Think back to the first time you used the internet.
The first time you actually used it, then kept using it every day without ever deciding to.
For most of us there are years between those two moments.
Mine started in 1996, in a college computer room with a friend about to 'go on the internet' for the first time.
Neither of us knew what to look for. We decided to look at a book we were already reading. (Mr Nice FYI)
There was no Google. Mobile phones were for businessmen.
1998. I made money from my first website. An online catalogue with a phone number on it. You saw the product, you rang me, I sold it to you down the line.
2002. First $250k, and by now you could buy without ever speaking to me. Enquiries ran fifty-fifty, phone and email. Phones were for texting.
2006. Dial up dies. Broadband birthed. First million online.
2009. Third million, this time with social media inside the business. People had started living in Messenger.
2012. Fourth million, selling the systems I'd built to make the first three. Everyone had a smartphone by then. WhatsApp arrived. People stopped calling.
2016. My systems talked to each other, and to suppliers, and to vendors. Maps and navigation in every car. Content everywhere. new opportunities.
2020. Everything moved to Zoom and never really moved back.
And everything changed for me, on and off line (that's another story)
Twenty-three years online. From beginner to global entrepreneur. The world rewired underneath us. My life changed forever.
I wasn't a tech bro. I wasn't skilled at anything. I was just interested, with an idea.
And at no point did it feel fast.
That's the part people forget. It never felt like the revolution it was. It felt like Tuesday.
And one Tuesday you realise, most of your life revolves round a screen and a wifi connection.
Which is why the internet happened to so many people, instead of happening for them.
If they didn't pay attention they missed the opportunity to change their circumstances.
Here's what I keep coming back to.
AI became available for general use at the end of 2022.
Not even 4 years later, more AI advances have happened since then than the entire 23 internet years.
Hell, more has happened in the last 6 months than in half that internet timeline.
Which means the AI timeline is being measured in months, not decades.
And almost nobody has noticed, because to them, it still feels like Tuesday.
Whatever you think of AI, good or bad - it is still just a tool. And how you use it matters.
Because on a Tuesday soon, you'll either be using it to create opportunities for you, or because everyone else is and told you to create opportunities for them.