When I was 13, the apex of living was a handful of G.I. Joe action figures, a Four-square ball, and some comic books. It is noteworthy that even the most expensive, jaw-dropping, must-have toy (the G.I. Joe aircraft carrier), was priced at an eye-popping $99. Only my friends whose parents were especially affluent could afford a price tag that large. A few of my buddies, besides afternoon cartoons and a game of “War” (played with sticks substituting for toy guns) may also have been busy with an extracurricular sport like football (equipment provided by the school as hand-me downs), or if truly ambitious, would carry the burden of one additional hobby, usually under protest (piano lessons, for example).
Even into my twenties, my social group never expanded beyond 20 or so friends, and only rarely would all of us gather at one spot. Usually, I would meet with whichever group of 5 or 10 friends was doing the most interesting thing (more than likely seeing a movie or eating). The details vary, but the childhood of my father and grandfather was similar.
Flash-forward just one generation. What was the apex of life for my little brother, when he was 13? Milo had a cell-phone ($150), an Ipod ($200), shared a laptop computer ($500) with our brother Mercel, played basketball, football, and tennis (parents had to buy all the equipment). Milo owned an X-box 360 ($400) and a PlayStation 3 ($300), had his own television ($200), and much, much more. In his neighborhood (in fact, the same house in which I grew up), this lifestyle is considered about average. Not considering the sheer expense of his toys (and don’t get me started on the shoes), and with consideration to the fact these are what he HAS, not necessarily what he WANTS, I marvel at his social circle.
For Milo, there is MySpace, FaceBook, Instant Messaging, Text Messages, Flickr, Twitter and a slew of other websites and applications. His social circle is well into the hundreds of contacts, if not more than a thousand. Today, there is no losing track of people you knew in third grade and indeed, many children consider the size of their social circle a (somewhat obscure) mark of status. Milo stays in touch with everybody—even family and friends I have not spoken to in a decade or more. When these groups get together, they meet in small armies (word travels fast and electronically; keeping track of people is easy and crowds gather quickly). It goes without saying these teens and “tweens” spend exorbitant amounts of their parents’ money.
For me, at 13, there simply wasn’t anything (for entertainment) I could buy for more than $100. The idea of a toy costing more than that would have been considered preposterous. For Milo, a $300 phone is not even top of the line; it is the starting point of negotiation. Parents can drop thousands of dollars on a computer, portable DVD player, Ipod and brand-name sneakers without breaking a sweat. It should not go without mentioning the expense of my parents’ toys has sky-rocketed as well–a camcorder, 2 flat screen televisions, cable and satellite TV, internet, cell phones, etc.
Though it may seem otherwise, I have not even broached hobbies, social activities, and personal passions yet. Milo has many, as does Mercel. They are both sports enthusiasts, for example. Both brothers have a collection of “authentic” sports jerseys, costing around $100 per jersey. Milo has a small army of collectible bobble-head figures and Mercel, with a gang of friends, has produced their own rap CD’s. Both boys have traveled abroad, as well…at the expense of my parents, naturally.
The point is, the generational “divide” has become an ever-expanding chasm. Beyond most of the baby-boomers, our hobbies, habits, and passions demand more from us than ever and the trend is increasing exponentially.
Work, however, has not fundamentally changed since the early 1900′s. It is largely done the same way (albeit with new tools) and with the same mentality as it has been done since the Industrial Revolution. As productivity has increased, so has the length of the work day, although there is no longer a legitimate reason for these to be correlated. With the advent of cell phones, laptop computers, high-speed internet, e-mail, and collaborative software and hardware, not only do we have the ability to work from anywhere at anytime, but also we ignore the possibility of unleashing productivity to heretofore unimagined levels.
By ignoring schedules and location (instead of ignoring possibilities), we free talent to perform at its peak, when and where it peaks. We free people to follow as many passions as they care to pursue while pushing the American Dream forward. For perhaps the first time in history, it is truly conceivable for a person “to have it all”—work/life balance, family, social connectivity, entrepreneurship, community, and time to relax.
To my dad, work is the most important thing in life simply because there was ever little else to compete with his time.
For my little brothers, work will be nothing more than a necessary evil to pay for their true passions (which happen in “Life”, a place distinct from “Work” to them). Work will be, For Mercel and Milo, indistinguishable from other socially immoral acts, such as street-walking. Work, if it remains in the current paradigm of “Time + Location (and pandering to others) = Success” will become only a reprehensible act that must be performed to pay the bills until workers can escape to do something they really love.
How do we change the mentality of older generations to allow for the creativity and technological prowess of younger generations to shine instead of remain stifled?
Further complicating this question is the notable fact that younger generations are moving immeasurably faster than older generations while fearful (older) executives unjustifiably evoke great effort to slow them down.
My brothers are running up the escalator while my dad leisurely takes the stairs. Frustration mounts when the boys reach the top and turn to find dad only a third of the way there. They are forced to wait for Dad to catch up before they can go further, and the exercise is repeated every time they strive to reach a new level because, of course, dad does not trust them to go too far on their own.
Eventually, all of their peers will pass the boys by or the boys will leave dad behind to move forward on their own.
The boys are like the peak performers in an organization and dad is the stodgy executive slow to change and adapt to new paradigms growing around him. The high performers will eventually grow tired of the political wrangling and constant pushing it takes to move some boomers to embrace new ideas, and the talent will leave to form newer, faster-moving upstarts.
Hello Google; good-bye AOL. Hello Amazon; good-bye Borders. Hello Itunes; good-bye Tower Records. Hello ROWE; good-bye 9 to 5.
