A Generation Gap For Entrepreneurs?
A recent post by Nick Stamoulis of Marketing Pilgrim has me obsessed with questions about the generation gap.
Normally, I prefer to accord agency to the individual, rather than to cliched group identities like “Baby Boomers,” “Generation X,” or “Generation Y.”
But… as an apparent member of the Gen Y tier, I couldn’t help but COMPLETELY identify with the values on this table from Entrepreneur Magazine:
|
Gen Y |
Gen X |
Baby
Boomers |
How they like to com-
municate |
Texting, cell phones and IM |
E-mail, IM and cell phones |
E-mail, cell phones and face to face |
| Approach to problem solving |
Form a team to brainstorm a solution.
Use the web and social networking for research. |
Think up a list of solutions on your own, then call a meeting to discuss. |
Think about what’s worked in the past and how it can be replicated, then call a meeting to discuss. |
| What they’re worried about |
What they’re worried about |
Work/life balance, stability, whether they’re appreciated |
Stability and retirement. |
| Respect for them means |
Having their ideas valued by co-workers |
Having their professionalism and growing knowledge valued |
Having decades of work experience and input still valued |
|
|
Man, do I hate being a cliché.
Given these listed values, does this indicate that Gen Y, the ideas-focused, collaboration-centric, hyper-social generation, is inherently more entrepreneurial than, say, Baby Boomers?
My friend Ramit loves to talk about creative, and very entrepreneurial, ways to earn more money and get satisfaction. My good-intentioned, hardworking 50-something parents panic at the very whisper of “freelance” or at the idea of doing something you love for no pay as a way to start an empire (like this blog, muahahaha!).
Countless of my Gen Y friends run side projects that they hope will be their ticket out of corporate drone-dom. They’re not doing everything perfectly, but they’re definitely hungry.
Unlike my parents, who grew up in Maoist China, I was fortunate enough to have all my needs met, and a fantastically fancy education. That meant that I had lots of extra time, resources, and mindspace to think about… ME. MY ideas, MY dreams, and MY “passions” instead of how I am going to achieve enough financial security to support a family.
Atrocious how self-centric I feel right now. I should be donating my salary to paying off my parents’ house, not funding my own side projects, right?
BUT then, I think, for my peers and for our society, this attitude means a generation of young people who aren’t ever going to be complacent cogs in a wheel.
Nope, we didn’t burn our bras or stand in front of tanks, but we are hell-bent on changing the world in our own way, to fit the wacky, beautiful, and implausible visions taking shape from our dreams.