What Gen Z Can Learn from The Millennials

A disproportionate percentage of my success did not come from working hard, working smart, or anything unto myself.  It simply came from watching my elders make mistakes and learning from them.  I titled this "Monkey See, Monkey Don't Do" and it included things like not getting divorced, not having kids I couldn't afford, staying away from crime, avoiding drugs, etc.  It may not have led me to make billions, but it did keep me out of jail, keep me out of bankruptcy, taught me frugality, and is largely why I'm retired today.

A similar, though MUCH greater opportunity exists for members of Generation Z.  On the precipice of entering adulthood, college, and the working world, this generation has such a learning opportunity to make their lives immeasurably better that I cannot even begin to explain the potential benefits of practicing "Monkey See, Monkey Don't Do."  And the reason there is such a great opportunity to improve their lives over previous generations is because of the spectacular, unlimited, and incomprehensibly stupid mistakes the generation before them made - The Millennials.

Let us be very clear.

The time of the Millennials is over.  They are now aging out of the age demographic that markers, corporations, media, politicians, and (not to mention) the opposite sex care about.  They are no longer the "hot cool 20 somethings," spending other people's money freely, but debt-laden parents of children they can ill afford in housing they can barely afford.  And if you look at nearly every aspect of the Millennials it quite literally is a wasted generation, a wasted crop of humans, whose only purpose on this planet was to serve as a warning to others.  Never has such a lemon been born into this world, and thus, never has the opportunity to make so much lemonade existed.  So if Generation Z wants to avoid the life-crippling, life-destroying mistakes of their elder brothers and sisters, I suggest you look at America's "Butt End of the Joke" generation and glean the following vitally-important life lessons from them.

Your Gender and/or Race Has No Value

In an attempt to avoid hard work, a job, or any other sort of labor or toil that is required to become a self-reliant, self-sustaining adult who is a contributing member to society, Millennials have rapidly replaced skills and talent with "traits."  Understand that traits you are born with have no value because they do not offer, nor produce anything of value to society.  Be you black, white, brown or Asian, or male, female, straight or bi, those are things you were born with and did nothing to earn. 

Unfortunately (for the Millennials anyway), society doesn't pay for traits.  They need skills.

The iPhone you like, the electricity you use, the food you eat, the clothes you wear were not produced by a man's "blackness" just as the car you drive was not produced by a woman's "pansexuality."  It was produced by hard working men and women who dedicated their time to learn a skill or trade and then sacrificed part of their finite lives WORKING to build the things you consume and enjoy today.

The problem is learning skills and trades that are in demand takes time, hard work, not to mention the work itself you need to spend on providing something of value to society.  And this life of labor is such a terrifying threat to some Millennials they have even created entirely made up genders that do not exist and are not a thing, solely for the purpose of fooling themselves into thinking they have value and/or are of value to society.

They are not.  They are often parasitic, collecting some form of a government check, living off of their parents, or living on government grants in colleges and universities, teaching this poison to future college students.  Worse, they are delusional, often times mentally ill because living a lie, especially about your sexuality, for 20 years will do that to you. 

Gen Z has a choice.  You can accept your sex, gender and race for what it is, perhaps even taking some modicum of pride in it, but knowing it offers nothing of value to society.  You can accept that you need to produce something of value for society in order for you to have value.

Or...

You can live a delusional lie that because of pigmentation in your skin or because you identify as a "sapiosexual gender fluid" that you have "value" and then scream at society for not providing you any in return.


It is Excellence, Not Participation, That Matters

Along the same lines of providing society value to have value unto yourself, Gen Z can learn a lot from the world's first "Participation Trophy" generation.  In rewarding millennials for simply showing up or merely "existing" we have deprived them of the much-needed drive to pursue excellence.  Excellence, much like in-demand skills, is vital to society because it advances society and produces the best aspects of society. 

Excellence in art.
Excellence in production.
Excellence in innovation.
Excellence in education.
Excellence in everything.

But in sparing an entire generation's feelings by refusing to keep score, eliminating GPA's, eliminating valedictorians, and grade inflation at universities, we have produced a generation that has no excellence.  Worse, it is defeat, failure, and competition that galvanizes people much like steel to become hardened, improved, and ultimately forged into excellent people themselves capable of excellent things.  Sadly, the millennials were spared this forging experience and have become the softest, weakest, lamest generation living at home at the age of 33 and with testosterone levels below their grandparents.

Gen Z has a choice.  They can avoid competition, challenge, defeat, failure and pain, in which case they're condemned to become the sad group of "adults" the Millennials are today, or they can embrace it with the idealistic goal of becoming on par with the honorable WWII generation.

You are Not Independent Minded or Unique.  You are a Conformist.

Though nearly every generation since Gen X is guilty of this...

