I have made a decision I know is not the ruthless one. Loyalty in business is undervalued, and I have paid for ignoring it before. I will not ignore it again.

Today is Day 2120 of my daily barefoot-style running streak. I have run 16,297.13km so far, which leaves 23,777.87km of the 40,075km lap of the world. I film every run as a vlog, and the vlog is a fundraiser aiming to raise £1M for children's causes. Most days the lesson comes from the run itself. Today the lesson came from a decision I am facing in my businesses.

What I am facing

AI is changing how much work my businesses need people to do. In some areas the reduction in workload could be as high as 75%. I run systems and automation across my businesses, so I see this first hand. The honest position is that I do not need every person who works for me to do the work they currently do.

On paper, the answer is simple. Reduce the team, increase the margin, move on. Plenty of businesses are making that call right now, and I understand why. I have made calls like that myself.

What I got wrong before

In the past I tried to be the ruthless business leader I thought I had to be. I made decisions for the future of the business and gave little weight to the loyalty, trust and integrity people had shown me. Some of those people stood beside me through difficult periods. I still treated them as replaceable.

Worse, I let my head be turned by other opportunities and other people. I used individuals as stepping stones towards what I believed were better things. I am not proud of that.

I believe in karma. Most of those decisions came back to teach me something. Over the last few years I have gone back to people who had been loyal to me, and I have admitted I was wrong. I made poor decisions and mistakes. I asked for forgiveness and a second chance. That is a humbling conversation to have, and I would rather not have it twice.

The lesson

Loyalty, integrity, trust and honesty are the traits I look for in people. When someone shows all four over years, that has a value. A spreadsheet does not capture it, which is why it gets ignored so often.

Here is what I take from my own mistakes:

- A ruthless decision looks efficient at the time and costs more later. - Loyal people are hard to find and easy to lose. - Trust built over years cannot be rebuilt on a deadline. - The right test is whether a decision survives me looking those people in the eye.

My decision

I am going to look after the people who have been loyal to me. I will find roles for them. The work they do today will change, because AI will do more of the repeatable tasks. That frees them to oversee the systems, take part in the strategic side of the business and help it grow, if growth is what I choose to pursue.

I am not claiming this is the correct decision for every business. There are caveats. If keeping a full team is the difference between a business surviving or failing, the decision changes. Difficult calls exist. But in my experience most of these decisions are not about survival. They are about chasing additional profit. When I step back and look at the bigger picture, I see value in loyal people working with AI, and I do not see a reason to throw that away for a better margin.

I am also watching a lot of job cuts happen across industries. People who served a business faithfully for years lose their roles, and their loyalty barely gets a mention. AI will not take every job in every industry, but it will put a lot of people in difficult positions. If you lead a team and you are able to reward people who gave you years of trust, I think you should try. This is my view as one entrepreneur, and I would welcome yours.

Why this connects to the run

The streak works on the same principle. Showing up every day, in all weather, on days I do not feel like it, is a form of loyalty. I stay loyal to the commitment, and the commitment pays me back over time. The mission is long. I am planning around a 16.5-year streak, and no one gets through that alone. The people around me matter as much as my legs do.

The mission behind the miles

I run to complete 40,075km and raise £1M for children's causes. Those causes include Great Ormond Street and BBC Children in Need. The more people who see the vlog, the more people who hear about the fundraiser. I will not pretend my business decisions change the fundraising total. But how I treat people is part of what I want this mission to stand for. I cannot ask people to support children's causes and then treat the people around me as disposable.

Questions for you

If you have been on the receiving end of disloyalty, or you are weighing up the same decision about AI and your team, I would like to hear how you are handling it. Leave a comment on the video and I will reply.

If you believe in the mission, subscribe, like, share and comment. Each one helps the vlog reach more people. I will be back out running tomorrow for Day 2121.

Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/j-2qahvLw1o