---
title: 'Why AI Won''t Make You Rich in 2026'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=WttZ6b-KUP4'
video_id: 'WttZ6b-KUP4'
date: 2026-07-29
duration_sec: 581
---

# Why AI Won't Make You Rich in 2026

> Source: [Why AI Won't Make You Rich in 2026](https://youtube.com/watch?v=WttZ6b-KUP4)

## Summary

The speaker challenges the common misconception that AI alone is the key to business success, arguing that many other forms of leverage (capital, media, prioritization) remain essential. He observes that wealthy friends rarely use AI daily, and that most AI use cases don't significantly increase profits. Instead, the highest leverage activity is making good decisions and focusing on the business's true constraint.

### Key Points

- **Misconception about AI leverage** [00:01] — AI does not cancel other forms of leverage (capital, media, labor). Leverage means getting a lot out of a little input; AI is just one type.
- **Wealthy friends rarely use AI** [01:09] — The speaker asked his wealthiest friends how much they use AI daily, and most admitted they don't use it themselves, though their teams do.
- **Many forms of leverage are multiplicative** [02:02] — Capital, media, and other people's labor are still powerful. AI doesn't erase them; combining multiple leverages yields even more.
- **AI can lead to misprioritization** [02:46] — Business owners use AI to do low-priority tasks faster, but they neglect higher-leverage activities. Without AI, forced prioritization would improve focus.
- **AI often doesn't solve the main constraint** [03:42] — Most AI use cases (e.g., AI sales rep) improve efficiency but don't address the business's limiting factor. The constraint is still not solvable by AI alone.
- **Non-AI leverage examples** [04:10] — Changing from one-on-one to one-to-many sales gives 10x leverage. Improving sales conversion can reduce team size. None of this requires AI.
- **Highest leverage: making good decisions** [05:55] — Deciding what not to do (stopping low-priority work) frees up team resources more than automating irrelevant tasks.
- **Quality still matters** [06:33] — Businesses grow by increasing demand and conversion quality. AI helps but is not the driver; good offers and brands still win.
- **AI as a distraction tool** [07:52] — Many people use AI to become more distracted, making poor resource allocation decisions, and thus not making more money.
- **Key question for business owners** [08:22] — Ask: 'Has implementing AI in my business made me more money?' If no, you're using it in the wrong place. Focus on the true constraint.

### Conclusion

AI is a tool that increases leverage, but it does not replace other forms of leverage. The highest-leverage activity remains making good decisions and focusing limited resources on the business's true constraint.

