Reach Higher: Interview with JT Kostman, CEO of ProtectedBy.AI

I recently went one on one with JT Kostman. JT is the CEO of ProtectedBy.AI and a leading expert in Applied Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Computing. JT served as the Chief Data Officer for Time Inc., Chief Data Scientist for Samsung, and has advised Fortune 500 companies, U.S. intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?

JT: I sometimes feel like that guy who wakes up in the Emergency Room saying, “Where am I? How did I get here?!?” It really has been a wild ride. How did I go from being a homeless kid living on the streets of New York to this weird and wonderful life?

The short answer? My wife; the love of my life. When I first met Angie almost 40 years ago, I was a twenty-something Paramedic living in a rundown apartment. I had a mattress on the floor, and I kept what little clothing I owned under the bathroom sink. If I hadn’t met Angie, I might – might – have bought a new mattress by now. But that would be about it. Everything good that ever happened in my life has happened because of her.

That said, I think your question is also the answer. I’ve succeeded precisely because of, not in spite of, the failures, setbacks, and challenges I’ve faced. But I think that’s true of everyone who enjoys any real success. 

How do we learn to walk? By falling and getting back up. How did Edison invent the lightbulb? Through a thousand unsuccessful attempts. How many free throws did Michael Jordan miss when he practiced for five or six hours a day? In my experience, the most successful people are those who learn to love the struggle as much as the win.

There was a saying we had in the US Army Special Forces that still makes me smile every time I hear it, “Embrace the suck.” 

I’ve long believed that talent is overrated. What makes people successful is their willingness – their eagerness – to do the hard work. That’s the price of admission to success. Fortune favors those who like to sweat.

Adam: What are your best lessons learned from your time working with federal agencies and leading social media analysis for the 2012 Obama campaign?

JT: There’s a pervasive myth that federal agencies are full of belligerent bureaucrats and buffoons who basically want to get paid to do nothing; functionaries and failures who are too lazy or too dumb to get jobs in the private sector. In my experience, nothing could be further from the truth. 

I’ve had the honor of studying and working with everyone from Fields Medal recipients to Nobel laureates. I was the Chief Data Scientist for Samsung – one of the most sophisticated tech companies on the planet – and the Chief Data Officer for Time Inc. – probably the most iconic publisher and media company in history. 

In the course of those experiences, I had the honor of working with and getting to know some truly extraordinary people – but the smartest, most committed, and most capable folks I’ve ever worked with? They were being paid by Uncle Sam.

What’s always struck me most about that though is the stark disparity in how poorly government employees are paid in comparison to their private-sector counterparts. Why do they do what they do for a fraction of what they could get in the private sector? People say that government employees trade pay for security; that they forgo salary for stability. But that’s simply not true. When you balance the risk of unemployment with the extraordinary difference in remuneration, a government job makes no economic sense. 

I know people who could make fifteen times their pay if they just moved from the CIA to Silicon Valley. Two years with Google and they could make more than they would while putting in thirty years towards a pension. And that’s if they didn’t take stock options. 

So, why stick it out in a job you can’t even talk about for pennies on the dollar?

In my experience, it’s because most of the federal employees I worked with were motivated less by money than by an opportunity to be a part of something bigger than themselves. They believe – truly believe – in the mission; that what they are doing matters and that they can help make a difference. That was my experience working with the Intelligence, Defense, and Security agencies – and it was also my experience working with President Obama on the 2012 campaign. 

In the time since we did the first real work in social media analysis and strategy for the campaign, things have taken a regrettable turn. Cambridge Analytica, Russian Trolls, Donald Trump… I’m sorry to say that those who borrowed from our playbook seem set on trying to prove that Goebbels was right about how media could be used to manipulate the masses. But President Obama had a very different agenda for us. He saw social media as an opportunity not to speak, but to listen. The social media strategy I crafted for the campaign provided an opportunity for him to hear what people had to say. Whether or not you agreed with his policies and politics, I can tell you firsthand that President Obama truly, deeply cared about what the American people had to say.

Adam: What are the most important trends in technology that leaders should be aware of and understand? What should they understand about them?

JT: Ironically, I expect the most important trend in technology will come from an increasing awareness of the limitations of technology.

I’ve spent much of my life as a Data Scientist and an AI Super Geek – and I’m a huge fan of tech. While there is still plenty of room for improvements, much of tech is reaching an asymptote; a plateau where the improvements we are making are minimal and marginal. 

Computer vision, natural language understanding… it won’t be long before we have to measure improvements in how many decimal points follow 99%. We need to start thinking more about implementation than innovation; about how we put these technologies meaningfully to work. 

