Will millennial talent be static or dynamic?
It depends on whether they are financially intelligent or ignorant.
It’s sad. Because the three key issues facing Millennnial’s are:
- poverty/ Economic inequality
- environment/climate change
- college costs/student loan debt
And you can’t just throw numbers around at them or argue “objectively.” You need to be subjective to get through to this group. In other words, you need to appeal to their emotions.
Kids today graduate from school functionally illiterate. Being illiterate in both reading and math is the foundation for poverty.
Education should be something good that helps transform our youth. Education should prepare kids to be flexible, lifelong learners so they can withstand tough times. The kids that have a thorough background of general and liberal education and professional training will eventually pull ahead of their competition.
I worry about the future of my son. What will he be entering? Millennial’s are the most diverse group of all. But a great majority of them are persuadable. Many think that government is responsible to make sure all American’s have health care coverage. Many educated millennial’s believe that the government should help people.
I believe this is a result of our education system. Many millennial’s were kept happy and satisfied with themselves because they weren’t given anything that would strain their creative ability until now that many of them feel the strain of poverty. Their creative power has been weakened.
In other words, our education system teaches you to go get a job. Most millennial’s went on to college, learn a profession, they think will be fun, and make lot’s of money, only to find that they couldn’t get a job. So they went back and got more education. When they got that education, they found out that they couldn’t get a high-paying job because they had no experience. These millennial’s believe in working for money. It’s easier to work for money. It’s safe to work for other people.
So most millennial’s struggle financially because they haven’t been taught how earn money. Yet, most millennial’s are afraid. It’s funny how many women have told me: “Oh, I’m not interested in money.” Yet, if these women weren’t interested, then why do they get up in the morning and go to work for 8 hours? That’s the most absurd statement I’ve ever heard!
Last month, I did worked at a career fair. In my recruiting, there was this young woman, who was finishing her master’s degree and needed a “flexible” job. So I am learning about her and at the same time telling her the opportunity. After listening a bit, she told me, “I think I need a job job.” Fear of not having money, is what generated this thought. If she’s afraid of not having money, she should’ve been thinking: Will a job really solve my problem? No. A job keeps you in the rat race, as Kiyosaki says.
School is important but all too often, many consider it an end in itself. You go to school to learn something and contribute to society. School is only the beginning of learning. For your mind is constantly looking for information, acquiring knowledge. But if you stop doing these things, then you become ignorant and you die. Our biggest job is to learn how to fail intelligently… to keep on trying and failing and trying. This is a lesson that all creatives of the past have learned.
The failures of our education may be due in part by the tendency to emphasize knowing at the expense of doing. The aim of education should not be knowledge, but action. Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. Just because one knows doesn’t make him wise. Many men and women know stuff, a great deal of stuff, and are still fools for it. There is no bigger fool than a fool with knowledge. Knowledge isn’t power. It’s experience. Or as A. Lawrence Lowell once said: “Education is not knowledge. It is an attitude of mind, an ability to use information rather than a memory stocked with facts.”
“The whole object of education is, or should be, to develop the mind.” And one can argue that today, we don’t have well-trained minds. Millennial’s are scratching their heads and can barely think up creative solutions to their economic problems. Their best solution: let the government take care of us. And that solution will be the end of America.
Education should train young minds to think judicially and creatively. Only creative education can give wings to a person with imagination and see to it that we aren’t slaves to money.
Until next time. And as Marie Forleo likes to say: “stay on your game, and keep going for your dreams.”
Peace out,
