I watched the video below from MTV Australia with @SimonSinek that talked about the challenges that millennials have as they hit the workforce and it really struck a cord with me. Not because I am a millennial, in fact I couldn’t be further from it it seems these days but I noticed this when I taught at a local college and was shocked when told I wasn’t allowed to fail a student even though they didn’t do any of the work or show up for most classes as it was a “new thing” at the college was trying. So as a result, the student was able to hand in all of their assignments at the end, without penalty and still pass. How, I asked, does this approach prepare students for real life?  Short answer – it doesn’t. 

Millennials may actually have it worse than previous generations because they weren’t taught that you have to fight for anything that truly matters – including your own happiness. The world isn’t going to give it to you just because your mom said you were special. (No I didn’t mean you… of course YOU’RE special)

And as they get older it’s a real slap in the face when they finally (hopefully!) realize that world owes them nothing. Their bosses owe them nothing (okay, except a pay check) and they don’t have a ‘right’ to anything or deserve something just because they want it. 
When I was younger (OMG I’ve become one of those people that starts a sentence with ‘when I was younger’), we were taught this early on by our parents, our teachers and most importantly by music. We got our battle cries from bands like Twisted Sister as we belted out that we were not gonna take it anymore. Pat Benatar reminded us almost daily that love was in fact a battlefield and the Beastie Boys told us we had to fight for our right to party…