No you are not independent minded.

And, no, you are not unique.

What I need you to do is step back, wipe your eyes clean, look at your generation (and every generation of high school students before you) and ask "Do I agree with the majority of my high school, middle school, and college peers?"

If you do, then you are not independent minded and you are not unique.  You are a conformist.  You do not think.  You have been programmed by your teachers.  You have not put forth any intellectual effort into thinking on your own, forming your own thoughts and ideas, and are merely a sheep among the flock regurgitating the same talking points you've been conditioned to.

This is not your fault.  You have been purposely conditioned and brainwashed in kindergarten through college to think a certain way about everything ranging from politics, race, environmentalism, economics and careers.  But when I was in college a girl who:

was majoring in Child Psychology
voted democrat
was a feminist
who believed in the ozone hole (that was the predecessor to "global warming")
and wanted to "just help the children"

was soooo common they were a dime a dozen.  They were worthless.  They were not unique nor had the ability to be intellectually stimulating. 

This doesn't mean you all have to vote republican and wear blazers while sipping cognac, but what you want to avoid is the insanely hypocritical phenomenon where Millennials all claimed they were "independent minded" while they all dressed up in pink salmon jeans, grew out their beards, voted Bernie Sanders, drank craft beers, and could not be more bland, common, conformist or BORING human being if they tried.

Don't say you're "different."  BE DIFFERENT.

No, You Don't Have a Mental Illness

Let us once again be very clear.

Do things like Asperger's, Autism, Bi-Polar Disorder, or Social Anxiety Disorder exist?

Sure.

To the extent that 1 in 4 of Millennials actually have a mental disorder?

No.

What's going on here is very simple, though hard to swallow. 

One, Millennials were raised by incredibly poor parents fraught with divorce, broken homes, absentee parenting, outsourcing, and a love for their careers more than their children.  And while I am slamming on the Millennials, their parents (Baby Boomers and some Gen X'ers) were absolutely atrocious, namely when it came to doing the "hard part of parenting" aka "discipline."  Without a father in the household, or a father present - but too cowardly to discipline his children - it became much easier to just say your misbehaving child had a mental disorder, abdicating any responsibility for your incredibly crappy parenting.  Worse, while the child's brain was still developing you administered mind-altering drugs to the child in the hopes of doping him/her out so they wouldn't be a bother to the teacher or yourself.  One could argue the drugs themselves caused mental illness later on in life, but parents (and teachers) refusing to raise their children is not a mental illness. It's just horrific parenting.

Two, just like "sex" or "race" Millennials can't wait to rush and claim to be a victim via having some kind of mental illness.  Not only does this beget pity and lower standards for lazy millennials, it can also confer financial benefits via claiming "disability" for a government check or perhaps even financial aid and scholarship when it comes to college.  Worse, especially when it comes to dating, some particularly evil Millennials will use their made up mental disorder to mentally abuse, torture and control people they're dating. 

There is, however, a drawback to faking mental illness, presenting Gen Z'ers yet another choice.  You can fake having a mental illness to get all the attention and (sometimes) government money in the world.  But whether you genuinely have a mental illness or not, FAKING ONE for decades WILL ENSURE you go insane.  Just look at any millennial who claims they have "social anxiety disorder" and you're looking at a 29 year old virgin who still lives at home and can't hold down a job, or worse, a 48 year old Gen X'er living with her cats and sitting in government housing (true story).

"Big Isn't Beautiful" - AKA - There are Objective Beauty Standards

As the Millennial generation simply went to pot, their physical standards did as well.  At one time the likes of Sophia Loren and Rita Hayworth were heralded as the ideal when it came to female beauty, just as the likes of Cary Grant and Gregory Peck were male.  But as with work, schooling, and careers, staying in shape and being beautiful/handsome takes work and effort.  And just like Indiana Jones is afraid of snakes, so too are Millennials afraid of work. 

What resulted is something very similar where Millennials replaced hard-earned skills with effortless-traits.  Just as it's easier to take fake value and pride in a made up gender, Millennials - too lazy to hit the gym, diet, and exercise - decided to "redefine" what is beautiful and what is handsome.  So much so in many of their delusional minds they actually think beauty is subjective.

In came the rush of tattoos, piercings, shaved heads, blue hair.  Soy Boys, flooded college campuses with their impeccable grooming habits and easily snapable arms.  Feminists vehemently protested looks with "big is beautiful," "fat acceptance," and "slut walks."  Even the mainstream real world bought some of the bogus with Target displaying fat "plus-size" models and Playboy putting a transexual up on its cover. 


