Gen Y? Millennial? Great... what else can you do?

Here’s a fact.

One day you will be 30 years old.

Here’s an opinion.

There are a lot of people over 30 who don’t care about what you have to say about being under 30.

Here’s another opinion.

There are a lot of people under 30 who care about your thoughts but aren’t in a place in life where they can help you.

“You're Wrong! I know tons of….”

So what am I getting at by spouting off these polarizing statements? I’m trying to offer a warning. I dabbled for a short amount of time in the “under 30” topic soon to realize it was an unwise route to take.

Being a blogger or content creators requires a great deal of time investment. Through your efforts, are you branding yourself as something that would be considered valuable on a relatively timeless scale? I’m not going to bash the idea of writing about the issues that millennials, etc have to face, but realize that creating this type of content may come at a cost to your own development. Those who have come before you; your bosses, potential employers, perhaps even reporters are going to Google you and find that a great deal of content attached to your name is very narrow, and eventually expiring. Sure the “Gen Y” aspect is being tied to ______ industry so it’s really about the industry and not the age right? Well...not exactly. That may be the reality, but it may not appear that way to the person trying to assess your expertise.

Here’s yet another opinion for you, and an anecdote:

Youth is not a selling point.

Time and time again, I see the same phenomena play out.

-Smart Gen Y goes to conference and wows a Veteran.

-Veteran and Gen Y get to talking and Veteran starts to notice that the references Gen Y makes seem to refer to a decade much farther ahead than Veteran is used to talking about.

-Veteran gets curious and asks how old Gen Y is.

-Veteran says “Wow. I thought you were way older.”

Here’s why that last statement was made: Because experience and knowledge equates to time practiced. Youth defaults to inexperience and ignorance regardless of whether it is a reality because it's assumed that a younger person has not yet invested the time to have gained a surplus of knowledge. As time goes on, you WILL gain knowledge and you WILL "pay the dues" that your seniors expect from you (and believe me, they do expect it), but your google results will make you show up as someone who focuses on the issues of a younger generation. Let me be clear; this is going to cut into the value of knowledge and experience you will have built in the future.  

Oh the irony

I realize the irony of this post. By posting this here, I'm contributing content to my own search results which is exactly what I'm telling you not to do. Let's call this small sacrifice my gift to all of you. As someone who is now on the latter half of the under 30 crowd I'm offering a warning to be careful what you align yourself with now. You are talented in some way. You do not need to pigeon-hole yourself as someone who is talented in some way that also represents the face of Generation ______. People (employers specificly) value talent, not talent at _______ age. Obviously we want to set ourselves apart from the many other bloggers out there and choosing a generation to affiliate yourself is an easy way to do that. But again, I'm reminding you, that affiliation will expire one day and you won't be an "Under 30 X Blogger" anymore, you'll just be a blogger. Take the time now to replace the "under 30" with something that makes you unique not dated.

image credit

Asking "Rookies" for Help.

Why is it that so many people, across vastly different situations, organizations, and settings fear the act of asking our juniors for help?

Is it because we genuinely believe they won't have the experience or insight to provide value? Or is it because we are afraid that it will point out that in SOME situations, that age and tenure aren't as valuable as we would like to think they are?

I've been a participant on both ends of the spectrum so I can understand the psychological reasons for it. But today I'm going to take a mental snapshot of my feelings. I've done this many times in life, especially during my younger days when I was more likely to be follower. This snapshot is going to be a reminder to me for my future self to remember to seek out the advice of the rookies, the fresh faces, and even the arrogant youthful ladder climbers who think they know more than they actually do.

Imagination, unlike most skills, never gets better with age. In fact many may argue that it gets much more dull. As much as leaders will want to be the brains behind a great idea that saves or improves an organization, in the long run its much more important to use that intelligence and experience to make a decision to reach out for help.

The folks who are young and new are going to be able to drive so much creative thinking for you. Will it be refined and ready for implementation? Most likely not, but in the end that is the easy part. The idea is the king of any chess game and there will be plenty of pawns to carry it out. Don't be afraid to leverage those pawns for idea. Not all of them are going to be trying to take your spot on the board. Most of them will feel incredibly lucky and honored that their thinking skills are somehow contributing to the larger organization that they are part of.