It's ok to want to be rich

I want to be honest about something. I do a lot. I work a full-time corporate career, and the work I do there is exhilarating, important, and aligned with my mission of AI adoption. Then I come home to two young children, and I run this.

Agents aren't completely set it and forget it when you care about your words and what you have to say. Since I care, I read every newsletter before it goes out. I read every podcast script, even if it's a quick skim. I'm a bit of a perfectionist. More doesn't go out than does.

AI energizes me. Helping people have more resources energizes me. Freedom to think and say what I'm feeling is energizing. It's also draining. It's and. Both things true at the same time.

Stop romanticizing the grind

I need to say something that I think a lot of people in this audience are carrying and not talking about.

There's no glory in the struggle bus. There is nothing noble about not knowing how you'll make it through the month. We love to romanticize the grind, especially for women, especially for Black women. It keeps us stuck. It keeps us performing sacrifice instead of building wealth.

It's ok to bet on yourself. It's also ok to get a job if you need to while you build. It's ok to pivot if the business isn't generating the revenue you thought it would. It's ok to restructure your offer completely and call it intelligence, not failure. Very few things are zero-sum. The truth always holds nuance.

You can have a full-time role and a side build, especially with AI. You can be strategic and aligned. I'm fortunate that I have a role that genuinely excites me, and I wouldn't have taken it if it wasn't work I loved.

You can want generational wealth and that doesn't make you greedy. It makes you someone who decided to stop settling for what was handed to them.

I say this because the AI conversation has an undercurrent that nobody names. There's a version of this space that wants you to feel behind. Wants you to feel like if you haven't quit your job and gone all in on an AI startup, you're somehow not serious. That's manufactured urgency designed to sell courses to people who aren't ready for them.

The real play is slower and it lasts longer. Build infrastructure that runs. Build assets that compound. Build a brand that people trust because you showed your work, not because you performed certainty from a mountain.

And if the business model you started with isn't working, change it. That's not quitting. You took the action. You gathered the evidence. The evidence said pivot. So you pivot.

There is a version of your life where the money is right, the time is yours, and the options are real.

Getting there is allowed.

Wanting it is allowed.

Building toward it is allowed.

If this is your kind of conversation, join me for the next Seed & Society® newsletter.