Midlife MavericksMcKinsey’s CEO says young professionals need “aspiration, judgment and creativity” to stay ahead of AI.
Give me a break.
This week alone, a Fed governor described a scenario where AI makes workers “essentially unemployable.” OpenAI’s CEO admitted companies are doing “AI washing,” blaming AI for layoffs they’d have made anyway, while conceding real displacement is already happening. 55,000 US jobs cut because of AI in 2025. Over 30,000 tech jobs gone in the first six weeks of 2026. Amazon, Salesforce, Pinterest, all slashing headcount in AI’s name. The IMF estimates 60% of jobs in advanced economies are exposed. 51% of workers are afraid of losing their job this year.
And McKinsey’s answer is… aspiration?
I survived the dot-com bubble, Madoff, the 2008 financial crisis and COVID. Today I use AI to save 30 to 40 hours a week in my business. And I can tell you with complete honesty: aspiration and creativity are not enough for what’s coming.
I want to talk about what you can control. Portable skills. That work with or without AI.
Here are the 9 I’d pick.
1. Get comfortable with change
Today it’s AI, 20 years ago it was the internet. And I have no idea what’s coming tomorrow.
The world is made of change. Most people freeze, waiting for absolute certainty before they act. That’s a terrible strategy.
Learn to move without having all the answers. Learn to decide with incomplete information. And to adapt without a manual.
I went through four market crises in two decades. None came with advance warning. None followed the script. The people who survived weren’t the smartest. They were the ones who adapted fastest.
2. Be a perpetual student
Learning how to learn is worth more than any single skill.
There’s no shortage of information out there. What matters is knowing what to consume and being able to implement it without being forced to.
I was 48 when I decided to learn AI properly. I realized that if I didn’t, I’d fall behind. Not in years. In months.
Nobody’s going to knock on your door to tell you it’s time to learn something new. That responsibility is yours.
3. Cultivate high agency
Don’t wait for someone to solve your problems. Solve them yourself.
How many people spend weeks complaining about a problem they could eliminate in an afternoon?
Get used to acting without permission, without supervision, and without perfect conditions.
This alone will take you further than most courses and certifications out there.
4. Learn to sell
You’re either selling or being sold to. Pick one.
If you’ve spent your entire career in non-commercial roles, the first time you have to sell yourself feels about as natural as a root canal. So many people see sales as manipulation. I couldn’t disagree more.
Knowing how to sell your ideas, your work, and your value is one of the most monetizable and useful skills in every area of life. With or without AI.
5. Master communication
Nobody gives you their attention for free.
Ever sat in a meeting where someone talks for 10 minutes and says nothing?
Knowing how to communicate means being clear, direct, relevant, and knowing how to listen. Knowing when to speak and when not to. And, increasingly, knowing how to tell stories your audience sees themselves in.
AI can write a perfect email. But it can’t look someone in the eye and say exactly what they need to hear, at exactly the right moment.
6. Read the room
I’ve been in meetings where the most important person wasn’t the loudest. Or the one with the most impressive title.
In 25 years in finance, I learned to pay attention to what isn’t said. To the dynamics nobody writes in a manual. To the signals you only pick up with practice.
This can’t be taught in a course. You learn it by living. And you train it.
7. Invest in your network
When I left corporate at 40, I had no clients, no brand, nothing. What I had was a list of people who trusted me.
That’s where my first client came from. And the second. And the friend who introduced me to the person who changed my life.
And I’m not just talking about work. The relationships that protected me most in life weren’t professional ones. They were the people who showed up when I needed them, because I had shown up when they needed me.
A network is built with time, generosity, and consistency. Not the night before you need it.
8. Know yourself
Be brutally honest about your strengths and your gaps.
Then invest in closing those gaps.
Seems obvious. But most people spend decades avoiding exactly this conversation with themselves. It’s easier to blame the boss, the market, the economy, the timing.
Of all the skills on this list, this is the most uncomfortable.
9. Learn financial literacy
I’m tired of saying this: money doesn’t buy happiness, but it removes stress and gives you options when life gets complicated.
I studied Economics and Finance for 6 years. Worked over 15 in investment banking. And still, real financial literacy, the personal kind, the day-to-day kind, nobody taught me.
If you don’t know how much you spend per month, if you don’t have an emergency fund, if you don’t know the difference between income and wealth, AI is the least of your problems.
So what now?
If you’re 45, 50, and you’ve been through crises, sold, read rooms, built networks, fallen and gotten back up: you have an enormous advantage. That kind of hard-won wisdom can’t be automated. Now go learn AI. The combination of experience and technology is unbeatable.
If you’re 25 and grew up with a screen in your hand, AI is already second nature to you. But if you don’t know how to sell, communicate, read a room, or build relationships of trust, pay close attention. AI does everything you can do on a computer. What it doesn’t do is everything else.
McKinsey can keep their aspiration.
Me? I’ll take skills you can actually use.
