amsterdam to meet up with my wife and daughter who had gone to Nice and Monaco while I was training.

During the training, there was a lot of discussion about AI and the impact it’s having on Sales. I’m desperately trying to get reps to wake up and learn how to use AI to AUGMENT their skills and help them learn, instead of using it to AUTOMATE the output and skip the learning process.

That’s the transition we’re in right now.

We’re all living in a legacy model and moving into something new that’s evolving so fast none of us fully know where it’s going or what to do about it.

If we ignore what’s happening with AI or think it’s not going to impact us, we’re going to get a rude awakening very soon.

The paradox for me is that I also see the downside.

I know how bad these platforms are for the environment. I know there’re basically no guardrails and how dangerous that can be. I know we could be racing toward a Terminator scenario.

But I also know that if I don’t use them to evolve, I’m going to get run over by the people who do.

The other thing I’ve been struggling with on this trip is what to tell my daughter about school and where she should focus.

For any kid going into college right now, I can’t in good conscience tell them that whatever major they choose and whatever job they think they’ll get in four years will still be there, because it probably won’t.

I’m not even sure if traditional college will even be relevant in 2.5 years when she graduates high school, especially in the U.S.

It has always seemed ridiculous to me that kids go $200–300k into debt to get a $50k a year job.

I wrote a LinkedIn post a while ago with a college calculator that shows the reality of going to a specific school, getting a degree, and what that actually means for your lifestyle once you graduate and start paying off the debt.

If you run the numbers, there are very few professions where the math actually works.

Now add AI and uncertainty in the job market, and those economics make even less sense.

That’s why we’re looking overseas where the cost of college is dramatically lower.

The question I keep coming back to is what direction I should encourage my daughter to go in.

Since my wife and I are both entrepreneurs and business owners, the most logical answer seems to be business.

Even before AI, I used to tell kids going to college to at least get a business minor so they can learn how to make money doing whatever they want to do.

You want to be an artist (my first major)? Fine. But please learn how to make money being an artist. Musician, psychologist, writer, designer… same thing. Learn how business works.

Now with AI, I think understanding the fundamentals of business and how value gets created is more important than ever.

This is why I’m telling every rep I train that the number one thing they should focus on improving has nothing to do with sales techniques. It’s business acumen.

Learn how to speak the language of business so you can have real conversations with executives about the challenges in their industry, their company, and their role.

No executive wants to be “sold” to or “qualified”.

They want help solving problems that matter to them and help navigate this AI transition just like the rest of us.

The more we understand business and how AI is impacting it, the more valuable we become to our prospects and clients.

This is also why I’ve been diving deeper into resources that focus on how businesses actually work, not just sales techniques.

One book I’ve been reading recently that does a great job of breaking this down is called Business Acumen for Sales Success: Selling the Big Picture to Build Trust and Close More Deals by Kevin Cope. I’m actually having him on my podcast in the coming weeks and I’m excited to dig into this topic more with him.

The book focuses on helping people understand how executives think about strategy, money, and decision-making. If you want to improve your business acumen and have better conversations with leadership teams, it’s a great place to start.

Because the reality is this. Clients already have access to most of the information they need about our products without even talking to us.

So what value does a rep bring to the equation?

If your job is simply managing the process (qualify/discovery/demo/proposal/negotiate/close), that role is becoming irrelevant.

We need to add value in every interaction from prospecting through close.

That’s why prospecting needs to shift from simple trigger-event personalization to a hypothesis-driven approach where you bring insights to the people you’re reaching out to.

I used to roll my eyes when sales trainers talked about “adding value in every touch.” How is a 22-year-old SDR selling cybersecurity supposed to add value to a CISO?

Before AI, I would have told you not to even try because you’ll probably embarrass yourself.

Now it’s different.

If you’re curious enough to learn, it’s not that hard.

You can use AI to learn what CISOs care about, what their priorities are, what trends are impacting their industry, and what challenges they’re facing.

Then you can analyze their company, their competitors, their financial reports, and their leadership team.

From there you can bring insights, hypotheses, and ideas that actually help them think.

There is a great deal of value we can bring if we’re curious and care enough to learn.

That’s the only path I see for sales professionals to stay relevant as we head into this unknown future.

As for my daughter, I’m focusing less on IQ skills and more on values, communication skills, empathy, critical thinking and curiosity.

Because AI will eventually handle most pure IQ work.

As we visit these schools I’ve been asking one simple question:

“How are you integrating AI into your learning process and preparing students for a world that’s changing this fast?”

If they don’t have a good answer, we move on to the next school.

Hopefully the University of Amsterdam has a good answer.

Because I wouldn’t mind visiting her a few times a year and checking out a few of the local coffee shops ;)

#MakeitHappen