The promise of rapid success has become almost unavoidable in our dopamine-addicted world.
We’re bombarded with stories of overnight success. Whether it’s people landing dream jobs, businesses scaling in no time, or AI transforming industries quickly.
It makes you feel like you’re behind and doing something wrong.
Even I feel this way at times. I stare at things I see on social media and think “How da f**k are they doing that?” Turns out, most of the time, they aren’t.
While these posts tap into our desire for instant results, they overlook one fundamental truth: real progress doesn’t happen overnight – it takes time (a lot more than you think in some cases).
This applies to your career, building a business, or trying to get the hang of AI.
Slow growth is where the magic (really) happens.
It’s not lost on me this sounds very Warren Buffet-like, if so, it’s intended. I trust no one else with my financial advice.
Plus, Buffet is sort of an example of slow growth (more on that later).
A lot of content promotes urgency, speed and so much hyperbole about an impending apocalypse if you don’t achieve something in the next x days, you’re left on a heap of mental failure.
(I’m getting nervous just reading that back).
I get it. The “fast wins” get all the attention.
But most real success stories take years of hard work, learning, and figuring things out (or crashing into things).
I think embracing slow growth—whether in your job, your company, or even learning AI—can lead to rewards that last for years, not just months.
Let’s unpack that.
What is Slow Growth?
When I first heard the term Slow Growth, I thought it was crazy.
It crossed my path from a now defunct learning platform aptly called ‘Slow Growth Academy’. I instantly fell in love with the concept, especially with its connection to almost any touchpoint in life.
We both know In a world of instant gratification, people want results in 5 minutes, not 5 years.
That’s not how life works, sadly.
Things take time to build.
You plant seeds, nurture them and harvest the rewards in the future (yes, I am a proud houseplant fanatic).
We spend far too much time on hacks or secrets.
The easier option? Do the work, embrace slow growth and you’ll be better in the next 5 years than you’re now.
That’s the non-obvious ‘secret’.
The power of Slow Growth for careers
I see the results of slow growth everywhere.
If you research some of the most successful businesses and people in traditional careers, you’ll find their growth was slow.
Here’s 3 examples of those who played the slow game:
Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors, has spent her entire career at the company, starting as an engineer and working her way up to CEO over 43 years.
Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, has worked at the company for over 25 years, starting as a member of the technical staff and working his way up to CEO.
Ginni Rometty, the former CEO of IBM, worked at the company for over 30 years, starting as a systems engineer and eventually becoming CEO.
These people are products of slow growth.
They did the hard miles, and don’t preach any secret hacks to achieve this.
Patience, I find, is the most underrated thing with growth. We’re playing an infinite game, not a finite one.
I look at slow growth like a board game. There are times when you’re on a roll and accelerate, and others when you’ve hit a blocker and get pushed back 3 places (I’m looking at you Monopoly).
We’ll all get there eventually.
We just have to play our game.
Embracing Slow Growth in business
I’m not against the ‘move fast and break things’ movement at the micro level. As long as we learn from those experiences.
But applying that to the macro level without an overarching strategy is dangerous.
An example of slow growth in action is Apple.
They’re mainstream now, yet were once the outliers of their industry. It’s hard to imagine, but Apple was not the industry’s de-faction leader. Only a hardcore set of consumers purchased their products.
Apple blew up once the iPhone landed.
However, a lot of people only think about them from that time in 2007. In reality, they’ve been around since the 70s – scaling, falling and scaling again.
They grew slowly and now own the market.
Apple’s growth has been a 40-year-plus journey. It’s 30 years if we were to stop at the launch of the first iPhone. Think about it, they’ve been working 3 decades to have their best decade ever!
We just assume it’s always been that way.
Why do we think that we need to get there any quicker?
No one just gets the answers one day or figures it all out. It comes in time and with experience.
So, don’t panic if you don’t know everything, don’t have the skills or your business is not in the exact place you want it to be right now.
Come talk to me in 40 years.
Why Slow Growth is perfect for building AI skills
At the time of writing this (2024), it’s hard not to talk about AI.
There’s a very important lesson here with the current pace of AI adoption.
AI, particularly generative AI, shows a transformational shift in how we work, learn, and interact with the world. Yet, as with any major technological shift, successful ROI doesn’t happen overnight.
The journey from curious “hobbyist” to confident “adopter” is a gradual one, and I cannot overstate how much patience you need.
Social media doom-scrolling makes it easy to feel pressured to learn everything about AI instantly.
Everyone and their dog is an AI expert today, and apparently ‘they’ can make you ‘master AI in 7 days’. Be wary of these people, they will stunt your chance of success long-term.
