Sunday, November 11, 2007

Attention Boomers!

Did anyone else watch 60 Minutes tonight? Especially the segment on the "Millenials"? My generation is seemingly pathetic. Work ethic seems to have been replaced with entitlement. As a leader I am appalled by my peers, get off your butts, turn off your IPods and get your hands dirty. Future CEO? Hardly.

Fortune 500, please do not hire my generation until it learns to work and enjoy it. Just because an institution, that once held some sense of credibility, gave them a degree in underwater basket weaving, it doesn't tell you how they've led, how they've earned the right to sit at the table, it doesn't even tell you that they know how to do what you're hiring them to do.

Here's a hint when hiring a hipster, we've never been told no. If you want to weed out the worst of us, make us earn the right to lead, don't give it to someone because of their pedigree or how cool they seem. Give them entry level positions and make them work their way up. Don't be afraid to say no.

If someone isn't willing to sweat and sacrifice, I won't follow them, and hopefully no one else will either. If they want to play video games at work they have two options, get a job making video games or move back in with mom and dad.

Oh yeah, take away retirement plans, your generation should be the last to have that travesty thrust upon them. We're lazy enough, we shouldn't mark our calendars with the day we get to become even lazier.

I realize that this sounds a bit critical, that's because it is. You see there are a few of us in the "millenial" crowd who have chosen to focus on becoming real leaders who have dirt under our fingernails and work in a way that our grandparents would be proud of. Don't judge the us all by the standards of the majority. Let those of us who are called to speak into our generation have time make a difference. Don't give up hope, hard workers with intellect and a sense of purpose do exist. But just like in your generation the nut jobs got all the airtime, so it is with ours.

So World, I apologize for my peers on 60 minutes, they don't represent us all.

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