I am going to take one more week and talk about the youths of
today.
In one of my businesses, I work with many teenagers and people in
their 20s and early 30s.
I have found that once people in these age brackets find success
in a process, they don’t like to change it. That surprised me at
first because I had always thought young people were more
flexible than older adults.
My theory is that once people find a way of doing anything that
brings the results they want-be it a process for meeting others,
a way to do a task at work, or how to relax-that way becomes
comfortable and they don’t want to adjust it.
Few people like change, and most resist it to some degree. What
fascinated me was how set in their ways youths become so quickly.
One area in which youths generally adapt faster than older adults
is technology. Young people take to it faster and are willing to
experiment with it until they make it work.
I think today’s youths have as many skills, as much potential,
and as strong a work ethic as any other generation. I have
observed this over time. With encouragement, guidance, and a safe
place to try new things, young people move into new challenges.
When you create a climate of safety and encouragement, people
will change; until then, it is slow going.