Why millennials will change the world…

If you listen the older generations, millennials are a bunch of spoiled brats who know nothing of life. Ironic, as if we have been spoiled, it is by that very generation that says we have. It’s also ironic that the older generation happened to be born during one of the most prosperous periods of all time: The Years of the Long Boom. Who is spoiled now? But that’s not the point. Millennials see the world differently, which is why they will shape it for the better.

The “Good Old Days”

The 20th century was so blessed. No terrorists to worry about, no Middle-East conflict, no global warming. Just two episodes of mass killings between nations in the whole world that we had never seen before, and a bunch of genocides by a handful of nutters. But apart from that, the world was fine.

If we go back over the centuries and millenia, humans have always been at war with each other, even when the earth was hardly populated. If we look at the number of conflicts that are occurring and compare that to the population of the Earth, this is clearly not the worst time to be living in.

The world is changing for sure, at a pace we have never seen before. The shift from an agriculture based society to an industrialised society was violent enough. Now we are seeing a shift from an industrial society to the digital world, and the world of service. It scares our elders because the rules are changing, but this is not necessarily a bad thing.

In the “Good old days,” you could dream of finding a stable job and work for 40 years until you could reach retirement and enjoy the fruits of your labour for a few years and die. What a dream! I can’t wait. I simply have to find someone I can work for so I can wait 40 years to live my life the way I want to. Just give me the contract so I can sign.

Because the older generation has lived under this paradigm and accepted it as normal, they can’t understand why millennials would not want that. They can’t fathom why we feel entitled for more. And I just say why not? Why shouldn’t we feel entitled to actually enjoy the fruits of our labour?

The massive shift

Millennials have fewer limits in their minds than their parents. They don’t see the world the same way because they grew up with cheap airlines. Travelling is normal for them and the world is not defined by borders between nations. They were born in a completely peaceful Western World (especially those born after the fall of the Berlin Wall).

When you no longer feel tied to a specific place on Earth, you don’t see foreigners in the same light either. Now all it takes to talk to someone on the other side of the globe is a Skype call. And you know what? Maybe Skype or Facebook would have prevented the second World War. Impossible to tell, I know, but picture it.

What if European nations had been connected the same way we’re connected now? What if life abroad could have been seen without the filter of the media? Would they have realised they were all human beings before they were German or French or British? I like to think so.

We can say many negative things about social media. The phenomenon has brought us closer together. And it has removed the filters of the media. Your TV channels only show you what they want you to see. If your country wants you to feel hostility towards another nation, it will show you precisely what you need to see for you to feel that hostility. That’s how Hitler convinced his people, who did not want to go to war again, that it was a good idea to invade Europe.

With social media, people share what they want to share, so you can see both horrible things, and great things. You can see a Jew and a Muslim walking together peacefully. You can see that we are more united by what we have in common than separated by our differences.

And finally, businesses are shifting. What is called an online business now will just be called a business in 10 years. The market will be global, and opportunities will be global. There will be no need to “go to work” because we’ll be able to do most of the work from wherever we want. We won’t be defined by where we live, but by where we have been.

Where are we headed?

Like 100% people on earth, I have no freaking clue. I just know that we live in truly exciting times. The fact that our elders can’t cope with the speed at which the world is changing just shows us how exciting this is. The old models will disappear.

Governments will struggle to maintain their grip on the populations. Evading tax is easier than before. Opening companies in foreign countries is also easier. We’re no longer tied to the rules of a single country. We can pick and choose the country that suits us best.

New services are arising. AirBnB took the hospitality world completely by surprise. Uber is shaking the transport world. We’re finding new ways to create space and time so we can live a different lifestyle. We’re more focused on living a great life now than what’s gonna happen when we retire.

Millennials have a different mindset, but their mindset is one that can bring peace to the world. Their mindset is one that can help preserve our planet because they care more about how it’s gonna age than our elders. We are already changing the world. And no, we’re not as excited to work in an unrewarding job as our parents were.