The Irreplaceable You: Why Your Humanity Matters More Than Ever in an "AI World"

A couple of years ago, my friend and mentor Dr. Al Ringleb, President and Founder of CIMBA Business School (an MBA program partnering with the University of Iowa), asked me to give the commencement speech for their 2025 graduating class. Last weekend, that vision became reality.

The irony wasn't lost on me: someone who barely graduated college with a 2.3 GPA—whose business professor once pulled him aside to suggest he drop out because he "wasn't cut out for college life"—was now addressing MBA graduates.

It's amazing how life comes full circle. Our past doesn't equal our future.

Originally, I wrote this speech for those 2025 graduates. But as I crafted it, I realized the audience who needs to hear this message is much broader. After the overwhelming response and requests to share the speech, it became clear this message matters to far more people.

As I researched and watched countless inspiring commencement speeches, I kept asking: "What are these graduates really facing right now?"

The night before the speech, I had conversations with faculty, the President, and others. I asked about their students' pain points, fears, and challenges. The resounding theme: uncertainty about thriving in a world transformed by artificial intelligence.

Then it hit me. This isn't about AI technicalities—there are people far more qualified than me to discuss that.

This is about how humans navigate, survive, and thrive in an environment that didn't exist a year ago.

My hope is this resonates with you. Share it with anyone facing similar challenges. Consider adopting these perspectives to prepare your organization, your family, and yourself for what's ahead.

Maybe it will make the future a little less scary. Maybe it will inspire you.I hope you enjoy.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you all.

I want to thank Dr. Al Ringleb and the entire CIMBA team for creating something truly extraordinary here—a program that doesn't just teach business, but builds global leaders with the wisdom to see beyond borders and the courage to bridge cultures.

To the distinguished faculty, proud families, cherished friends, honored guests, and the graduating class of 2025—and all the ambitious dreamers who came before you, whose journey from those Italian classrooms to this Iowa stage reminds us that business education isn't just about profit margins, it's about human potential.

After years of growth, there's no hiding your transformation. The classroom walls can't contain what you've become—unless you decide not to shine. And that is the theme of my talk here today. I want you to hold it close as I read these words to you.

I'm here to help you build something today. A vision that will guide you forward in life not just as business professionals, but as irreplaceable human beings in an age of artificial intelligence. To do that, you will have to answer this question:

Will you let that vision shine bright enough to cut through the fog, or will you let algorithms convince you that what makes you human is somehow less valuable than what makes machines efficient?

I thought it'd be interesting to define and talk about the word "artificial" for a moment. Artificial. By definition, it means "made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally." It means imitation. It means substitute. It means fake. In essence, it means "not human."

Your intelligence? It's not artificial. It's organic. It's alive. It breathes, it feels, it dreams, it doubts, it grows. It carries the wisdom of every ancestor who survived impossible odds so you could be here today. It holds the capacity for love, for sacrifice, for hope in the face of despair.

Artificial intelligence processes data. Your intelligence creates meaning.

Artificial intelligence follows patterns. Your intelligence breaks them when it matters.

Artificial intelligence serves efficiency. Your intelligence serves purpose.

You are not competing with artificial intelligence. Because YOU are the original.

This device in my hand has access to more information than the greatest libraries in human history. In your pocket right now is the collective knowledge of our species. Every fact, every formula, every piece of data you could ever need.

And in the next few years, AI will make this seem primitive. Yes, ChatGPT can write code, create art, analyze markets, even write speeches like this one. It can process information faster than any human ever could. So here's the question that should terrify and exhilarate you: 

If machines can do what we used to think only humans could do... what makes you irreplaceable?

I'm here to tell you that the answer to that question will determine not just your career success, but whether you live a life of meaning or spend decades feeling obsolete in your own existence.

THE SHIFTING LANDSCAPE

Your parents graduated into a world where what you knew mattered most. Memorize the information, follow the process, climb the ladder. Success was largely about accumulating knowledge and applying it predictably.