Building a deep understanding of such a transformative technology requires time and effort.
And to be quite frank, no one has mastered it yet. They probably never will as it’s always evolving.
You know my views on this already.
Meaningful AI adoption is about more than just knowing how the tools work. It’s about cultivating a mindset and building the behaviours that allow us to integrate AI meaningfully and responsibly into what we do.
→ And that takes time.
The 3 Stages of AI Literacy: Hobbyists, Experimenters, and Adopters
There are so many bloody maturity models out there right now.
While mine is not as fancy as a consulting firm, I believe it’s simple to use.
My work these last few years has shown most people are navigating through three broad stages of AI skills maturity: hobbyists, experimenters, and adopters.
Let’s unpack these:
Hobbyists are those who dabble in AI, experimenting with tools like ChatGPT in their personal time but haven’t yet applied it systematically in their work.
They’re curious, but they haven’t reached a level of skill where AI significantly impacts their productivity.
Mostly they create cat pictures and get AI to write crap social media posts stuffed full of emojis.
Experimenters have begun incorporating AI into their daily tasks, testing out its capabilities, and exploring use cases in real-world contexts. They’re still in the learning phase, figuring out what works, what doesn’t, and how AI fits into their broader workflow.
I like this level the most. To experiment, fail and learn is a beautiful thing. The majority of people who play here will do very well.
Adopters have fully embraced AI, using it effectively and strategically in their context to enhance work.
They’ve developed a level of comfort and expertise that allows them to apply AI in ways that generate meaningful, long-term value.
Moving from one stage to the next is a slow process. Often frustratingly slow in a world where we expect immediate results.
That’s totally fine. It’s a necessary progression.
Without taking the time to fully understand the nuances of AI and how it can be harnessed, you risk missing out on the true potential of the technology.
Always get clear on the ‘what, why and how’. Classic advice for a reason.
The value of going slower
This will sound counterintuitive, and yes CEO of x company, I know you want the ‘AI Effect’ today.
But with AI literacy, going slower, or shall we say being more intentional, can reap rewards for years – perhaps even decades.
I’ve seen this in some of my work with clients.
There’s often crazy expectations from senior executives for workers to become ‘AI Experts’. They don’t even know what that means.
If we’re talking about tools like ChatGPT, becoming an expert on that with its almost daily updates is like chasing after your 5-year-old when they see an ice cream truck fly by.
Solid fundamentals will help, no doubt.
But fundamentals don’t = fully capable expert.
AI is not static.
Learning the fundamentals and taking time to put them into practice will allow workers to adapt to future changes more easily.
By encouraging a more deliberate approach, companies can craft the mindsets, new behaviours, and technical, and human skills to navigate AI transformations at large.
I know I’m preaching to the choir here.
(Note: Being more deliberate with crafting AI skills does not mean building bloated 3-month + learning experiences. No one wants or needs this!).
80% of AI projects fail because of this
Another report I’m reading, in what I must say, is an era for ungodly amounts of reporting on one topic, focuses on the root causes of failure for AI projects.
If I’m being fair, the findings of these failures apply to L&D projects too (more on that in the next premium monthly edition).
Anyway, one of the biggest factors for failure was being given the time for a project to succeed. You see executives are drinking the kool-aid. They think that what needs at least a year to succeed can be done in a week.
The writing is on the wall for most projects before they start.
You have no doubt suffered this exact problem with countless L&D projects.
Think of all the projects that have died because:
- Expectations were unchecked
- A problem was not defined to solve
- The resources you need to succeed weren’t provided
- You were given 1 week when you need 1 year
One word to define this – misalignment.
AI literacy is about building a long-term capability, not a short-term fix.
For a workforce that is not just technically competent, but equipped with the critical thinking, creativity, and adaptability needed to succeed in an AI-driven future.
You might just need to grow slowly to go far.
The power of compounding (anything)
My final point before we leave.
Smart people (like you) focus on growth in decades not days.
Society points you to look at the end product, not the long journey that paved the way for the current success.
Compounding small changes over time leads to HUGE results.
This is true for many aspects of life.
Most certainly for our skills, business, and careers. I tell people to invest in their career currency as much as they can in the early phase of their careers.
Your career currency is made up of your knowledge and credibility in a subject. And guess what that needs?
Yes, you know it – time.
This applies to so many domains, and my man Warren Buffet knew that when it came to finances too. It’s all a slow growth game. None of us can cheat time.
I wish they taught this in school because compounding really is a ‘cheat code’ for life.
Before you go… 👋
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