Is there a link between suffering and survival?

I know Charles Darwin talks about the survival of the fittest.

By the time I was 28, I’d already read 250 personal development books, and since then, I’ve lost count. But one message that comes up repeatedly is to be excellent. Growing up as a Black girl in a town in England where there was only one other Black family, my white mum taught me I had to be five times as good. I couldn’t just be as good as my peers. I had to be better.

Living with undiagnosed autism meant I was already starting behind the starting line. I felt I had to work ten times as hard to catch up.

Fast forward to today, and we’re asking how we compete with AI. My answer? We have to be better than AI. If everyone is using AI, that becomes the baseline. I believe that excellence is what will set you apart. Last week, my team wanted a marketing video. I could have put my script into HeyGen and let an avatar deliver it in five minutes.

Instead, I learnt the script, practised, recorded and edited it. It was uncomfortable, time-consuming and challenging.

But I built that muscle. I learnt my words, developed my skills and gained confidence. Now I can deliver that message without a prompt.

If I’d copied and pasted a script into an avatar, would I have developed in the same way? Your avatar might look the part, but can the real you deliver?

If your AI-generated version is better equipped than you, what happens when you have to show up without it?

Survival requires growth, and growth requires effort. Excellence requires us to work out our minds.

If you want to survive in the age of AI, be excellent.