You're graduating into a world where what you know is becoming a commodity. AI knows more. It processes faster. It doesn't get tired, doesn't make calculation errors, doesn't have bad days.

But here's what AI will never have: your humanity.

It will never have your ability to look someone in the eye and truly see them. To feel the weight of a difficult decision not just intellectually, but in your bones. To inspire someone who's lost hope. To build trust through vulnerability. To love, to sacrifice, to forgive, to stand up for what's right when it costs you something.

These aren't soft skills anymore. They're the only skills that matter.

REDEFINING SUCCESS

So let's talk about success. Real success. Not the plastic version society has been selling you.

I've worked with Fortune 500 CEOs, Navy SEALs, Olympic athletes. I've seen people at the top of every mountain you can imagine. And I can tell you this: the ones who sleep well at night, the ones whose children respect them, the ones who've built something lasting—they all understand something that might surprise you.

Success isn't about being the smartest person in the room. It's about being the person others trust when the room gets chaotic.

I told my kids that their main job in life is to be the most dependable person in the room when I die. Think about it—what would have to happen for that to be the case? Well, you'd have to have your money in order, you'd have to have your finances in order, you'd have to be emotionally resilient, you'd have to have a clear vision of the future. So I like to ask the question: "What do I need to become now so that that is true?" Not a bad question to ask ourselves even today.

When markets crash, when teams fracture, when plans fall apart—AI doesn't step up and lead. Algorithms don't comfort scared employees. AI doesn't stay late to help a struggling colleague find their confidence.

You do. Your humanity does.

THE PRESSURE TEST

Here's what I've learned about pressure, and as the great Ralph Waldo Emerson said: "Adversity does not build character. It reveals it." When everything is falling apart, when the stakes are highest, when everyone is looking to you for answers—that's when your real value emerges.

Your real value is not your technical knowledge or your analytical skills. Your ability to think clearly when others panic. Your capacity to make hard decisions with incomplete information. Your courage to say what needs to be said when everyone else is staying silent. THAT is your real value.

Even Dr. Martin Luther King said, "In the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

So here are some tough questions: Will you speak when others are silent? Will you shine when it is dark? Will you step forward and lead when no one else will? These are questions that you will face. And it is in these moments that you will find out who you really are. So why not think about these questions now and prepare yourself by asking "who do you want to be" when those moments arise?

My son called me one time and said he wanted to do something stupid with his friends. I said, "Listen, I can't tell you what to do. But I will say this—we will have a conversation tomorrow. What do you want to be able to say that you did?" All I heard was silence, and then he said, "Thanks dad, I'm coming home."

I once watched a CEO during a crisis that threatened his company. He didn't have all the answers. He didn't pretend to. Instead, he gathered his team and said, "I don't know what's going to happen, but I know who we are. And I know we'll figure this out together."

That company not only survived—it thrived. Not because of superior strategy or technology, but because of one human being's ability to lead with authentic presence when it mattered most.

It's a powerful thing to have someone believe in us. I would venture to say that everyone here on this stage, everyone here watching and supporting you, all the people you've met along the journey over the last four years—they all believed in you. I've always felt that the best gift you can give a mentor or somebody who believes in me or believes in you is to heed their word and make them proud.

OUR DEEPEST FEAR

Marianne Williamson wrote something that I want you to really hear today. It quoted often, but I want to share that part that is often missed and not quoted.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be?"

This is the part of the quote that is most often read. Very few people quote what follows next, which I believe to be the most powerful part of this message:

"Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.”

It took me a long time to realize that I was playing small isn't that it was one of the greatest mistakes I ever made, and that actually playing big was who I was meant to be.

Her quote goes on to say, “And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Let's break this down. You're not afraid of failing. You're afraid of succeeding so spectacularly that it changes everything. You're afraid of discovering that you actually are as powerful as the people who believed in you said you were.

