Twenty-five years ago, I traveled solo through Africa with no smartphone, no GPS, and no safety net. I had to trust strangers, learn new ways to communicate, and push through fears that could have kept me stuck. Today, using AI feels exactly the same.
This Sunday morning, I reread an old article I wrote about that trip. What hit me wasn’t just the adventure. It was how every lesson from navigating that unknown world maps perfectly to what we’re doing with AI right now.
Turns out, working with AI is a lot like exploring a foreign country with no map.
This article is something I know AI can never write on its own. My fears racing down those Class 5 rapids, the courage it took to step into that microlight over Victoria Falls, the trust I built with strangers who spoke different languages – no AI can replicate my lived experiences. But AI can help me share and amplify these lessons in new ways and reach more people who need to hear them.
Here are five lessons from Africa that feel more important than ever in our AI world:
➡︎ Turn fear into curiosity – I was scared to meet the Maasai tribe in Tanzania at first. But when I got curious instead of staying afraid, everything changed. Same thing happens when you start working with AI.
➡︎ Learn by asking and listening – Without Google Translate, I tried to speak what little Swahili I knew to connect with school children in Zanzibar. AI works the same way. You have to learn its language and understand how it thinks.
➡︎ Embrace the messy journey – White water rafting in the Zambezi taught me that growth happens in the scary parts, not when everything’s calm. Learning AI means getting comfortable with failing and trying again.
➡︎ Choose your response – Whether bumping hippo heads in a little canoe or building your first AI teammate, you can’t control what happens to you. But you always control how you respond. Fear and resistance keep you stuck. Curiosity and action move you forward.
➡︎ Learn together openly – Meeting people who lived completely different lives taught me that everyone has something valuable to share. Working with AI is the same. We’re all figuring this out together, and the best insights come from sharing what we learn.
That same fearless spirit now helps me work with AI as a thinking partner. Both journeys started with the same choice: stay comfortable, or step into the unknown and grow.
Our biggest fears carry our greatest growth. Fear not and grow.
Link to full article in comments.
What I Learned in Africa: Our Biggest Fear Carries Our Greatest Growth
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/your-biggest-fear-carries-greatest-growth-liza-adams/