“Hard Work Is Dead!” — and one other sad truth I learned about the world yesterday
If there was ever a time to think about what’s worth saving from the old world, this would be it.
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“We’re screwed!”
That was the wisdom passed down to me yesterday when I asked a class of MBA students about their future.
“NFTs! Crypto! Gary Vee! None of it’s real! Hard work is dead! It sucks! Our future will be determined by a handful of techies and stay-at-home influencers who were at the right place at the right time who get their kicks writing Twitter threads!”
The 27 students I’m teaching come from 21 different countries.
While NFTs became hot last summer, three of the students quit their first jobs out of college to volunteer with the UN after the explosions of August 4th ripped through Beirut while another was volunteering in his home country of Syria.
“We volunteer,” whispered the soft-spoken 25-year-old Syrian as he put his hand on my shoulder with worn eyes. “Community… it’s what we do.”
“It doesn’t do us a bit of good though!” chimed in one of the Lebanese students. “I hate that about the world! In my last interview, I was told I don’t have enough real-world experience by some dude with perfect nails!”
I connect with their “why.”
I imagine you do too.
They grew up in an environment where death and destruction are the norms. They’re studying project management to play their part in physically building the future they want to see.
My gut reaction was to tell them not to change.
But is that now bad advice?
Does that mean they’ll get passed over?
Does that mean the very people who prioritize real-world community will live their lives under the rules of those who prioritize clicks and giggles while laying in their comfy bed?
Combine this with another sad truth I learned about the world yesterday and my head was spinning about where the world already is and where it’s heading.