But here's what Williamson understood: when you shine, you don't diminish others—you illuminate the path for them. When you step into your full potential, you give everyone around you permission to do the same.

Your playing small doesn't serve anyone. Not your family, not your future employees, not the world that desperately needs the leaders you're capable of becoming.

YOUR UNIQUE RESPONSIBILITY

You're inheriting a world that's becoming increasingly disconnected. People hiding behind screens. Conversations replaced by emojis. Nuance lost to 280-character takes. AI making us more efficient but potentially less human.

You have a responsibility to keep humanity alive as we continue to evolve.

You're business leaders. You'll shape cultures, influence decisions, create environments where thousands of people will spend their lives. You have the power to humanize or dehumanize the future of work.

Will you create organizations where people feel valued for who they are, not just what they produce? Will you build teams where vulnerability is seen as strength, where failure is treated as learning, where success is measured not just in profits but in human flourishing?

The world doesn't need another algorithm. It needs leaders who remember that behind every data point is a human story.

THE DEEPER TRUTH ABOUT WHO YOU ARE

Here's something they don't teach in traditional business schools: Your greatest professional asset isn't your MBA. It's your ability to be fully, authentically human in a world that's trying to turn everyone into robots.

The executive who remembers the names of the cleaning staff. The manager who notices when someone is struggling and asks how they can help. The leader who admits they don't have all the answers but commits to finding them together.

These aren't nice-to-have qualities. In today’s world, they're survival skills.

Because here's what I've discovered in studying influence and human behavior: people don't follow competence. They follow character. They don't trust algorithms. They trust authenticity.

THINKING CLEARLY UNDER PRESSURE

Let me give you something practical. When pressure hits—and trust me, it will—your brain will try to trick you. It will tell you to react instead of respond. To protect instead of connect. To hoard information instead of share it.

Here's how the best leaders think differently:

They pause. Not because they're slow, but because they're wise enough to know that the first thought under pressure is usually fear talking.

They ask better questions. Not "How do I protect myself?" but "How do I serve the situation?"

They choose connection over perfection. They'd rather be authentically uncertain than confidently wrong.

I want you to remember: perfection is the least of human qualities. In fact, I bet you can finish the sentence: "To err is to be .... human." When we see somebody who is "perfect", what do we call them? We call them something that is not human. We call them a robot.

The way you become irreplaceable in an artificial world is not by being perfect, but by being human in the most thoughtful, intentional way possible.

YOUR CHOICE AHEAD

You're standing at a crossroads. Down one path is a career where you compete with machines, where your value decreases as technology advances, where you spend your life feeling like you're falling behind.

Down the other path is a future where you become more human, not less. Where your ability to connect, to empathize, to inspire, to lead with integrity becomes your greatest competitive advantage.

The world needs you to choose the second path.

Because the challenges ahead—they won't be solved by better algorithms. They'll be solved by human beings who can build trust across differences, who can inspire action in the face of uncertainty, who can hold hope when everything looks hopeless.

TEN LESSONS TO GUIDE YOUR WAY

Before you leave here today, let me give you ten truths that I have discovered. these truths are in essence lighthouses for me that keep me on track when the storms of life come:

1. Don't wait for confidence to begin because confidence is never a precursor. Start before you feel ready. Confidence comes from action, not the other way around. Confidence is the reward for courage. If you don't believe me, ask somebody who is full of regret because they waited too long to follow their dreams.

2. Stay away from fake dopamine. Any high amount of dopamine that comes to you without effort Will eventually destroy you or bring you close to destruction. Something that just feels so good that all you had to do was open a package, take a pill or open a website, is the slippery slope. Real satisfaction comes from real accomplishment. Dopamine through suffering, sacrifice, and real effort is what we want. Where a lot of people get this wrong is that they think dopamine is the reward. It's actually secreted in the anticipation of reward. It's secreted on the journey that usually sucks. Dopamine is not about the pursuit of pleasure; it's about the pleasure of pursuit. Effort is the key here. If you don't believe me, ask somebody fighting any addiction.

