I feel your pain.
As you sit, sipping your (most likely) third of fourth cup of coffee, staring at computer screen (for longer than what is healthy for your eyes and brain), sitting behind a desk at a big corporate office within that corporate world you swore you would never be a part of.
This generation that was (and I'm convinced still is, deep down) adventurous, empowered and creative, is now all about titles and status and dollars because somehow we got it into our heads that we should take on a mortgage, pop out a few babies, get married, drive nice cars, have "the best job" all before turning 24, because with those things came the belief that we were doing well and had it made.
Don't get me wrong, It's wonderful to have a place to call home, babies are cute, and marriage can be beautiful, I'm sure, but just because you have those wonderful aspects of your life all lined up doesn't mean you have to forget what makes you passionate and inspired. Our generation is an empowered one with the ability to make money, climb the corporate or social ladder, and be famous within minutes- maybe seconds. It's all at our fingertips. We have the ability to create, to travel, to heal, to encourage, to change a life, a community, a corporation, a country within minutes. That power is at our fingertips too. But our generation in particular has a deep struggle between being part of a team, and lassoing our entrepreneurial spirits, between freedom and flexibility, and having stability and instant gratification, between following what makes our souls tick, and having financial stability.
I struggle with this too. Daily.
Like most people my age, I sit in my office, which is beautiful and right in the heart of downtown. I make plenty of money. I've managed to climb a ladder without even really trying. I live on my own. I'm doing well right? But the majority of my days I'm dreaming up was to make less, embrace flexibility, self-empower, and to somehow save the world. We millennials have this ingrained, deep desire to make a mark on the world, yet we let slip the original idea of how we were going to do that.
So yes, we've done a great job at securing our place in the business world with our big fancy titles and dollars assigned to them, but I can't be the only one that struggles within this wildly adventurous, creative empowered, yet settling generation with the question of "what the hell am I doing?".
Here are the facts:
58% of s would accept a 15% pay cut if it meant working for a company with the same set of values as us.
45% of us would take the same paycut for a job that had an environmental or social impact
35% would do so for an organization that has a commitment to corporate social responsibility.
because we still know in our little, yet over-sized millennial hearts that it's not about the money. We want to work for companies that stand for something greater than ourselves.
...and for over 60% of us that means starting our own company if we haven't already.
So my note to millennials is this:
Don't let the money and the security, and the expectations of what it means to be successful make you forget your passion.
Because- we're millennials! We get to have our cake and eat it too...with a cherry on top.
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