Disruption Creates Leverage
When ATMs launched in 1967, bank tellers knew they were finished.
The machines did everything a teller did for simple transactions. Cash withdrawals, balance checks, deposits. Banks installed thousands.
The math was obvious: fewer human transactions meant fewer humans.
Here's what actually happened: Bank teller employment went up.
Not a little. A lot. It kept rising for decades.
The paradox reveals the pattern: tools that "replace" tasks create space for higher-value work.
ATMs handled routine transactions. So tellers became relationship managers. They solved complex problems. Built customer loyalty. Sold services. The "replacement" technology made human work more human.
But only for tellers who understood this: their value wasn't in dispensing cash. It was in what they could do when freed from dispensing cash.
The difference between those who thrived and those who didn't?
Fear.
Watch two professionals react to AI today.
The amateur sees replacement:
"This tool does what I do. If it gets better, I'm obsolete."
They resist. Protect. Wait for perfect solutions that never arrive.
Fear makes them defend territory that's already lost.
The professional sees leverage:
"This tool does what slows me down. Now I can do what matters."
They experiment. Adapt. Turn early imperfections into competitive advantages.
They've already grieved the old work. Now they're free to find the new.
Same technology. Different relationships with fear.
Here's what the professional actually sees:
AI handles data analysis... I focus on insight creation
AI generates options... I master the art of choosing
AI optimizes execution... I elevate strategy
AI accelerates testing... I perfect learning
The amateur asks: "What will this replace?"
The professional asks: "What will this enable?"
The tellers who thrived after ATMs were the ones who asked the second question.
But first, they had to stop being afraid of the answer to the first one.
The technology doesn't determine your future. Your relationship with fear does.