3. Start saving money now. I promise you won't regret it. Your future self will thank you for every dollar you put away today. If you don't believe me, just ask somebody who didn't follow this advice.

4. Don't ignore your health. Take it from me—everything else becomes meaningless if you don't have your health to enjoy it. If you don't believe me, ask somebody who's in a hospital, wishing they'd made different choices.

5. Always act from the role and position you want to be in, not from the one that you are. Lead before you're asked to lead. If you don't believe me, just ask somebody who waited for someone else to create opportunity, but that person never showed up.

6. Learn how to sell because if you learn how to sell, you will always be employed. Even if you're not in sales, you're selling ideas, vision, and yourself. If you don't believe me, ask somebody who's struggling to find their next job and just can't seem to communicate their value in a competitive world.

7. The end does not justify the means. The road to heaven needs to be heaven. How you get there matters as much as where you're going. If you don't believe me, ask the successful person who regrets who they were as they rose into power and how now they're trying to make up for what they did.

8. Right now is the time to fix the next 10 years. The decisions you make in the next few months will echo for the next decade. If you don't believe me, ask somebody who regrets waiting too long to put their life on the right path.

9. Learn to express, not impress. Authenticity trumps performance every single time. This is a tough one because I definitely wanted to be impressive here today. In fact, I stayed up last night, got up early, and the biggest challenge wasn't what I wanted to say—I was fighting the urge to try to impress you, to be memorable. All I could remember was to learn to express, not to impress, and when I did that, the words flowed. This is one you'll just have to learn through experience.

10. Life is all about how you decide to explain it to yourself, and the best part is you get to choose that story, that narrative. I told my son that I could make a list of 10 things why my life was horrible and I could also make a list of 10 things as to why my life was amazing. He was confused as to which one was true. And I said, "They're both true, but I get to choose which one influences my life and energy on a daily basis." You are the author of your own meaning. If you don't believe me, ask somebody who finally broke free from the stories that others placed on them to find their own.

These aren't just career advice—they're lighthouse principles that will guide you through any storm.

THE FINAL MESSAGE

When you leave here today, you'll enter a world that will try to convince you that what you know matters most. It will pressure you to accumulate more credentials, more certifications, more technical skills.

Don't fall for it.

Your knowledge will become obsolete. Your humanity is timeless.

Your ability to listen deeply, to communicate clearly, to stand up for what's right, to lead with love instead of fear—these skills will never be automated. They will never be replicated by AI.

Try this as an exercise in seeking truth. Let's replace the word "intelligence" with other things that we value.

Who here wants...

• Artificial love?
• Artificial empathy?
• Artificial apologies?
• Artificial passion?
• Artificial courage?
• Artificial hope?
• Artificial friendship?
• Artificial trust?
• Artificial compassion?
• Artificial forgiveness?
• Artificial sacrifice?
• Artificial inspiration?
• Artificial faith?
• Artificial loyalty?
• Artificial wisdom?

Doesn't sound so scary anymore, does it?

This is where you realize that your real superpower is your humanity.

Be irreplaceably human. Be courageously authentic. Be the leader this world desperately needs.

The future isn't about humans versus machines. It's about humans WITH machines, guided by leaders who never forgot that behind every innovation, every decision, every strategy—there are human hearts that need to be touched, human spirits that need to be lifted, human potential that needs to be unleashed.

As Amelia Earhart said, "Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. Those that know it not, they know no release from little things. They know not the livid loneliness of fear, nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear the sound of wings."

Here's what that quote means to me. Life says, If you want peace, there is a price, and it's called courage. Those who don't show courage in life are stuck in the small things. I guess there's a benefit to that because they won't know the livid loneliness being afraid and alone. But they also won't understand what it's like to stand on a mountain top when they can hear that bitter joy of soaring through life.

This is your calling. This is your responsibility. This is your opportunity to change the world.

Go be irreplaceable.

Thank you.