As we think about tech from that perspective, it is becoming increasingly clear that there are areas that tech will never really replace – at least not within the foreseeable future. Case in point: I wrote an article a few years ago that I titled Robots Will Never Take This Job. It was, essentially, an homage to my wife – who has been an ICU Nurse for forty years. The point I made in that article was that while much of what Angie does – maybe 80, 90 percent of her tasks can and will eventually be replaced by algorithms and robots, the core of what she does will never be replaced. Compassion, empathy, perspective, judgment, humanity. Those areas are uniquely the provenance of people. 

Those leaders who are most successful will be the ones who come to realize that the key is to develop SymbioTech Solutions; to focus in equal measures on technology and psychology to develop strategies that optimize organizational capabilities. 

Adam: What are your best tips for leaders and aspiring leaders in the fields of data science and AI?

JT: As counterintuitive as it may sound, my advice to those who are trying to make their way to a leadership role in Data Science and AI is to stop fixating on Data Science and AI. 

In his 1969 best-selling book, The Peter Principle, Dr. Laurance J. Peter shared his observation that in nearly every hierarchy, people tend to rise to their own level of incompetence. In my experience, that tends to be regrettably true. Think about it: If you’re a good Data Scientist, what do we do? We promote you. And if you succeed as a supervisor? We promote you again. And again, and again. But just because you can explain stochastic gradient descent to a ten-year-old doesn’t mean you’ll be able to tell a P&L from a PB&J. 

It takes a very different skill-set to lead than it does to be an AI Super Geek. As the legendary executive coach Marshall Goldsmith says: What got you here won't get you there. Want to make it to the Big Chair? By all means, keep up your skills at the keyboard – but also work to cultivate the additional and complementary knowledge, skills, abilities you’ll need to lead.

Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?

JT: For several years I taught an MBA capstone course that I titled: Leadership in Times of Crisis, Chaos and Change. The meta-point I wanted to make my students was that leadership is not a monolithic quality or trait. There is no single best way to lead. Leadership is situational, dispositional, and dependent on the needs of the team. Unlike computers, leaders don’t run on algorithms. Leadership can be a catalyst for success – but what it takes to lead successfully is determined by the objectives, circumstances, and team that you’re leading.

With that said, if you want to take your leadership abilities to the next level you have to become the kind of leader people want to follow – and that means caring about the people you lead and the mission more than yourself. 

Leadership means accomplishing goals through the contributions of others – and the extent of those contributions are completely up to the people you lead. Sure, you can coerce people to do what they are compelled to do. You can force them to perform to a standard to keep their jobs. But that’s not true leadership; that’s a power trip – and a recipe for mediocrity. The only way to get people to consistently go above and beyond comes when the members of a team feel a sense of commitment – to the mission, the leader – or in the best circumstances, both.

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders?

JT: I have three essential rules for anyone who works for me – and they apply equally well to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders:

Rule 1: Respect. Treat everyone with the utmost respect – always. I don’t care if they’re the CEO or the custodian. Everyone deserves to be treated as you would want people to treat your mom and dad.

Rule 2: Honor Your Commitments. If you say you’re going to do something, it should be as good as done. In the organizations I lead everyone knows: I don’t care if we have to stay until 5:00 am and if we end up losing money. If we say we’re going to do something… QED. It’s done.

Rule 3: Reach Higher. Don’t just do what you must, do what you can. If they expect a 4, bring an 11. This isn’t about under-promising and over-delivering. It’s about giving it your all, every single time.

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading and managing teams?

JT: I have had the honor and privilege of leading some of the most elite teams on the planet. Literally. From the US Army Special Forces to Data Scientists and Analysts serving organizations ranging from Samsung to the CIA. And the best advice I have on building, leading, and managing teams is as simple as this:

Be the kind of leader you always wished for.

Who do you want to follow? The arrogant ass who’s in it just for himself? The bully who browbeats employees into working themselves to death? The frat boy who doesn’t give a damn about results?

We want to follow someone who gives us the chance to ‘be all we can be’ – and become a part of something bigger than ourselves. We want to follow leaders who recognizes the extraordinary contributions we can make – and makes us want to reach heights we never thought we could. We want to follow someone who leads a team that wins – then stands in the wings as the members of that team accept the trophy and rewards.

If you want to lead and manage amazing teams, be the kind of leader amazing people want to follow.  

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?

JT: My wife and I were watching one of those true crime shows a few years ago and the murderer’s defense was based on how rough he had it as a kid.

Now, I know it’s not a competition… But I finally decided to leave home to live on the streets of New York when my parents lit me on fire (for the third time) and tried to sell me to a pedophile. So, as we were watching this guy’s lawyer whine on, and on, and on, on his client’s behalf, I finally had enough. I turned to my misses and said, “That’s such a bunch of bullshit! I became who I am in spite of what my parents did to me.” And the wisest person I have ever known simply said, “That’s not so. You are who you are because of what happened to you – and because of what you decided to do because of what you went through.”

We have all had experiences that have impacted us. Some good, some not so great. But what determines who we are is what we do with what we’ve gone through.


Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.

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