Does the economy suck?
If you have the expectations your parents had it most certainly does.
I read the Huffington Post regularly, it’s one of the few places I can connect to while traveling abroad to keep in touch with what is going on back home in the US. It pains me to have to watch videos like this…
Graduating from college, being tens of thousands of dollars in debt, and working at Walmart…nice effective use of resources. What kind of future are we going to have with an entire generation of people who can’t make enough money to take care of themselves? An entire generation who bought into ideas of the TV?
My heart goes out to those in their 40′s and 50′s and 60′s who have been rocked by the new emerging geo-independent economy, but not so much for 20 year olds. You should know better.
Reminder: Your parents are delusional about the new economy
I’m just going to say it, your parents are stupid, and so are mine. When I decided to quit my job and make my income online from my Internet marketing projects (this site being one of them), while taking up and enduring stupid jobs to support myself while living in the state of Connecticut at the time, my mom thought I was an utter fool. She would say things like:
- Well so and so got a job here
- Well I had raised two kids as a single mom before I married your father
- People work, those who want to work can work
Sure, if you want to work at Mcdonalds they’re always hiring…but my guess is that’s not what you had in mind. Besides, my mother worked in a world during the 1970′s where the lowly bank teller had a pension. That’s right, a bank teller in the USA USED TO have a pension. Now-a-days you would be lucky to make $10 an hour with free coffee let alone a pension.
Things have changed, let go of the past and embrace the future
There is a decision everyone has to make at a certain point in their lives. After toiling away towards this past idea of job security with an employeer and retirement in the form of a large pile of cash from obediently doing as told, they wake up to this modern myth realizing they have no pile of cash and an employeer that wants to replace them with a robot.
The decision we make is simple
Boldly go where your heart tells you to, strike out on your own and do great work that matters for your right people; ignoring those idiots who say it’s too hard, you will fail, you can’t make…(reminder: they have already made their choice)
OR
give up, seek security where none is to be found, settle for a mediocre job that dosent care about you and won’t pay you enough to live.
How to get rich
Most of us walk around with the ability in us to make an impact, to do amazing work that moves other people (that’s what art is), to risk failure but potentially make a difference. Being told “you have a lot of potential” is a nice compliment but don’t mistake it for action. You may be talented, you may be smart, you may be creative…so what. It dosent fucking matter. Only what you do matters.
I know, trust me I KNOW the world is not fair
…you are in fact luckier to be born in a western democracy than anywhere else. Most people don’t get the opportunities they deserve, and even more squander the opportunities they already have but are too blinded to see. Yes, there are and always will be barriers based on bullshit like age, race, education, and social standing, and yes these must fall…but it still changes nothing. You have a lot of potential. You can be amazing at something. The opportunity to risk failure now has never been more minimal.
Too late
In the words of Martin Luther King Junior:
“We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late.
Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood — it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, “Too late.”
Your parents are delusional, don’t listen to them. Instead, do something crazy, wear something wild, tell someone the truth. Risk being poor and risk failing. Get used to it, it’s the hits you got to take on your way to the top. Sucess is up to you so stop waiting around for the cavalry to come save you.
-David
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