I’ve written a lot about the problems and difficulties with Gen Y, but I want to make something clear.
Gen Y didn’t raise themselves to feel entitled, require constant praise or expect success for trying their hardest.
Jan left a comment a few weeks ago and I think she speaks for a large number of her generation, “There is a great amount of pressure to earn good grades and gain a GREAT career, as if somehow that is the only way to gain success in our lives. … The present often does not matter, including learning the subject. Students live under this …read more

I received a call from a reader, I’ll call him Doug, (I love calls, you may reach me at 866.335.8054, 9 AM to11 PM Pacific time.) who wanted to know why I kept harping on the need for long-term this and long-term that. He said that he’s 26 and part of “the online generation” and used to “instant gratification.”
We talked for quite awhile and I found him to be intelligent, well-spoken and, in his own way despite what he said, thoughtful—but also impatient.
Influencing others is always stressed as a major trait of leadership—maybe the most important trait. But to lead …read more

A newspaper article 30 years ago talked about the initiation rites of girls who joined gangs. Previously, girls hadn’t been active members of gangs and I remember thinking then that equality was happening in the wrong places.
There was a time when attitudes and actions moved from older to younger.
But it seems that more and more, instead of children learning from their grandparents, the grandparents are adopting the attitudes of the kids and, as with girls in gangs, it’s not the good ones that are moving—it’s the worst.
Entitlement. Instant gratification.
There are thousands who knowingly bought homes they couldn’t afford (as opposed …read more