You Always Will Have a Job if You Can Sell

Back in the day when the internet bubble happened between 1999-2001, a lot of people I knew thought that firms would abandon their sales forces and put their futures on an online exchange, or an online platform.

I doubted it then.  So far, I have been right.

Today, a lot of people think that artificial intelligence and other technologies will get rid of huge swaths of the workforce, sales people among them.  They further their argument to amend public policy like universal basic income and other harebrained ideas.  Yes, UBI is a harebrained idea that doesn’t jive with human incentives.  It should go into the dustbin of harebrained ideas.

I doubt that they are right.  AI will create jobs we don’t know about or cannot even fathom.

One thing I do know is if you learn how to sell you will always have a job.  When I was at Illinois last Friday talking to really cutting edge startups, the one thing all of them needed was someone or more people to sell.

It’s worth thinking about because you don’t have to major in some tech degree to sell in many cases.  In others, you do.  But, sales=opportunity and a shot at big income.