I’m going to tell you something that might sound crazy. I built a seven-figure business, not in spite of AI, but because of it. And I did it using a storytelling method that most of the so-called “gurus” will tell you is a complete dead end.
They say AI can’t be creative. They say it’s a tool for automation, for churning out soulless, generic content. For a long time, I believed them. I spent years banging my head against the wall, trying to make AI do things it wasn’t supposed to do. I failed. A lot. But in that failure, I stumbled upon a few truths. Counterintuitive truths. Truths that, once I embraced them, changed everything.
This isn’t another blog post about the “future of AI.” This is my personal playbook. The hard-won lessons from hundreds of failed experiments and a few massive wins. If you’re a creator, an entrepreneur, or anyone who wants to build something meaningful in the age of AI, this is for you.
Lesson 1: Stop Trying to Be Original
Yes, you read that right. The biggest mistake I made for years was trying to force AI to be original. I’d feed it a prompt and expect it to spit out a masterpiece. A novel idea nobody had ever thought of before. It never worked. The results were always a bland, generic mush of what it had been trained on.
The breakthrough came when I stopped thinking of AI as a creativity engine and started thinking of it as a pattern-matching machine. A very, very powerful one.
Instead of asking it for a new story, I started giving it existing stories. I’d feed it the entire script of a movie I loved, or the lyrics to a song that gave me chills. Then, I’d ask it to find the patterns. The emotional arcs. The character archetypes. The narrative structures that made those stories work.
Suddenly, I wasn’t getting generic mush anymore. I was getting a blueprint. A roadmap. I could see the hidden scaffolding that held up the stories I admired. And once I had that blueprint, I could use it to build my own.
Think of it like this: you wouldn’t ask a hammer to design a house. You’d use it to build one. AI is the same. It’s a tool. A powerful one, but a tool nonetheless. Stop asking it to be the architect. Be the architect yourself.
Lesson 2: Your Data is Your Moat
In the world of AI, data is everything. The models we use, from GPT-4 to Midjourney, are only as good as the data they’re trained on. And for a long time, I was using the same data as everyone else. The internet. Public domain books. Wikipedia.
Is it any wonder my results were generic?
My second big realization was that my personal data was my most valuable asset. My emails. My journals. My half-finished screenplays. My terrible, cringe-worthy teenage poetry. All of it.
I started feeding my own life into the machine. My experiences. My voice. My unique perspective on the world. And that’s when the magic started to happen.
The AI started to sound like me. It started to think like me. It became a true creative partner, an extension of my own mind.
This is a lesson that most people miss. They’re so focused on the models, on the latest and greatest tech, that they forget about the one thing that can truly set them apart: themselves. Your life is a dataset. A unique, one-of-a-kind dataset that nobody else has. Use it.
Lesson 3: Embrace the Weird
When you start playing with AI, you’re going to get some weird results. Things that don’t make sense. Glitches. Hallucinations. Most people see these as errors. Bugs to be fixed. I see them as opportunities.
Some of my biggest creative breakthroughs have come from the weird, unexpected outputs of an AI model. A line of dialogue that’s so bizarre, it’s brilliant. An image that’s so glitched out, it’s a work of art. A story that takes such a strange turn, it opens up a whole new world of possibilities.
I remember one time I was working on a script for a short film. I fed a scene into an AI and asked it to rewrite it. The result was a mess. The characters were saying things that made no sense. The plot had gone completely off the rails. My first instinct was to throw it away and start over.
But then I looked closer. And I saw something in the chaos. A new idea. A better idea. The AI, in its weird, algorithmic way, had stumbled upon a creative path I never would have found on my own.
Don’t be afraid of the weird. Embrace it. Lean into it. That’s where the real creativity lies.
The Playbook in Action: A 7-Figure Example
So how does this all come together in the real world? Let me give you a concrete example.
A few years ago, I had an idea for a new kind of entertainment company. One that would use AI to create personalized stories for kids. The problem was, I didn’t know how to do it. I had the vision, but not the execution.
So I went back to my playbook.
- I stopped trying to be original. I didn’t try to invent a new kind of story. Instead, I fed the AI hundreds of classic children’s books. I had it analyze the patterns, the character arcs, the emotional beats. I built a blueprint for the perfect personalized story.
- I used my own data. I didn’t just use public domain books. I used the stories I told my own kids. The silly songs we made up. The inside jokes. I fed the AI my own personal dataset of what it means to be a father.
- I embraced the weird. When the AI came up with a story about a talking squirrel who was also a pirate, I didn’t question it. I ran with it. And you know what? The kids loved it.
The result was a company that we grew to a seven-figure run rate before it was acquired. All because I stopped listening to the gurus and started listening to the machine.
Your Turn
This is just the beginning. We are at the very, very early stages of what’s possible with AI-driven storytelling. The tools are getting better every day. The opportunities are massive.
But the principles, I believe, will remain the same. Stop trying to be original. Use your own data. Embrace the weird.
Now I want to hear from you. What are the counterintuitive lessons you’ve learned about AI? What are the things you’ve discovered that nobody else is talking about? Share your stories in the comments below. Let’s build the future of storytelling together.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these recommendations still relevant in 2026?
Absolutely. While specific tools and tactics change, the underlying principles remain consistent. I update my thinking regularly based on what I'm seeing in the market and across my portfolio companies.
Which item on this list has the highest impact?
It depends on your stage and context, but in my experience, the items near the top of the list tend to have the broadest applicability. That said, sometimes the less obvious items create the biggest breakthroughs for specific situations.
How were these items selected?
Each item on this list comes from direct experience, either from building my own companies or from patterns I've observed across the 200+ startups I've invested in. I prioritize practical, actionable items over theoretical concepts.
Can I implement all of these at once?
I'd strongly recommend against it. Pick the 2-3 items that resonate most with your current situation and focus there. Trying to do everything simultaneously is a recipe for doing nothing well.