Ok…so we’re in a war, the most popular vote in the upcoming election seems to be a “vote of no confidence”, and the housing market is about to get an oz-style wake up call – no, we’re not in Kansas any more (although we may be soon, since everywhere else will be too expensive to live).
So why am I so bullish on America’s future?
Because the college graduates heading into the “real world” these days are on a mission… and their mission is to make the world a better place, with or without our help.
Sure, there are the success stories you hear about all over the news (Zuckerberg at Facebook, Larry and Sergey at Google, but check this out: “ever-younger entrepreneurs“… students in high school filing for patents… investing their earnings in other start-ups… selling their companies to pay their way through college… AMAZING.
The advent of the Internet and the accessibility of technology has clearly made more possible for this generation of entrepreneurs than any of its predecesors – in fact, this is the first generation in the history of civilization in which the children are adopting new technologies faster than the adults.
But reading between the lines of code, there is more to it than just the tech for tech’s sake. The spirit behind these young entrepreneurs harkens back to a sense of American values that, frankly, have felt long-gone for far too long: the spirit of the American Dream… that anyone can make a difference, everyone has a chance for success, and with determination and hard work, anything is possible. If these words make you feel more queezy than your last shuttle flight, you are officially a card-carrying member of Generation X – please go pop an SSRI and reserve your cynicism for the next “zero-percent-APR” credit program before you sign up (again).
These guys really mean it. While the Gen Y crowd often come across as either too polly-anna to be taken seriously or too needy to be tolerated, all they really want is to roll up their sleeves, dive in and make a difference. As a group they are curious, they are compassionate, they are energetic (bordering on hyperactive – probably from living an over-scheduled lifestyle since nursery school… trust me, these kids have never heard their parents say “just go outside and play”), and they know more than enough to be dangerous. (Specifically, they know more than enough to be dangerous to unchallenged assumptions, to stereotypes, to old paradigms, and to the lazy way-we’ve-always-done-things.)
Some say we’ve already seen the Greatest Generation… and to that I say the best is yet to come…
ps. Joel, love the mustache – nice touch ;)
pps. you still owe me that video clip…
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