August 15, 2026 | Read online
I've been asking the same question on my podcast for months now, and I haven't gotten a great answer yet.
Where do fundamentals come from if the experience that builds them is going away? And the even bigger question is: what are the fundamentals anymore, and have they changed?
Let me back up.
When I started in sales, I did a lot of grunt work. For leads and contact info, I had to buy a book of CDs from Dun & Bradstreet D&B Marketplace, which was a CD-ROM database of US business listings you could filter by SIC code, geography, and company size. I then had to print out that list with spaces between each row so I could take notes when I made my calls.
I’d go into office buildings, knock on doors, try to butter up secretaries to gain info or access to decision makers, and get asked to leave more often than I’d like to admit. I drove all over New England because all my meetings were face-to-face, and if they canceled, I rarely knew until I got there and had to drive all the way back.
I’m not saying all that to brag or reminisce in any way, but that grunt work gave me the skills, the business acumen, and the context to get where I am. It's why I don't need templates and scripts anymore. I can read a room and have a dynamic conversation with anyone at any level.
It's also why I can use AI the right way. When AI gives me an output, I have 25+ years of pattern recognition to question it, push back on it, and know when it's wrong. The context and fundamentals came first. The tool came second.
Here's the problem. AI now does the vast majority of entry-level work better than most kids coming out of college ever could. All the grunt work I did to develop my fundamentals is exactly what's being automated away.
We're all in this transition where the old model is broken, and nobody knows what the new model looks like yet.
My answer has been to go back to fundamentals. It's what I'm doing with my own training right now, teaching the fundamentals first and then augmenting them with AI so reps understand the WHY behind the output AI gives them. Sales fundamentals didn't stop mattering because AI showed up. They matter more, because AI exposes the gap between people who understand the why and people who copy and paste.
But if I'm being honest, "back to fundamentals" only answers half the question.
Because if the entry-level experience isn't there anymore, where do the next generation's fundamentals come from? And should we even be teaching the same ones?
I keep landing on curiosity and critical thinking as the skills that will matter most. Then I get stuck on the obvious follow-up, which is: how do you teach critical thinking to someone who has the answer to every question at their fingertips?
I know people said the same thing about math vs. calculators, maps vs. GPS, the internet, and other innovations, and maybe I’m wrong, but this AI stuff feels different. Calculators get better every day.
This is one of the reasons why my daughter and I started the Future Founder Project.
My daughter graduates high school in a few years, and I'm honestly not sure college is going to be the obvious path by then. Going $200-400k in debt to get a degree that will hopefully get you a $60k/year job in the industry related to your major was a tough sell for me to begin with. Now with AI? I can’t look at any kid going into college right now and confidently tell them the job they think they will get with their degree will even be a job done by a human by the time they graduate.
What I am sure of is that the ability to create something, sell it, and build your own income without depending on somebody else's paycheck is a fundamental that survives every version of this transition. I think entrepreneurship is the future for a lot of these kids.
So instead of waiting for someone to figure out the new model, I’m teaching her how to build something real.
Some of you remember the book we wrote together about 8 years ago, I Want to Be in Sales When I Grow Up, based on her door-to-door Girl Scout cookie days. Your support helped us generate over $25,000 for the World Wildlife Fund back then.
We still have a garage full of those books, and now they're the raw material we’re going to use to help my daughter build a business and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Here's how it works: $500 sponsors one kid. They get a box of 24 books, $100 in real startup money, and a step-by-step playbook. Then they run an actual business, selling, handling no's, doing the math, and writing a thank-you letter to their sponsor about what they earned and learned.
To be clear, this isn't a charity. You're backing two young entrepreneurs at once - the kid who gets the box, and the teenage founder (my daughter) running the whole operation. She’s already found her “why,” identified the ICP for sponsors and kids, developed her pitch, built the website, and strategized with me about how to get the word out, which is one of the reasons I’m writing about it in this week’s newsletter.
I posted about it on LinkedIn this week. It got thousands of impressions and over a hundred comments with tons of "this is amazing." You know how many of those turned into a sponsored kid? 3….
I'm not mad at anyone. It's how LinkedIn works. But likes don't put a box in a kid's hands, and it reminded me why this newsletter is the audience I actually count on.
Most of you know I don't sell hard. I make my living selling sales training, and you rarely hear me push you to buy anything. So when I do ask, it's because it matters.
This one matters.
If you can sponsor a kid, it's $500 at www.futurefounderproject.com. If $500 isn't in the cards, you can chip in $10 or $20; it pools up to launch the next founder. And if you know a kid with some hustle in them, or a teacher or program that works with kids, have them apply on the site to become a Future Founder.
I don't know exactly what the fundamentals of the next decade look like. Betting on a kid learning how to build something is the safest one I can find.
Help us make this happen.
#MakeItHappen
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