Quit Referring to Millennials As Lazy And Ignorant

Everything is a matter of perspective, so I want to let you know where this is coming from for context. I am a 40-year-old mid-Western boy that went straight into military service after High School. I spent 11-years in the U.S. Army. I went to college for several years but managed a 1.0 GPA and not sure how I was able to do that well. It must have come from the knowledge I had drawn from trivia nights at various pubs around the States. Unable to work for anyone ever again, I ventured into a life of entrepreneurship. I've run my current business for the last decade. It's easy to say that I did attend the School of Life, where the tuition comes in the form of blood, sweat, and lots of tears.

I hear a lot of training and sales seminars, and there are a couple of references when the speaker addresses the Millennial crowd that probably irritates me more than it does them. It is the passive strategy of calling Millennials lazy and ignorant. As a public orator, myself, I find this in bad taste if you are trying to attract a Millennial to buy what you are selling or follow your coaching. If you raise your nose to Millennials, they will inevitably turn their backs on you, sooner or later. Only comedians can get away with insulting you to your face and may expect a repeat performance.

You may be saying to your screen, right now, "But I've never called anyone lazy or ignorant." Well, that's because I'm talking about your colleague who does. I see the Millennials regularly attacked for not wanting to work hard, nor work in general. May I offer up a suggestion? It is not that they do not want to work. It's that they (generalizing, of course) would prefer to follow their passion than support yours. During the 2016 Presidential Campaign, we saw a surge in interest in political and social activism. A sea of young Americans rose to fight for what they believed in; whether that was for Environmental Protection, Civil Rights/Liberties, Race/Gender Equality, Economic Viability, and so on. I was excited to see young people, some not even yet in high school, getting involved in peaceful protest for what they felt passionate. I've always believed that what the world needs are for more people to follow their passion. So, you've convinced everyone that to become an adult, you must get a college education, and then make fun of them for getting a Liberal Arts degree. Why not start with the question, "If you could get paid to do absolutely anything, what would that be?" In that simple question, you'll discover what may drive them.

What Millennials desire are mentors that have done what they have set out to do, or inspire them to do more than they have already done. Coming from Generation-X, and being a business owner, the internet is a virtual ocean of life coaches and business coaches that have not ever accomplished anything spectacular in their lives. I subscribe to the adage, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." I don't want a coach who is going to send me some regurgitated Og Mandino or Tony Robbins and pretend like that is how it is. I want to see you do it as well. If I see you can do it, then I may be able to match you or surpass you. Show me the map, don't tell me. The direction is what the younger generation desires. QUIT referring to Millennials as lazy. Just because they don't aspire to do what you spent 40 or 50 years of your life doing, doesn't mean they don't know how to work.

I remember back to my high school years and early Army years and I would have people with 2 or 3 more decades around their waistline, would bring up a subject and suffix it by saying, "that's way before your time." That would drive me crazy. From childhood, I listened to Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Tom Jones, and Dean Martin. I started playing trumpet at age 12 and was playing Jazz by 15. Just because I wasn't in High School in 1956, doesn't mean I don't know who the Hell Elvis is. I was actively using the internet by 1990, so I had access to information at my fingertips. What I didn't know, I could look up in an instant...depending on whether or not I had to wait for the spinning wheel of death.

I hear speakers refer to simple objects as a cassette tape or VHS tape and make some snide remark to Millennials that, "you young people probably don't know what I'm talking about." When I was in High School, I bought cassette tapes and ultimately CD's. In case you haven't stayed up-to-date on current events, CD's and DVD's are also dead technologies. I don't have a DVD player in my house. However, I know what a reel-to-reel is. I know what a 33 rpm or 45 rpm record player is. I know what a stenograph is and I learned to type on the typewriter. I've seen movies at the Drive-In. I am well read on American history. I served for a year in South Korea when I was 19-years-old. I can speak about Vietnam-Era America, The Cold War, and the endless war we've spent the last two decades in, even though I may not have participated, myself. Don't be condescending to a young person because they haven't spent as much time walking the Earth as you have.

To assume that Millennials don't know what these little treasures from your youth are is an exercise in your prejudice. You are only funny to the other people in the room your age group, but if it is your attempt to attract Millennials to your (fill in the blank), then QUIT referring to them as ignorant. If there is one thing I am sure of, we've wrecked the economy and the environment. We still haven't cured our country of racism, sexism, or nationalism. We've left a solid stain on human history. If we are going to look to the next generation to take the torch, willingly, from those who have proceeded them, then let's collectively not speak down to Millennials. The same way I haven't called you stupid, although I've explained how to download and use that phone app 15 times.