Awake at 2 o'clock?

John, I appreciate your articles and I often agree with you on many of your assertions. On this topic though, I must introduce an alternative not in sync with yours. That is … when the egg’s not frying fast enough … often the solution is to turn up the heat.

You are correct that time is a limited commodity. And you are also correct observing that many individuals identify their own success “by position and consumption.”

But comparing the priorities of the sub-40 generations with those of the “boomers” today is not a reasonable comparison. The “right” comparison would be to compare the sub-40’s to the “boomers” when they were sub-40. Individuals younger than 40 will naturally have different priorities at this earlier stage of their life than a “boomer” does now. Who’s to say that at 45 to 55 those sub-40’s won’t decide to “turn up the heat?”

I agree that there a differences in generations. But sometimes differences have more to do with stage of development than with the constraints imposed by the arbitrary age cut-offs required of generational labels. What may be more accurate is that, to some degree, we all define ourselves “by position and consumption,” and when one’s actual circumstance does not reconcile with one’s desired level of position or consumption, that dissonance can create a sense of urgency to move closer to accordance. In response to the dissonance, some will choose to “turn up the heat” while others will simply adjust their self-definition.

I suspect that every generation will contain an ample cohort of individuals who will not be satisfied until there is a good fit between their own wants and needs, and their ability to satisfy those wants and needs. It may even be true that given the opportunity that the “boomer bust” creates, the “sub-40’s” will elect to “turn up the heat” a little earlier to seize the unique opportunity presented to them.

Thanks again for your thought provoking articles John.

Mike

in your last paragraph you say that GenXers “better learn how to hammer a nail” as their reduced productivity will cause them reduced disposable income. That warning is looking at the world from a Boomer perspective. When i talk to my GenXer kids and their friends, they’re quite willing to live on reduced disposable income – they have no desire to “judge their success by position and consumption”. My (Boomer) initial reaction is to try to talk sense into them; but them i think about it more and say – maybe you’re right. Take that year sabbatical at age 28 and go to Spain with your girlfriend. The rat race will be here when you get back!

While I’m no coach, so therefore, don’t have the broad background you have, my experience in working with Millennials is that they’ve learned lessons from their parents quite well, thank you very much.

The small group of entrepreneurs I’m working with now are looking at leverage, from every angle. Several want the material trappings Boomers are noted for, yet I agree, they don’t want to work the long hours they saw (and many still do see) their folks put in every week.

So they’re finding ways of creating passive revenue, at every turn. While they’re willing to put the time and energy in getting something off the ground, their overriding goal is to have others do the work, so they can do something else. (I’m assuming they’re starting other ventures for more passive revenue streams. But you know what they say about assume!)

So what do they do? They follow in their parents’ footsteps: They outsource, both stateside and overseas. There are still plenty of other millennials who are willing to put in the long hours, and this group of millennials I’m working with are happy to leverage that.

They’re also leveraging their outsourcing efforts, too. Because they’ve watched their Boomer parents’ loyalty get in their way of profitability and progress, they’re not overly tied to one vendor. So they find a few who will do the same tasks. If one rises to the top, they’ll outsource more to that individual or organization, but not all of it. From what I’m seeing, they’re not putting all their eggs in one basket.

Yes, they’re more group-minded, but they’re also very bottom-line driven. And if something’s not working, they’re willing to pull the plug faster than their elders.

Because not all millennials are like this group of people I’m working with, I think there’ll be plenty of folks who will still be willing to put in the long hours, just because they’re having so much fun doing it. As long as it’s fun, Millennials will play the game. Once it stops, it’s game over — and on to a new one.

Most of my 20-year career as a custom publisher (magazines and newsletters, both electronic and printed) has been spent working with Boomers. As one myself, I understand them, their motivations and how to make them happy. Millennials have opened my eyes to doing business a different way. I find it refreshing to work with and learn from this group of business people.

And if I can get out of my own way and take a page from the millennials’ book, I, too, may just find myself with a nice passive income stream. Until then, though, the 40+ hour work week beckons…

Totally agree with the criminal background check. not just a right but practically a necessity. who would want to hire an embezzler to be your accountant, right? we get to check everything else on a resume’ or application, but not whether they broke the law? By the time an employer does the background check they have already passed the point of a judgement based on color, race, etc if in fact they were narrow minded enough to allow that to enter into their hiring decision.

Disagree on healthcare. everyone deserves it and while the current law sucks it was the best our representatives could come up with considering their primary objective is always political, not about the people they represent. A lot of great ideas were shot down based solely on rhetoric, unsupported assumptions and lies as facts. (BTW, i pay 90% of my employees’ healthcare)

This is a WAKE UP CALL. I had never thought about the vulnerability of the franchise industry to the demise of the boomer generation. I have to sit back and think about this. My focus has been on the impact that the boomers will have on the succession plans for independent financial planners, wealth manager and insurance agents. Just like your food and hotel franchise examples, these individuals poured their lives into building profitable practices and it is unlikely that the next generation has the motivation to continue the growth of the industry. For more than a year we have been in conversations with large corporations that provide regulatory compliance and package insurance products to support these aging entrepreneurs. The companies are finally recognizing the imapact of the loss of their top producers. I will use this franchise analogy to paint the picture for them. Thank you.

Amen, “pay for performance” I often cited as a panacea for improving business performance, or worst yet, a “best practice” we all should adopt. It makes me want to throw up! There is no substitute for engaged management, but I do have to admit that “pay for performance” does require management to establish operational metrics and when an owner manager puts his own money on the line, he does tend to be engaged.
Those of us aware of the 1920’s experiment at the Bell Labs Hawthorn plant should recall that the study showed us that productivity improves when management has key metrics to measure output and is engaged with the productivity. Out of this study, we learned (or should have learned) that there is no substitute for management paying attention to positive results – Results have to be measured and it takes metrics to measure results – Amen.
Proponents of the virtues of “pay for performance” often cite numerous success stories of businesses that thrive with a culture using these tools. However, consider, is there causation or a correlation between such performance. In other words, do the businesses that are performing well do so because their compensation formula is some incentive plan, or because the business is among the larger population of strong businesses that have ENGAGED management with METRICS – AMEN.