The Youth & Us: Impatience

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I have a relative who started a business of late. The sales were good at first but as with any business, they begun to decline with time; a common law in business. 

One day as we are conversing, she pauses for a second or two, and begins on how tired she was of running that business and how she was thinking of quitting. 

But the thing was, it only had been three months. And the reason to this complaint is the next common attribute of millennials; Impatience.

Impatience is the third quality millennials have of the four main attributes they are rightfully branded with. 

A millennial, is anyone born from about 1982 onwards who have, since then, been identified with attributes such as laziness, entitlement, can't keep a job, convulse leadership and more. 

But what the elderly generation doesn't consider is that, these qualities are as a result of the environment these youth were brought up in, rather than a whole generation breakdown, that's causing this shift in behavior. 

And understanding them is the first step to transform these youth to the leaders they can be. As one can only treat a disease they know they have. Not the one they haven't a clue.

If this is your first time in this series, be sure to dive into the first two factors: Failed Parenting strategies and Technology when you're done. These and one more factor explain why today's youth are as they are. 

So how does Impatience make its way into all of this? 

Honestly, I can't find the right words to make a proper joke here. It's a common feeling for writers to have left words right when they need them 😜 Ok I'm stopping. It's something I always wanted to write 🏃

Hehehe 😀

Moving on.

We are living in an era of technology and advancements that are impossible in the minds of our great grandparents. 

And like the many influences it has as covered in the Technology article, this quality is a result of the same issues.

For instance, back in the day; hellow dad😋,  we couldn't text a friend just because we missed them. Or type articles into G-Note apps in our phones as we commuted to and fro our work places. 

It was good old pen and paper. With the glamorous arrays of introductions and spelling mastery. It was an era of wordplay and scented papers. Man did couples enjoy. 

Today, want to talk to someone? Call. Too anxious? Leave a voice note or text. Following a series? Binge. What's the use of waiting week to week for an episode when you can watch it all at once?

We've got it all in our hands. Literally. Even family meetings and friends discussions are done online these days. And you don't even need to learn the dynamics of social behaviours. Heaven, write? (That was the last one, I promise 😂)

Most of the things we want, we can get almost immediately. Except fulfilment, love and happiness. There's no app for that.

You'll find these wonderful, intelligent, brilliant youth with big ideas and great potential, quiting their jobs and enterprises after a year at most. 

My relative and her business, my friends,   most of the youth, not finishing what they started. A man once said, it is as they stand at the base of a mountain, and they see what they want on top of it. But they don't see the mountain.

Things like job fulfilment, acquiring a skill set, confidence, joy...relationships, love...are long and arduous and meandering, messy journeys. 

You might get a little bit of them as you go, but all in all, they take time. Liking your job can vary everyday. You don't have to like it everyday. But loving it, that never changes.

It is similar to your children or parents. You might not like them some days but come what may, you'll always love them.

And it doesn't matter whether you go up the mountain faster or slower. Because however you go, there's still a mountain. 

If you have a business, an organization, an idea, a dream, and you have not thought about where it's going to be and planning for it for the next ten to twenty years, then don't expect to see it there when that time comes.

Because there is no app for such big dreams. There is only struggle, sweat, messing up and more effort. And there is no way around it.

So what millennials need to learn is to have patience; in every endeavor they partake in. And the elders need to inspire this value into the youth. Show them how to practice it and hold them up when they slip.

Because without this value, we will continue having youth who are growing up with low self-esteem, depression and Impatience as attributes. And that is not the combination meant to unlock the potential leaders the youth, truly are.