This Is Not Right
Originally published at www.James-Strocel.com. Please leave any comments there.
The best minds of my generation are being destroyed. Not by madness, but by waiting. We are all bright, educated, and industrious. We’ve paid our dues and prostrated ourselves on the altars of “Seniority” and “Hard Work”. Still, we wait.
We wait for permission to use the skills we have been trained for. We wait, languishing in jobs we learn nothing from, being managed by people more interested in preserving protocol than making a difference. We wait, sending out resumes to companies without the simple grace to acknowledge us with a polite “no”. If only someone, anyone would realize that we are not a mere fiscal liability, that we are here to solve the world’s problems. But we can’t just ask for that kind of opportunity, they tell us. And if we are not allowed to work on it? Well, you obviously didn’t work hard enough, you didn’t wait long enough for your opportunity. Don’t like it? Well, that’s just the way the real world works.
This is not right.
Notice I did not say that this is not fair. This is not right, as in not correct. Up is down, and black is white. The idea that this is the way the world works is an illusion, a construct of a society that wants to be blind and deaf to us. The world doesn’t work like this. Never did. It was not built by the cogs of a grand bureaucracy. It was built upon bravery, risk, and sacrifice.
We do not need permission to work hard. We do not permission to use our ideas, save the planet, or make a profit. There is simply too much work to do in the world for us to be worrying about where our next paycheck is coming from. We should be making our living today, not waiting for it.
You might look upon this post as idle ranting. At worst, I’m ruining my chances for future employment by establishing myself as a troublemaker. You might even think I need to be more realistic. If I want to be realistic about this, I can’t just keep edging back my expectations. Every business has its own metrics for success. I have two. Either I get a full-time position in my field for at least one year, or my freelancing business revenue exceeds $5,000 a month. There are two widgets at the sidebar, one tracking the revenue, and the other tracking the number of resumes I’m sending out. I don’t know how long it will take to reach either goal, but I think those two statistics are a better measure of the economy that affects you and me better than the Dow, GDP, or what have you. I will also use this blog to tell you about the strategies I’m using to get where I want to go.
I’m not saying I have all the answers, but what I do know is that we need to stop pretending that this is okay.