You don’t get a medal for showing up

At VITAL, our new year begins in February. I’d like to thank everyone once again for their support. It used to be a thrill just to write the rent check that proved we weren’t just a home office vanity project; as we’ve matured, though, my view of this whole endeavor has evolved. I have a thousand examples, but it all comes down to one idea, perfectly put by Thomas Jefferson: “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” I now understand that our willingness to work our asses off is ultimately the reason we’re still here, far more than any visionary thinking or single lucky break.

I was born in the ‘60s and influenced by both my grandparents’ work ethic and my father’s disdain for it (to be fair, he got over it later in life). Some of my peers joined Generation X. The rest of us went to work. Mine is the generation that brought about both the ubiquity of cocaine-derived drugs and many of the amazing technological advances that shape our world. The two extremes are actually closely related, both born of an inherent relentlessness, a desire to always move at the greatest possible speed, freed from barriers – of fatigue, social awkwardness, geography, even time itself.

I’m not saying this is an entirely wonderful way to look at life; the socio-cultural fallout may not be fully measured in my lifetime. Even so, the ‘80s and ‘90s were a gas, a wild ride followed by a hard crash when the middle class economy slowed way down in the first years of the 21st century. But even before that I think there was collective pause, fueled in part by the regret of our parents, now missing the grandkids a thousand miles away, who saw what had become of their latchkey, Kraft dinner-consuming, Alex P. Keaton-channeling offspring. We had it all, but we traded too much to get it.

The solution was clear: the next generation would be cared for with a vengeance. Sometime in the late 20th century, the desire to give one’s children “more” took on a new meaning: with the highest percentage of “affluent” Americans in our history, the trappings of attainment took on a nurturing mantle. It was the dawn of the age of the Soccer Mom, the bicycle helmet and the mentality that reasoning was a viable parenting philosophy.

I admit it; I was initially swept into the new world order. My kid had a sticker chart that he filled up by performing such amazing feats as picking up his clothes and saying thank you. He actually earned toys for meeting the minimum expectations of socialization! But eventually, I saw what I, his teachers, his soccer coach and the rest of his network of support had wrought: a kid who expected to be rewarded for taking out the garbage. He’s a good boy: naturally nice, smart and funny. On the surface, he looks like a success story, but he struggles now with follow-through and this will haunt him if we don’t fix it right now.

He’s not a singular case. As I look around at the generation between his and mine, I see it everywhere: 11-year-olds who can’t cut their own meat; 27 youth soccer teams who all get the same trophy just for showing up at the tournament; college students who get to graduate because they bought their diploma fair and square; a wide swath of voracious consumers with no other drive than to secure the means to continue consuming. Meanwhile, the same graphic design major that can’t create a PDF of her resume can probably beat Guitar Hero III on Expert. What goes on in her mind? Does she consider herself a winner?

And that’s what it boils down to for me. We live in a country where working-class jobs are draining away, credit debt is out of control and our dollar is on course to become the peso of the new century. And this is the generation that will be charged with turning the tide. America was on top of the world for less than a century, really, but most people don’t seriously question the permanence of our foremost super-power status or what losing it might mean. It’s kind of terrifying if you think about it.

Here’s what we’re doing at VITAL: seeking exceptions. Our employees are all under 25, all ostensibly members of the generation I fear for. But we have a Russian immigrant who joined the Army after high school to pay for college, a young woman with her self-made father’s drive, another young woman who has stepped up to the plate in her personal life and (for the most part) a cast of hungry freelancers who dig the work and respect the deadlines. We don’t get medals for showing up, only for succeeding. We can’t change the world on our own, but we can attract like-minded individuals, train here and hopefully go forward infecting others with a work ethic – or at least attach ourselves to other pockets of a (hopefully) growing Apathy Resistance Movement.

It’s worth a try.