AI Is Coming!! Ahhhh... Now Leave Me Alone, I'm Busy.

A frustrating website bug, an unexpected AI success story, and a reminder that your next customer might already be standing beside you.

I recently found myself stuck on what should have been a simple website update.

You know the kind.

Not a major feature. Not some groundbreaking piece of technology. Just one of those annoying formatting problems that somehow gets worse every time you touch it.

Every attempt to fix it seemed to create two new problems.

At some point I did what every experienced developer eventually does.

I closed the laptop.

The gym was calling.

While I was there, I ran into a friend I knew from around the gym. He's a web developer, so naturally the conversation drifted toward the issue I'd been fighting.

"Ah, send it over," he said. "I'll get that fixed up."

Perfect.

Problem solved.

Or so I thought.

A few days passed.

Nothing.

I wasn't worried. He's a good guy, probably juggling a dozen projects. The next time I saw him, I didn't even mention it. We've all promised someone we'd "take a quick look" before realizing there are only twenty-four hours in a day.

Another few days went by.

Still nothing.

Rather than bug him, I figured I'd give it another shot myself.

So I sat down with my increasingly patient AI sidekick.

We went back and forth for a while. I'd try something. It would explain why it didn't work. I'd accidentally break something else. It would politely pretend not to judge me. Eventually, I managed to fix part of the problem.

It actually felt pretty satisfying.

A few days later I saw my friend again.

"Man, I've been so busy," he said. "I totally meant to look at it. I'll get to it soon."

"No worries at all," I replied.

And I meant it.

A week earlier I probably would have been waiting.

Instead, I went back home and kept chipping away at it with my AI partner.

Another conversation.

Another handful of mistakes.

Another few things learned.

Then...

It clicked.

Everything finally lined up.

The feature worked exactly the way I wanted it to.

The next time I saw my friend at the gym, I didn't want him feeling guilty about it.

"Hey buddy," I said. "No problem at all. I actually figured it out. Really appreciate you offering to help."

He laughed.

"Oh man... sorry about that. I've actually been buried working on a startup."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah... I'm teaching people how to use AI."

I couldn't help but laugh to myself.

If he only knew...

He was looking at his first successful customer.

That conversation stuck with me.

Not because of AI.

Because of business.

As entrepreneurs, we're constantly chasing the next customer.

Facebook ads.

SEO.

Networking events.

Cold emails.

LinkedIn.

Meanwhile, some of the best customers you'll ever have are already standing beside you.

They're at your gym.

They're your neighbours.

They're parents on your kid's baseball team.

They're the people you grab coffee with every Tuesday.

The only problem?

They have absolutely no idea what you actually do.

My friend had spent weeks helping people learn AI...

...without realizing someone he saw every week had already discovered exactly how valuable it could be.

It wasn't a sales problem.

It was simply a communication problem.

People can't buy something they don't know exists.

The same thing happens in every small business.

You might be the best landscaper in town.

The best mobile detailer.

The best photographer.

The best bookkeeper.

The best tutor.

If the people already around you don't know what you offer, they're never going to think of you when someone asks,

"Know anyone who does...?"

That's a missed opportunity that no amount of advertising can fully replace.

There's another lesson hidden in all of this.

AI didn't magically solve my problem.

It didn't write perfect code on the first try.

It didn't sprinkle digital fairy dust over my website.

What it did do was sit there—patiently—for as long as I needed.

It never got annoyed.

It never told me my question was stupid.

It never minded when I asked the same thing five different ways because I'd misunderstood the answer the first four.

It became less like a search engine...

...and more like having someone willing to stay beside you until you understood.

For a business owner trying to wear twelve different hats every day, that's a pretty remarkable tool.

So yes...

AI is coming.

Some people are excited.

Some people are nervous.

Some people are convinced it's going to replace everyone.

Personally?

I'm just happy it helped me fix a formatting issue without making me feel like I was wasting anyone's time.

Now if you'll excuse me...

I've got another feature to build.

And apparently, an AI course to recommend to my friend.