## Transcript

against AI, and more specifically, why more people are not making money despite using AI a lot and token maxing and vibe coding and making all these apps and all that stuff. And so, the big misconception, I
think, around AI is that AI somehow canceled every other form of leverage. leverage just means the difference in what you put in and leverage, you put a little bit in, you get a lot out. If you have low leverage,
then you put a lot in, you get a little bit out. So, that, you know, AI great. But, the thing is is that there's a lot things [snorts] that create leverage. And so, this whole misconception around
like, "Oh, we must only use AI in order to succeed." Um taken differently, and individuals who are using AI and are somehow not making more money. And so, what I find kind of interesting
is a couple things. So, number one, when I look at our business, we are uh we now have had a another kind of step increase in our revenue, um but it's not because of AI. That's the thing. It's not because of
have had the increase. And so, it's not like a direct line there. Um the second kind of proof point that I think is more interesting around this, tactics, um is that I talked to a number of uh my
wealthiest, oldest friends uh over the last week or two, and I I said, "Listen, appearances." So, I said, "Of course, we're here. We're all super AI advocates because you have to do that." Um but, I said, "How much are you actually
using AI every day?" And like, they kind of like look around and they're like, like, "Well, your teams aren't." He's like, "Oh, yeah, of course, you know, of training the team up and all that kind of stuff. And I was like, "But, you're
not using it." And they're like, "No. No, I'm not." And I was like, "So, that's very interesting to me." And so, this is the thought that I I kind of want to challenge you with and then I'll leave some tactics at the end.
Which is there are a lot of forms of leverage. many forms of leverage are multiplicative. So, for example, capital [clears throat] AI coming in didn't somehow erase
the leverage that capital uses. If you are in media and you make a video like this and thousands of people see it or millions of people see it, that is tremendous leverage, right? AI doesn't erase that.
together, let's say you have capital and you have media and and maybe you have leverage for other people. Um I do find it ironic that like these the frontier thousands of employees and so it's just like kind of interesting as a as a
still being, you know, needed and useful. Um but the thought of it is this is that I'm seeing so many business owners I'm seeing so many business owners trying to AI-max and their because their
trying to AI-max and their because their capacity to work has increased using AI, would not have done if they didn't have AI. But the thing is, those things that lower priorities. And so now they're doing things that were
less important faster and automated. Great. point. Um one of the interesting things about not having AI is that it forces you to
prioritize better. It forces you to focus on the things that are going to move the needle in the business. And I'm not seeing with an exclusion of like just a handful of exceptions, um most AI use cases that I've seen um are
not actually making the business a ton more money. I think that having, you sure is helpful from from an from an advertising perspective. Um helpful. But the thing is it's like the AI sales rep is great, but like I also
not like this You know what I'm saying? Like it's like it's it's more efficient, you know, and it scales, but it's it's typically not the limiter of the business. And this is my point is that the constraint of the business many
business constraints at least to this at this point are not still as perfectly solvable with AI. And if they were, then everybody be making a ton more money. This is kind of like the crux of this, which is Let me give you some other
just not employing that you don't need any tech expertise to do. If you have a one-on, you know, one to one to many. It's like that would create a lot of so if you want one-on-one to one-on-10, you have 10x leverage. Like just like
you go from having scheduled appointments with clients to it's like that gives you a tremendous increase in leverage in terms of how perspective. If you change your sales motion so that a higher percentage
people buy, uh, and so instead of needing 10 sales amount because you've, you know, basically educated your prospects sales process more fully so they need less information
conversations for your sales reps and they talk to more qualified customers, to take 10 people and you can funnel to two. None of that uses AI. This is my a business where you can increase leverage that there's this fallacy that
because I now have this infinite tool and I'll use infinite with quotes here. I'm just seeing a lot of people using not making more money. That's kind of my point. And so it's this idea that we can throw away the fundamentals of business,
throw away the fundamentals of business, but that's not true. Like you have to one is you want to use every form of leverage that you have at your disposal to solve the constraint of the business. If you don't know what the constraint of
automated does not make you more And I think this was the conversation that I was having because I'll tell you the the highest leverage thing that you can do, even higher leverage than AI.
Ready for it? Making good decisions. Think about it. If I If I have my whole team and I say, "Hey guys, we're actually not going to do this whole bunch of work
important anymore." By doing that, I get so much more out of my team. Like, I think it is more efficient for me to determine that something is not a priority than for me to automate something that is not a
to automate something that is not a priority. That was pretty good. That is higher leverage.
And so, I will get more out um of this resource that I have, my team, than if I just try and automate it and then create an output that is irrelevant. And so, this is what I'm saying. And so, I think um quality still
things. Um there's obviously use cases and and very aggressive adopters of AI across the business. When I look at the the things that are growing are the things that have always grown in, right?
to convert a higher percentage of that demand, and we need to create um high-quality stuff. And right now, AI can help, but it's actually, you know, it's actually probably a really good analogy. A lot of
It's almost like access to a lot of virtual assistants. Like, third-world ways right now, a lot of the use cases are like that. I'm not saying it's of throughlines there. Which is
And to be fair, I think virtual assistants right now sometimes are even cheaper than the AI token usage. Um but that's always been there. And didn't have them or did have them, and it's still the same marketplace, and
still people with good brands and there's still great offers and bad offer, then AI on the back end is not going to going to use AI to improve my offer." Maybe.
Um and so, anyways, that is my that is my public service announcement, which is that AI, though it increases leverage, does not cancel other forms of leverage. does not cancel other forms of leverage. Um
and for most people, they're using it on things to be more distracted because they have more resources now. They are still making poor decisions about how to allocate those resources. And as a result, thing three, are not
just because they have AI. And so, I is "Has implementing AI in my business made me more money?" If it hasn't,
wrong place. Which means that you need to return to the thing that matters most, which is identifying your true constraint. And then forcing all of your very limited, and I say that for myself included, all
available in the world, every one of us has in like a speck of resources available to us. And so, we have that tiny speck and our ability to focus that tiny speck of resource on the one thing that's going
to move the needle, our skill at being able to do that you more money, even more than AI. AI is just a tool. It's not the answer. So, anyways, that is my that is my two
cents for the day. I hope you uh I hope you like my very impromptu style. too. Anyways, lots of luck. If you like this video and you're business owner who revenue ceiling, I just filled every lesson from scaling 10 businesses past
million into a completely free scaling to one, zero to 10, and zero to 100 plus. And so, you can click here and you free. And since you're a business owner, I appreciate you, and uh enjoy.