Understanding Y

CHAPTER 16 EntrepreneuriallY

Paul Lange

Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

Slogan from ‘Think Different’ advertising campaign for Apple Inc.

Are Gen Ys just a bunch of layabout, ludicrously spoilt-for-choice, loyal-to-no-one, delusional juveniles? Or does Generation Y hold the key to the next greatest advancement of human evolution?

It depends on who you ask — and the truth is probably somewhere right of centre. Every generation experiences the next as rebellious against the values and norms they've lived by. They can't — or frequently don't want to — understand life from others' perspectives.

Sure, each generation has their differences and brings about change — some more than others. But Gen Y as a group aren't buying into the old models, and they respect what they believe to be fundamental truths rather than the authoritarianism of global economics and modern world politics. They've seen early on that the systems created over the last 100 years — ‘traditional’ approaches — are broken, and the arguments used to perpetuate their existence are simply myths.

In her article ‘Gen Y Makes a Mark and their Imprint Is Entrepreneurship’, Sharon Jayson quotes Ben Kaufman, 20, founder of a company that makes iPod accessories. ‘People are realising they don't have to go to work in suits and ties and don't have to talk about budgets every day’, he says. ‘They can have a job they like — [one they] can create for themselves.’ ...