The greatest mistake is not making mistake - Why I created AI Strategy League
- Grace, Founder of AI Strategy League
- Feb 14
- 10 min read
Updated: Feb 21
The greatest mistake is not making mistake.
2024 was a fun year—the birth of our community.
From scratch, from nothing, to today—growing with love and support from like-minded people.
Our name is AI Strategy League, but behind it, it’s all about humans—the warmth, charisma, and real relationships we build.
If you like the content and find the insights valuable, we invite you to share it with your friends, network, and clients. Hit reply to this email to share your feedback, suggestions, or ideas—it would be an even greater way to support us and help us move forward!
Why I created AI Strategy League
One day in November of 2023, I was stuck, stuck sitting at a desk in the office, where I had just failed at negotiating for any option to choose a flexible number of days back in the office due to burnout and mental health challenges, failed to get a promised tiny single % pay raise, and failed to get an internal promotion.
What actually triggered me to take the leap of faith was that I realised I thought I was open enough to new things, to the bigger picture of the world after so many years of working and living across different continents, countries, speaking multiple languages, immersing in cross cultures, yet I was stuck with zero freedom to choose what I could for my own good.
In addition, with AI, there is so much more that each of our individuals is able to create, learn, and explore, to maximise our capability, rather than just aiming for a linear job title promotion.
My philosophy is that your mind and perception can free your life, and they can also limit everything possible in your life.
What’s on the inside affects the action you take.
What is also accurate is that if you can set yourself up to create a new external reality, it will literally rewire your brain and change what’s happening on the inside of yourself.
It’s not about whether you can build the next Amazon or Google.
If this is part of your ambition, or if you simply want to grow your career or business while enjoying life, it’s more about opening the door and realising there’s a much bigger picture—that real people in the world are leveraging strategy and technology, knowing their sh*t so well and turning it into something better—for their lives, for others, and for the world.
That one moment of realisation, I decided to create something that I had desired for so long, and also decided to create something to add value to people, helping those who experience the same struggles, those who desire a breakthrough regardless of their work status—employed, freelance, looking for a job, or running a business.
The first thing is to free up your mind by seeing how big the world is, how so many amazing opportunities can even exist in this world, partially powered by AI.
Then it’s their choice to explore what they want, what they can choose, and how they take action for themselves.
That is why AI Strategy League was born.
It’s not just about scaling smarter through AI and strategies—it’s also about living better, with less burnout and fear, and more abundance, with a focus on ourselves, which was hugely inspired by what I went through.
The takeaways about growth
First inner abundance, then being able to handle the growth in business, careers, and money.
a.k.a. when you thrive, your career and your business thrive.
I was not actually believing it until I truly experienced it myself throughout 2024.
Yes, AI is revolutionising industries and society as a whole. It’s becoming our second brain, helping us think, plan, and execute better. But nothing can replace the human heart—our feelings, emotions, and self-awareness.
This is a key message we emphasise in every coaching session for our leaders:
Now is the best time to focus on self-awareness—on your heart, how you feel, why you feel—and follow your heart, not just your brain.
You already know enough. And now, with AI as your second brain—enhancing your decision-making and work efficiency—isn’t this the best time to focus on what truly matters to you?
What do you truly love from your heart?
What are you passionate about?
What excites your curiosity?
When you’re passionate about something, you naturally invest time in learning and mastering it—without being pushed or forced. That passion becomes your skills, knowledge, and experience.
And when you share your expertise with the right people, you naturally build influence, trust, and opportunities, attracting the right clients and creating wealth.
Turning passion into a business, monetising, and growing has been an incredible journey. But it was also more challenging than expected, filled with plenty of mistakes along the way.
And that’s the beauty of growth.
The takeaways about mistakes
Mistakes feel incredibly real—until you step in, experiment, and experience them firsthand. Growing a business or career is a real journey.
Because it’s real, we often feel sorry, disappointed, or even sad when mistakes happen. More often than not, we feel sorry for ourselves, instead of shifting our perception of mistakes.
I’ll dig further into this shift in the following.
That being said, the great takeaways about mistakes over the past decade, particularly over the past year when I was set free from a fixed employee mindset and started experimenting in being a free individual, turning skills, knowledge, and passion into an economic engine, attracting like-minded audiences and networks, and growing exponentially both personally and professionally—at least 10x faster and far more worthwhile than the employment journey.
Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with employment or having a 9-5, but what I realised was that by adding a rich experience in running a business, or if I make it sound less business-focused, a free individual's mindset, knowledge, practice, and growth become more complete.
I’m grateful that I experienced both a 9-5 career and being able to turn skills, knowledge, and experience into building wealth—not just money, but more importantly, assets.
Assets are what help you earn while you sleep, without trading your time. From my personal perspective, assets also include our resources, our network, and the people we surround ourselves with.
While I love the original Hedgehog concept, which I used a lot in coaching and consulting to help thought leaders and founders market their knowledge, experience, and monetise it while attracting prospects, clients, and partnerships, you may hear the word creator economy.
We are all creators, we all have an amazing natural zone of genius to explore and create, just like when we were kids.
And now, how many of us are living in the scarcity of exploring, experimenting, and making mistakes? There is definitely a cost of trial and error, but the cost of living in scarcity your whole life is even far bigger.
The best and unavoidable way to grow fast is through mistakes.
Do you know the greatest mistake? Avoiding mistakes altogether.
The key takeaway after making mistakes is to start by imitating what works, then innovate with your own unique touch, implement, and experiment.
Research, imitate, innovate, test, iterate, improve, and then test and iterate over and over again.
Even after more than a decade of professional work in a big organisation, I still make mistakes, but I increase opportunities to achieve tangible results by adopting proven models and strategies while reducing the cost of trial and error.
Imagine the mistakes you've made—how do they make you feel?
Most of the time, they lead to feeling sorry for yourself, right?
However, if you have even a rough idea of what you desire and stay open to exploring possibilities with an experimental mindset, every mistake you make brings you closer to that vision.
If you haven't made any mistakes on your path yet, ask yourself:
“Do I truly know what I want out of life?”
“If not, what steps can I take to find out?”
My one big mistake: Focus on the wrong thing – Look at months, not years; Look at one specific result, not one mission
At the beginning, I felt pressured every time I scrolled on social media, like:
Who are hitting big milestones in months
Who are getting promoted
Who are scaling their businesses fast
Who are gaining massive followings
I felt scared, pressured because I focused on:
Short-term results instead of long-term mission
Months instead of years
Comparing myself to them, rather than digging into what works, what takeaways I could learn, what models they adopted, and how they grew.
The truth is, we look at growth and real work paying off over years, not months.
It’s now 2024, with AI rapidly updating and scaling up by the month. Many of us fear falling behind and have started to measure everything in months.
We also often perceive work in a linear way, thinking:
"If I work 8 hours a day, I should get 8 hours of returns, right?"
"If I work overtime on projects and push myself to the limit, I should get promoted and earn more, right?"
"If I consistently create content and build products for three months, I should gain followers, monetise, and make money, right?"
The truth is:
Work and output are not linear.
The key is whether you are investing in high-quality work in the right way.
The 3 core factors that matter more than hard work:
What you do
Every choice leads in a different direction.
Even small tasks, when chosen wisely, can create massive leverage.
Who you do it with
Choosing the right people to work with, the right audience to serve,
and the right circle to grow in is far more important than just working hard.
How you do it
Your methods, mindset, resources, and efficiency determine your long-term results more than sheer effort.
These three factors are far more important than just "working hard." And the best part?
The direct impact of this realisation came in 2024 when I was consistently writing on LinkedIn—about AI strategy, about takeaways from speaking events I joined, interviews with leaders, research and case studies, people’s real stories of success, and my own learnings and reflections.
And then—only when someone asked where they could find all my writing in one place—I realised I had spent forever looking for all the great points and takeaways I had shared…
That was why I decided to start this research community, powered by our philosophy: research, imitate what works, and innovate with your edge, your way.
In the format of a newsletter, with upgrade options for paid access to additional templates and tools.
This way, my plan is to consolidate our research, findings, insights, and takeaways into a well-organised format—a.k.a. newsletters—and potentially long-form videos to better help like-minded high performers, tech leaders, founders, creators, and AI enthusiasts learn, imitate, and innovate.
If you find our takeaways valuable, we invite you to share them with your friends, network, and clients.
