Another stupid millennial

Some days ago I came across two videos in-a-row just by chance on my Twitter timeline which actually called my attention.

On the first, Simon Sinek, explains the problems that people belonging to the “millennial” generation have (and will have), those impatient young beings exposed to technology from an early age. For Sinek, millennials are characterized for not accepting the fact that they are “no longer special”. They are no longer special in the way their parents and teachers at school taught them, where they were awarded for participating or even for making mistakes. Millennials discover this later on in real life, when they face severe problems in adapting to the corporate world, a world which only gives credit to those who achieve their objectives (and, therefore, “make it “). Besides, Sinek mentions the desperate quest for purpose or impact in people belonging to this generation, something he finds not very realistic.

The following video from my timeline was about Gino Tubaro, a brilliant entrepreneur who I met in the event BarCamp in 2013. Back then, Gino was only 17 and had already created a 3D printer using Argentine components. His idea was to build and distribute it massively. Gino, who is 20 years old now, uses his 3D printers to build prostheses and travels throughout the world providing a solution for those who need it. He also organizes “manotones”, which are solidarity events for many people for which this solution is out of reach. He explains why:

“My inventions are focused on some social side since this is what produces the greatest impact. And because it is something to feel proud about when a kid smiles because of the prosthesis I have invented.”

For me, this is the typical case of a millennial and the impact Simon Sinek refers to.

This coincidence made me reflect on the topic, since as a partner of a software company with 120 members and a 78% of millennials, I consider it important to understand this generation.

To get started, I think it necessary to understand the context and challenges faced by people born after 1980. Let’s analyze each:

1. Economy stagnation

Many millennials were so unlucky they lived through one of the biggest crises of history between 2008-2009, its consequences still linger on nowadays. Anyway, it is not only about that crisis but, since they were born, nearly every year the concentration of wealth in few hands goes up and the chances of social mobility reduce greatly.

To be clearer, the chances for millennials to reach a substantial improvement in their quality of life through their work effort are lower than for any other generation prior to 1980.

2. Environmental damage

For people who will inhabit the planet and have families in the forthcoming years, the environmental issues are clearly important. Global warming has been growing for many years now and no one can really forecast its actual impact. We see images of continental ice about to break every day, news about sea warming and scarce natural resources, and no one can predict the consequences of these phenomena. Generally, governments and companies do not seem to worry much about these.

3. Xenophobia and immigration

On December 21st, 2015, 3406 people died trying to reach Europe in one of the biggest migratory crises since the world wars. At the same time and during those last years a wave of right-wing parties won elections in different parts of the world, along with xenophobic proposals on their platforms and great regression regarding civil rights. Only to name some examples in 2016:

• The president Rodrigo Duterte, winner in the Philippine elections, insults homosexuals, mocks massive violations and basically calls for the murder thousands of people in his country without a trial.
• In Poland the party “Law and Justice” wins rejecting any kind of sexual and liberal minorities, and has taken a clear position against immigration and refugees.
•  In England, the people vote to exit the European Community – a decision based primarily on a drive to stop refugees and protect from immigration.
• On January 20th, 2017 Donald Trump was sworn in as president of the United States, the real estate tycoon who based his campaign on hatred towards minorities, mockery at handicapped people and the idea of building a wall to put off immigrants.

 Millennials’ attitude

In a scenario like the one described before, the new generations face a really threatening world and, from my humble viewpoint, millennials are not the wrong ones.

I understand Sinek when he says millennials should be more patient, and I believe patience is a really valuable virtue that is normally developed as years go by. But I strongly disagree on his point of view that the reason for such impatience is the search for instant gratification, I believe that impatience in millennials is the wisest thing around currently when a change of direction is more urgent than ever.

In fact, amidst this economic crisis, they struggle to work for companies with active policies of corporate social responsibility. This generated what researchers such as Archie Carroll and Ann Buchholtz defined as “the crisis of expectations”. While new generations expect more and more commitment from their bosses and their companies in activities with social impact, organizations actually have increasingly less positive impact on societies:

 And this is a big change compared to other generations, according to recent studies 79% of millennials consider that social responsibility should be a must for companies, and over 45% would accept to get a salary up to 20% lower if they worked for a company that has solid commitment towards its community.

Regarding environmental commitment, millennials lead green movements and they value green issues far more than other generations. And, eventually as regards civil rights, diversity and political leadership, their ideas are crystal clear:

• They are the generation that supports gay marriage and gay adoption the most.
• They raise the banner against capital punishment and are among those who supported the Irak war the least (one of the main reasons from migrations).
• They are, moreover, totally against losing civil rights as a result of “terrorism” and persecution of Muslims.
• If we had let only them vote, Bernie Sanders would be the president of the U.S and England would still be part of the European Community.

Are we entitled to criticize their quest for impact? Or their need of a purpose? Or should we start voting like them? Isn’t it high time we started committing to generate a radical change of direction regarding where we are going?

Although I was born in 1979 which means I am a year before that limit that singles out this generation, I feel that in this conversation I am just another stupid millennial that thinks that one should look for a purpose and generate impact, that we should vote against hatred and we should commit to both social and green causes. All these, before it is too late. And I believe that patience, the stoic acceptance which is proposed from many places, is a gross mistake, we need an urgent commitment to generating a change.

How should we expect a generation to react when they see us destructing the world they will have to live in, they see us vote Trump, they see us go with the Brexit and shortly after go to the internet to check what the European Union actually means? We are before them as generations without any commitment towards the society, who put their future at stake and generate policies of racial hatred and persecution. And they could not be more right.