Today is the 173rd birthday of Vincent van Gogh. We know him as a timeless artist, but his path was anything but a straight line.
Before he ever picked up a paintbrush, Van Gogh was a deeply faithful man who worked as a missionary to coal miners in Belgium. He gave away his clothes, slept on straw, and was eventually dismissed for being “too zealous.” He failed as an art dealer, a teacher, and a bookkeeper. He didn’t start painting seriously until he was nearly 30.
Purpose is rarely a fixed destination.
I’ve been thinking about the panic surrounding AI and the “Lump of Labor” fallacy, the idea that there is only a finite amount of work to be done, and once a machine does it, the human is obsolete. History and economics tell a different story. But our personal experiences tell an even better one.
My own path was shaped by meanders that felt like crises at the time:
• After high school, I wasn’t in a server room. I didn’t even know they existed. I was a concrete laborer slinging mud and tying giant mats of rebar, working to keep a roof over my head. • In 2004, while gainfully employed at General Dynamics, I walked into a recruiter’s office at 24 and joined the Marine Corps. • When I got back from Iraq, the 2009 economy was a mess. I had technical skills, but I was seriously considering a pivot into landscaping just to provide for my family. • In 2022, my family and I took a huge leap of faith. I walked away from a pre-IPO role when we moved to Northwest Arkansas. That move has borne more fruit for our family than I could have imagined.
Every one of those shifts felt like starting over, but I revisit them often. They help me focus and guide myself, my family, and my team. That lens is how I lead today.
We are not a “lump of labor” to be automated away. We are built with a capacity for creative synthesis, judgment, and adaptation that no model can replicate.
Through faith, I don’t read those meanders as failures. I read them as stewardship. Sometimes we are led to the concrete mixer to learn humility, to a war zone to learn courage, and into the enterprise to learn complexity.
As you look at the AI frontier, don’t fear the tools. Fear a fixed mindset and a lens too narrow to see past good or bad. Like Van Gogh, your most impactful work might be just over the next ridge.
Keep steering.