Then I stepped back and looked into my content strategy alignment with the overall AI-driven business strategy, coaching my clients and peers with a structured approach—providing clarity on:
Anti-Vision
AI-driven vision
Mission
Core values
Turning Vision into goal setting
Goals into projects and priorities
Breaking down small pieces, and tasks.
AI-driven strategic approach in coaching our clients and peers:
FOCUS: The Most Important Skill in the Age of Distraction
We live in the era of shorts, 3-second attention spans, and endless scrolling. The ability to focus isn’t just useful—it’s a superpower.
In The Art of Focus, Dan Koe emphasises that deliberate focus is the key to personal growth. When you direct your attention toward meaningful goals and cut out distractions, your quality of life improves. Breaking free from default paths allows you to align with your own values and aspirations.
Dan Koe is one of my all-time favourite top creators and founders who started from nothing to launching his software product, making $240 million in 2023, all starting with writing newsletters to share his knowledge and expertise a few years back.
Dan Koe’s Successful Models
1. Start with Writing a Newsletter (Long-Form Content)
When he started a long-form newsletter, he said many people laughed at him on X.
Started Modern Mastery (2019): The online education and accountability hub for Solopreneurs building and selling things on the internet.
He rebranded along the way to launching Kortex in 2023.
2. Repurpose & Systematise
◦ Short-Form Content: Repurpose and distribute across X (Twitter) and LinkedIn.
◦ Other Formats: Use the newsletter as scripts for YouTube videos and podcasts.
◦ One Creation, Multiple Uses.
3. Leverage Digital Products
◦ Direction: Writing courses, knowledge monetisation courses, and a book called The Art of Focus.
4. Launch Kortex, a Software/App
◦ Analysis: Use revenue from courses, templates, and other digital assets to fund an all-in-one app for creators, founders, and leaders.
I love his simple and repurposed bit, and to me, starting with writing long-form content is something I like to do—to add value to the right people and, more importantly, to help me structure my thinking and put it on paper.
As someone who loves thinking all the time, all day, and even can’t fall asleep because of that, this process is invaluable.
Dan Koe’s Monetisation Journey
Dan Koe’s Products
1. Book “the Art of Focus” $26 Amazon
2. Self-paced online courses:
2.1. One-person business launch pad: $99 (Website)
2.2 The Two Hour Writer: $150 (website)
2.3: Mental Monetization – Monetise Your Skillset with a Knowledge Product: $299 (website)
- P.S.: I actually paid and joined myself—will share more in a future newsletter.
3. Kortex (Software/App) subscription-based: $0 →$10/month →$17.5/month
4. the Writer’s Bootcamp inside Kortex: $299
I personally think this is what I enjoy doing—researching, integrating, and thinking about how I can imitate successful models and strategies, what resonates with me, and what is valuable for people.
I hope what I’ve been working on and sharing could be of value to you too.
More breakdown analysis will continue in future articles.
Perhaps you’re surprised—and you’re in the right place—because we’re going to break down our analysis and findings in successful models, strategies, frameworks, real stories, takeaways, and more in our newsletter.
As I touched on earlier - it’s not about whether you can build the next Amazon or Google. If this is part of your ambition, or if you simply want to grow your career or business while enjoying life, it’s more about opening the door and realising there’s a much bigger picture—that real people in the world are leveraging strategy and technology, knowing their sh*t so well and turning it into something better—for their lives, for others, and for the world.
Tangible results are a reward for perception, not just compensation for hard work. We can’t make any more money within our limiting beliefs.
If you want to break through and grow, start with an open mind and an experimental approach—learn as much as you can, imitate what works, and innovate with your own edge.
It’s all about a growth mindset, not a fixed mindset.
I’ll elaborate more in future editions of the philosophy of our research newsletter:
Research → Imitate → Innovate
Research what works.
Imitate successful models.
Innovate with your unique edge at a lower cost.
Build a systemised roadmap to create, iterate, monetise, and scale.
Strategic growth coaching support is available, along with an option for those looking to unlock next-level structured frameworks, tools, templates, and roadmaps.
If you like the content and find the insights valuable, we invite you to share it with your friends, network, and clients.
Or hit reply to share your feedback, suggestions, or testimonials—it would be an even greater way to support us and help us move forward.
xoxo
Grace & AI Strategy League
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