I Want to Be Rich, So I Practice Thinking Like a CEO

I read one of those "what rich people do before 9 AM" posts. Save first. Learn every day. Check your finances. Build more income streams. Set concrete goals.

Obvious stuff. I read it to the end anyway. I do want to be rich.

But what's on my mind lately is messier than what to do in the morning. AI keeps shifting. I don't know what kind of work will pay in a few years, or how long the work that's valuable right now stays valuable. I should be preparing for something. I just can't muster enough conviction to pick a direction and push.

So I started from the part I actually like. I like IT. I use AI and agents to simulate a business, and inside that simulation I put myself in the CEO's chair and practice making the calls.

If this became a business, who's the customer? Why would that person bother paying? What does it cost to build, and what breaks once it's running? How much do I hand to the agents, and what do I have to look at myself?

Attach those questions to a single idea and there's suddenly a lot to think about.

"Technically feasible" is barely the starting line. Being able to build it isn't a reason to build it. You still have to pick which one gets your time and money.

That's the judgment I want to practice.

To get an AI to do work, I have to explain what I want. Then decide whether the output is good enough. If it isn't, redirect. Accept everything that sounds plausible and at some point you lose track of what business you were trying to start.

The more the agents do, the sharper the part I have to decide gets.

Why this. Whose problem. How far I go before I keep going or stop.

That's why "practicing thinking like a CEO" fits what I'm doing. It's less about the title and more about putting myself in the seat where you choose and then own the choice.

Of course, in a simulation the customers behave and the numbers line up. Whether anyone actually pays is something you can only find out outside. There's still a gap between an idea the AI rates highly and a product someone buys.

If this practice is going to turn into a real business, that gap has to close. Take one assumption and check it against reality.

The "learn every day" line from that post — I read it through this lens too.

Knowing a lot of AI news is fun. But if I want to run a business, I have to spend what I learn on decisions. Can this cut costs? Does it let me do something I couldn't handle alone? Does it give the customer a better result?

Think that way and what I study gets specific. Not vaguely useful someday, but the thing I don't know about the business I'm looking at right now.

I want to be rich.

I just don't think using a lot of AI makes you rich. If everyone has the tool, what matters is what you hand it and what you produce. And whether anyone will pay for that.

I'm still full of questions and I don't know where this practice leads. But I like IT, so I keep poking at it and thinking about it. Worried about how the future goes, and meanwhile assuming one business at a time inside it.

I read about rich people's morning routines and ended up back at what I'm already doing.

Hand work to AI and agents, review what comes back, make the next call. That's the CEO practice. What I want next is to start checking, bit by bit, whether those calls hold up in front of a real customer.