Simon Sinek on Millenials and Why They Don't Succeed

My wife and I have had many discussions lately regarding Millennials, especially considering that we have six kids between us that fall into that generation.

For the sake of clarity I want to define the Millennial group of which I speak as the generation of people largely being born between approximately 1982 and 1997, give or take.  You know who they are.  They are the often times impatient, entitled, and lazy generation that largely grew up this way through no real fault of their own.

As a disclaimer, of course not everyone born to this generation exhibits these same characteristics, including most of my kids, but on the whole this does seem to encompass a majority of them.  Further, even the Millennial generation themselves know and understand this.

My wife teaches at the local college here and recently asked what the perception of the Millennial generation was to her Millennial-filled class.  Their responses were very interesting and confirmed even by their own admissions the negative perceptions that most folks have of a generation that is unfocused, lazy, entitled, and demanding of instant gratification.

Simon Sinek is a motivational speaker and he spoke on the topic of Millennials in his presentation entitled, "This is why you don't SUCCEED!".  He brought some interesting insights as to the perceptions, causes, and possible solutions to help the Millennial generation overcome the negative stereotypical perceptions that many older generations have of them.  I found the video to be quite interesting accordingly.

Mr. Sinek in particular lists four main reasons why many Millennials behave as they do:

1. Their parents had bad parenting strategies in raising them.  This is very true of the "participation trophy" and build the artificial self esteem strategies of the Millenials' parents.  

2.  An overwhelming obsession with technology and social media.  This is true, as when one wanders out in public, seldom do you see a Millennial not walking with his or her eyes glued to their phone.  Their relationships are typically shallow and superficial as they look to see how many followers and "likes" they have as a means of determining their self worth and social value.

3. Impatience.  Most Millennials have been raised to believe that they can do anything and that they should expect it without hesitation accordingly.  They thus don't want to have to work hard and pay their dues over time to reach a given summit.  They live in a world where instant gratification is required, otherwise, they are likely to turn elsewhere for easier temporary fulfillment, even in personal relationships.

4. Environment.  I am not sure I buy this point of Mr. Sinek's as much, but even our corporate environments cause Millennials to be discouraged as they feel they are not making a difference in their jobs.

Now I know many Millennials that do not fall into the stereotypical generation's characteristics.  Indeed, most of the Millennials that do exhibit the typical characteristics for which their generation are often known, do so through no fault of their own, at leaset initially.  Perhaps though, we can help correct some of these negative characteristics as a society by helping the Millennials in our lives to reflect with some deeper introspection as to why they do as they do so that they might understand how to change things for the better, if they wish.  

It is something my wife and I do with our own grown Millennial kids now, and she does with her college students.  The Millennial generation has unbound talent and ideas to offer.  It is our job as parents and teachers to try and help them do so.  Mr. Sinek's presentation is a good way to start this conversation.

30 Days at Sea Timelapsed

I wished to finish this week off on a good note with something other than politics. 

That said, I ran across this video which I thought was rather fascinating.  It is a compilation of over 80,000 time-lapsed photos taken over the course of 30 days that shows a cargo ship's traveling from Sri Lanka to Singapore to Hong Kong and the oceans it crosses in between. 

I particularly enjoyed the scenes of the sky at night way out on the open ocean away from all land and lights that pollute the night sky.  There is nothing more spectacular than seeing the milky way out on a ship thousands of miles from anywhere.  It truly does make one feel like such an infinitesimally small part in God's amazingly beautiful tapestry of creation as you see the night sky with the myriad stars He breathed into being while feeling the ever-so-gentle rocking of the ship as it momentarily parts the ocean waves to allow one to traverse across its vastness.  It truly is an experience like no other. 

If you ever have the opportunity to travel on the open ocean on a ship, I would highly recommend that you take advantage of it at least one time in your life.  And DO sit out on the deck at night and look up at the sky.  You will be changed at least a little bit by having done so!

Michael Moore's Latest Idea on Repealing and Replacing the 2nd Amendment

Today I came across this sadly bemusing article regarding Leftist film maker Michael Moore's latest idea.  Of course he misses the entire purpose of why our founders insisted that citizens must have the right to keep and bear arms, and it has nothing to do with sport or hunting.  I suppose it would have been more astonishing if he had understood that fact.  

What is truly sad is that there will be quite a few people that will look at his misguided ideas and think this newly proposed constitutional amendment of his is a really good idea. 

Never mind that most of his ideas will do nothing to change the number of deaths by gun violence, but in many cases will actually exacerbate the problem.  Indeed, many of the cities with the worst gun violence in the nation also have the strictest gun control laws.  I give you Chicago as an excellent case in point, as it leads the nation in gun deaths yet again this year.

Evidently these good folks are still of the mind that evil can be controlled via legislation.  Many of these well-meaning folks are the same ones that insist that we should not judge all Muslims by the terrorist acts committed by a small percentage of those that they claim have perverted Islam.  As far as that argument goes, they are absolutely correct.  One would simply ask that this same courtesy be given to lawful gun owners to not be judged by the actions of the few psychopaths that use guns to commit evil acts.  I won't hold my breath on this.

Regardless, here is the article from The Blaze by Dave Urbanski:

Michael Moore proposes change to Constitution that ‘repeals the ancient and outdated 2nd Amendment’

In the wake of the deadly Las Vegas mass shooting Sunday night, Moore proposed a 28th amendment to the United States Constitution that “repeals the ancient and outdated 2nd Amendment.”

He began his lengthy Facebook post with the following preamble:

“A well regulated State National Guard, being helpful to the safety and security of a State in times of need, along with the strictly regulated right of the people to keep and bear a limited number of non-automatic Arms for sport and hunting, with respect to the primary right of all people to be free from gun violence, this shall not be infringed.”

Moore — noting the Second Amendment was “written before bullets and revolvers were even invented” — said his proposed amendment “guarantees States can have State militias (a.k.a. State National Guards which are made up of citizen-soldiers who are called upon in times of natural disasters or other State emergencies), allows individuals to use guns for sport and gathering food, and guarantees everyone the right to be free of, and protected from, gun violence (i.e., the public’s safety comes ahead of an individual’s right to own and fire a gun).” 

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 At the end of the day, we have a God given right, and I would argue a duty, to protect innocent lives from evil as best we are able.  By disarming law abiding Americans in contradiction to our Bill of Rights and indeed by natural law's right to self preservation, Michael Moore and those that support his wrong-headed idea are creating far more problems than they ever hoped to solve.

As I am already a "life member" of the NRA, I think I will head off to their web site and make a donation in honor of Michael Moore simply to try and curb what little I can of the damage his foolish notion does with regards to his influencing the uninformed and ignorant in our country.