I Got 99 Problems but Being a Millennial Ain’t One

Everyone keeps blaming us for a bunch of stuff: failed businesses, marriages, national debt, blah blah blah.

We get it, someone has to be the scapegoat; but, truth be told, we Millennials have changed the way EVERYTHING works. So it’s either one shapes up or ships out. We have no apologies to make.

If I had the choice of where and when I would be born, I would have chosen to be born in the period somewhere between Israelites getting out of Egypt and getting into Canaan.  No fuss, no internet, no social media, and most importantly, no Millennials.

But hey, I was born in the Gen Y era, and I have no apologies for that.

We Are Lazy and Selfish

We have been portrayed as the most selfish, egocentric, over-ambitious, lazy bums of all generations. We want to live the best life, fly high, champagne in the skies, condos in Miami Beach, and a flurry of adoring kittens (read: Women) to worship us. And yet we do not want to work for that, so they say. We want to have everything handed over to us on a silver plate. We want to be having millions in our bank accounts before we are 25, or 30. Not possible, most say.

But that is because they do not get it!

There is no group of people who are as hardworking as Millennials. Let’s face it, baby boomers and other old-timers are more afraid of the daredevil changes Millennials are bringing to every sector of the industry.

What is wrong with wanting to be rich when I’m willing to put in the hours?

Instead of working on projects that will take 10 years to deliver a positive ROI, millennials look for projects that can impact positive results into a business NOW.

We are afraid of marriages and some of us (like me), who are lucky to find great women to settle down, place the cards on the table. We want people who share our vision and who do not constantly remind us that we are different from other generations.

We Do Not Like Bosses

We do not like bosses or being held accountable to someone else, other than ourselves.

Nothing personal, but most of us love the idea of being able to work from home, or wherever there’s free WIFI as opposed to the constraints of a 10 by 12 cubicle on a 9-5 daily shift. What we hate more is not being given the capacity to implement the changes our brains come up with at work. We might look, and seem, lazy, but our brains are not. They are in overdrive.

We Hate Manual, Repetitive, and Boring Processes

We create time-saving systems so that we can do other, more interesting things with our time. We like saving time and we try to come up with different ways to make our lives easier. If I create a software system to automate HR processes in my company and save 50% on time and energy, does that mean I’m lazy?

If I spend 2 hours and $200 on Facebook ads (a product by another millennial, by the way) and generate 2,000 leads and an eventual net profit of another $200, does that make me lazy? Should I have hopped on my scooter and chased those leads down manually?

We hate manual, bogus, time-consuming, and tiresome processes. We live by trial and error. That’s why, at 30 years old, I have tried countless ventures, and failed in most of them. No biggie. I will still try 1,000 more times. And an extra 1,000 times after that. I cannot give up. I’m a millennial. We are just wired that way.

It’s 2018, and those still blaming Millennials for their problems should realize that the train already left the station, and it’s not coming back. We like living in a fast world. We have to think, act, behave, and reason fast. It’s just a normal, natural human adaptation. Charles Darwin had it right on the evolution of species.

We Would Rather Be Sorry Than Safe

I can imagine how some folks on horseback reacted when they saw the first vehicle on the road…

“This thing will kill us! Better be safe than sorry!”

We would rather be sorry than safe, and that’s why we bleed blood and water trying to come up with the next Google, Facebook, Salesforce, click funnels, and such because we want to impact not 1, not 100 but 100s of millions, possibly billions of people across the globe. And we can’t do that if we still try to play it safe.

We take risks, some calculated ones, some just to see what gives. But we own up to our mistakes and when our ventures pay off, we party like there’s no tomorrow.

We fail, we rise, we fail, we rise again. Until we do it. Sometimes we fake it until we make it, and sometimes we make it, or not.

We Understand Technology and Its Impact

Technology is here to stay and no one understands its impact and potential better than we Millennials. Old school ways of marketing have been dead for so long that the skeletons can no longer be found.

Some folks will beg to differ; others might even argue with me on this point, but they all know I speak the truth.

We Have No Social Skills

This might not be a great thing, but there are two sides to a coin. We, as Millennials, do not have any social skills so quit trying to pick a conversation with us at the café. We prefer the solitude and non-judgmental aspect of our mobile phones, raving thoughts, and people-repellent character.

Unless you are behind an avatar on Tinder or posting pics of your backyard kayaking on social media, we are not interested. We socialize on our keyboards.

We are here to stay. We are here to do business. We are here to be ourselves, and we have no apologies to make. We have 99 problems, but being Millennials ain’t one.

Peace.