One of the most common retorts I hear from my clients is "these young kids have no work ethic" or some other version like this. It is funny because that has not been my experience. "Those young kids" are certainly a different generation indeed and the ways in which they work and play are different from generations past. Their philosophy of work is different too. It has been my experience that many of "these young kids" are not willing to sell their souls to their jobs. Let's imagine for a moment why that might be? Hmmmmm.....
1. Many of the men and women in the 20 something generation grew up with two working parents. That means they went to day care while mom and dad worked 50 60 70+ hours a week. I think many of today's 20 somethings don't want that for themselves because of the toll it takes on their home life.
2. At the same time this generation grew up seeing organizations become less and less loyal to their employee. Gone are the days of working your 40 years for the same organization and getting a gold watch when you retire. Today's worker will change job 5+ times in their career.
3. With the advances in technology today's 20 something generation looks at getting work accomplished differently. You no longer have to be "in the office" to get work done. Unfortunately many employers still see "face time" as the measuring stick for effort.
4. Finally, I think today's 20 something worker does not live to work, they live to play. Work is a means to an end for for many of them and they are not going to live an unbalanced existence where they have no life outside of work.
We will explore this topic more over the next week or so. In the meantime I thought I would ask a 20 something to give me his thoughts on this. Below are some thoughts from Jake Thompson. Enjoy!
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“The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from the shore.” – Dale Carnegie
The one thing I am consistently asked by colleagues and strangers is why I, as a 26-year-old young professional, would I want to tackle the uphill challenge of being a freelance consultant in today’s business world.
The answer can be a long, drawn out explanation that might include things about how my father built his company from the ground up and I feel it is a way I can honor my family’s work history. Or I could share that I think my ADHD prevents me from sitting still in a cubicle all day. Or I could give you any number of creative excuses, but it ultimately came down to this – I wanted to use my God-given abilities in service and accomplish something that truly matters in a way that I felt best suited my abilities.
Here’s are the cliff notes on my journey. I graduated Texas Christian University in 2006 with my bachelor’s degree in Advertising/Public Relations and from the University of Dallas with my MBA in Sports and Entertainment Business in 2008. Throughout college I began interning with a variety of sports organizations; including sports agencies, sports marketing groups, and professional teams. I volunteered at events and took an active role in the industry to learn everything I could. I always thought I wanted to be the next Jerry Maguire and was hell-bent on achieving that goal.
I began to feel the need to start my own sports marketing group after spending 2008 at a newer sports agency where I didn’t see eye-to-eye with how things were handled and felt that the industry was corrupting me as an individual. I was not becoming the man I wanted to be and felt that in order to continue loving the game I had a passion for and to grow in my own personal life, I needed a split from the agent side of sports. The split from the agency led me to create AthElite Marketing.
I began with small graphic design and event planning projects through my personal network. As Bob Beaudine put it best in his book The Power of Who, it was my “WHO” people who helped me get going. After struggling for a few months, one of my former graduate school professors referred me to an entertainment development project in Irving and I eventually signed on as a consultant with the project.
I have spent the last two years working with the city of Irving on their entertainment complex while continuing to build a base of sports-related clients with AthElite. I recently launched another website devoted to non-sports marketing and branding called Stacked.
I am very aware of the looks I get when walking into certain meetings because of my youth and am very conscious of the stigma of my generation. We are “lazy, apathetic about our jobs, impatient, and constantly searching for the next ‘great’ gig.” My generation is perceived to be inexperienced, unwilling to roll up our sleeves and stay late, and on and on and on the list goes.
I will give some of the critics credit – there are members of my generation who fit every stereotype I just listed. But, there are also members of their generation and the generation before them who also fit these stereotypes. We can not all be lumped into the same barrel, just as those in the generation before us, and before them should be stereotyped by my generation. It is all a matter of perspective.
I think the biggest mis perception between generations in the workplace is the way my generation was raised. We have had technology at our fingertips from the time we were young – video games, cell phones, laptops, and now social media. As a whole, society is becoming more and more dependent on the big three as their sole means of information – television, computer, and cell (or smart) phones. We want everything one minute ago and we have become a culture of instant gratification.
My generation is accustomed to all of this information and therefore was raised to work in a different manner than past generations. We do not know any other way.
We do not have to be sitting at a desk from 8-5 to be productive because everything we need is at our fingertips, making us mobile. Physical boundaries do not limit us. All the hustle and bustle, moving from here to there doesn’t mean we are anxious or impatient, it just means we have the freedom to travel – a freedom we try to take advantage of.
Thanks to always-changing technologies, we can still be plugged into our work from anywhere. In fact, I get more work done at the local Starbucks with my headphones on at a corner table than I ever do at my office. There are too many people to socialize with and too many wasted minutes in meetings that do not require my presence.
This new generation is not one of laziness, but of freedom. We work just as hard, we just work differently. Unknown to most, our biggest challenge is not finding motivation to work, but making the opportunity to “unplug” and breathe, away from work.
It is almost impossible to leave your work at the office unless you make a conscious decision to. Every entrepreneur struggles with this. My father was always on the clock with his convenience stores because they were his stores and his responsibilities. My generation struggles with that as well, but in a different way because Blackberries, iPhones, and laptops instantaneously link us to the office, no matter where we are. Even vacations can easily turn into working trips with a simple email. I find myself going crazy if I don’t consciously turn off my computer a night or two a week because I will get home from my office and immediately start doing more work on the couch.
There will always be individuals who prefer to sit at their desk, clock in and clock out of work, then go home. Corporate America needs that to excel. Like many others of my generation, all of this freedom has afforded me the ability to think creatively, outside of the box, and not be limited by four walls, much less the status quo. My parents always encouraged me to try harder, push myself farther and be creative. I am not content in accepting second – in sports, in business, in life. I will fail, it is inevitable. But I know that nothing great has ever been achieved without a struggle and my success and legacy will not be determined by my failures, but in overcoming those failures on my way to success.
Jake Thompson
jake@stacked.pro
AreYouStackedToWin.com
AthEliteMarketing.com
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