You Cannot Catch a Wave When You’re Not in the Water

Every great wave starts the same way, far beneath the surface, invisible at first. By the time it rises high enough for everyone to see it, it’s already too late to paddle out.

Artificial Intelligence is that kind of wave. It’s forming fast, it’s growing every week, and those still standing safely on the shore are beginning to feel the pull.

You can’t learn to surf by watching others. You have to get wet. You have to feel the current, stumble, fall, and find your balance. The same is true for AI. You can read about it, attend conferences about it, and nod along when someone drops the latest model name, but until you try it, curiosity remains a spectator sport.

That’s why I often remind people about the 100-hour rule. Spend roughly 100 hours, or just 18 minutes a day, experimenting with AI tools, testing prompts, and creating things that were impossible before. That’s all it takes to get ahead of 99% of the market. Not by being smarter, but by being curious longer.Yes everybody is busy, but you can’t just learn by reading, you have to start doing.

These 18 minutes a day aren’t about mastering prompts or chasing perfection. They’re about learning how to think with AI. To ask better questions. To see patterns. To imagine new possibilities.

But curiosity isn’t only about skill. It’s also about soul. As AI takes over repetitive and analytical tasks, the question becomes: what remains uniquely human? We also need more curiosity for empathy.

Curiosity for the moments with customers and employees that cannot be automated. We call them ‘Touches of Soul’ in our newest book, the choices, gestures, and stories that technology can amplify but never replace.

Building a culture of AI curiosity means balancing both sides: the scale that AI brings, and the soul that humans protect.

At the board level, curiosity means asking not only what AI can do for our business, but what it will do to your people, your trust, and your purpose. For teams, it means creating safe spaces to play, to experiment, to fail, and to share discoveries.

The truth is: the AI revolution won’t reward those who wait for clarity. It will reward those who explore through uncertainty. The ones who are willing to test, to learn, to get their hands dirty, those who dare to step into the water.

So wherever you are in your AI journey, start with one small act of curiosity today. Try a tool. Ask a different question. Challenge a habit. Because you just cannot catch a wave when you’re not in the water.

If you want to book me for a keynote on Leadership in the age of AI or check out my new book ‘Scale vs Soul’, go to www.dadovanpeteghem.com