After reading Richard Laermer’s “Why’s Everybody Always Pickin’ On Me?” My Impressions of Generation Broke and seeing many of the comments, I felt that it was time to be a bit more vocal.

My generation, like all generations, is misunderstood by those that come before it (especially since everyone seems to think that their generation is the best). While an entire generation is not homogeneous, there are generalizations that tend to be true and certain influences that have played key roles.

It is important to realize that my generation grew up with success stories such as Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, the Google Guys and other people who created great companies, made themselves wealthy and impacted the world in major ways. We have come to believe exactly what Donny Deutsch says on The Big Idea - Why not me?

No one should be surprised when they see entrepreneurs in their 20’s attempting to start businesses that have major impacts - MySpace, Facebook, Youtube - just to name a few. We could be called the Rich Dad, Poor Dad Generation. It is easy to argue that my generation is the most entrepreneurial generation to date.

We want to create and we need to be facilitated. We also subscribe to the belief of “work smarter not harder” and that is evident in our constant push to identify and use technology to our advantage. If we feel that our creativity is being stifled, we move on to another position. We flourish when given the tools, guidance and space to apply our creativity to solving a problem.

Our lack of loyalty to a company is also influenced by the layoffs we have seen, even when it is senior management at fault. Companies no longer have loyalty to employees and so loyalty is not forthcoming from employees, hence a generation that rarely stays at one company for more than 3 years.

Another key difference as well is that our generation has realized that their ‘job’ should not define their lives or who they are. A ‘job’ is not everything and there are actually things that are more important - such as happiness.

On the other side, the comments on the article show that we generally do take critiques too personal when they aren’t and some of us are quick to resort to name-calling and juvenile behavior. I also have sensed resentment amongst some when it comes to those of us who are better off financially because of the hard work of our parents. I certainly do not subscribe to the idea that people who work their way through college are inherently better than rich kids.

What are your observations of my generation?

Filed under: Personal Opinions