In the end it was nothing more than Milleannials lying to themselves about the nature of men and women because living the lie was less painful than hitting the gym.  Gen Z'ers can live the lie and have a horrible/non-existent sex life.  Or you can accept the reality that has been reality for the past 2 million years of human existence:

Women want strong, tall men, with confidence, humor, a touch of aloofness, and a decent income.  Men want women with big tits, long legs, a tight ass and long hair...and no ladies, they REALLY don't care about your education or your career. 

Your Education and Career are Not the Most Important Things in Your Life

The most important thing in life is other human beings.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again, you can own a Ferrari, a Nintendo Switch, and have all the material things in life, but it doesn't compare to the infinite behaviors, thoughts, challenges, and love that can come from a fellow human being.  Matter of fact, your goal in life should be to live as long as possible and spend as much time as possible OUTSIDE of work, and instead spend it with humans you enjoy, love, and cherish.

But we told (and the Millennials, Gen X'ers and Baby Boomers believed) it was their career and education that mattered most.

To be blunt, this is a lie told more to young women than it is men.  Historically men did have to go out and get some kind of training or education so they could then land a job which would result in a career that would generate the money so they could pay for the family.  So for men a career and education held more importance than it did for women.  But today both men and women have traded hugs from their children, conversations with friends, and kisses from their loved ones all for

commutes
in traffic jams
to offices
while getting a masters at night
while outsourcing their children to daycare
while incurring more student debt

I'd like to think that seeing your divorced parents, harrowed and haggard from commuting back and forth to work, while shipping you off to daycare and screaming at each other would teach Gen Z'ers this painfully obvious lesson.  But since careers and educations have destroyed more lives than helped, I want to make sure Gen Z knows PRECISELY what role careers and educations play in one's life.

Understand that your career is a TOOL by which you use to support and live the rest of your life. 

IT
IS
NOT
YOUR
LIFE. 

Along the same line, the education by which you attain your career is ALSO A TOOL.

IT
IS
NOT
YOUR
LIFE

And if you don't believe me, all one has to do is look at the Millennials and see that all they have in life is their career and education.  Worse, many millennials (ESPECIALLY THE WOMEN) don't even have a career to point to. They merely have a worthless degree in a worthless field that they will waste the rest of their lives vainly trying to make a career out of.  And guarantee-you-me if you go and talk to the now-post-menopausal Gen X career women they will admit (though drunk and late at night after a night of clubbing) all they wanted was to be a stay at home mom, raising children, married to a Ward Cleaver-esque husband. 

I cannot begin to explain to Gen Z the amount of money, resources, labor, and time that is going to go into propagandizing you to become as miserable as previous generations, trading in humans for a career and an education.  But it will happen, and it will happen in college.

College is (Mostly) a Scam

What appalls me is even though there is a daily article in the news of some nitwit who majored in "Puppetry" or some moron who incurred $200,000 to get a degree in "English," parents, teachers, guidance counselors, and professors all keep perpetuating these tired, loathsome, and stale old lies of:

"Follow your heart and the money will follow."
"Any degree is a good degree."
"You need that sheepskin to get your foot in the door."

Worse, is the Millennials (who, just like you were so "independent minded") bought and swallowed whole these lies, dedicating 4-8 years of their youth in college, often times to the tune of $100,000 in debt, all for degrees that are completely worthless pieces of paper.  AND NOW they have the gall to demand the taxpayers bail them out of their student loans just like the bankers.

So let us once again be TRIPLY clear as to what is going on.

America's colleges, universities and other higher education institutions are scamming you out of about $750 billion a year in unnecessary tuition, fees, and other costs.  In all honesty, education should be free, or near free with the advent of the internet, and you should not be forced by society or employers to commute to a campus, fork over $300 a credit, all so you "might" have the chance to land a career and become a contributing member of society.  But with the complete and thorough brainwashing you've received in K-12, not to mention the media, the news, your parents, your guidance counselors, politicians, and the colleges themselves, you believe you are entitled to this "birthright" of a "college experience." 

Because unless you go into STEM (engineering, etc.), the trades, Medicine, Accounting, the military, or IT, college is a complete waste of time.  Even if you do go to college for a legitimate degree, you still are going to waste two years of your life taking "pre-requisite" classes that have nothing to do with your degree.  And these pre-requisites highlight why college is often a scam.

College is not there to "educate our precious future childrensss."  It's there as a means to employ otherwise COMPLETELY worthless and unhireable professors and academics who have such worthless degrees they simply can't do anything else in the real world.  It is NOT a coincidence that the insanity of 31 flavors of gender, "fat acceptance," "privilege," laughably worthless degrees such as "women's studies" degrees (or any other degree where you study traits and NOT skills), and other such politically correct insanity is occurring on college campuses because that's where society's worthless people flock to and scratch out what pathetic careers they can.  And in forcing EVERYBODY to take 2 years worth of these worthless classes colleges and universities not only employ thousands of these worthless people, but reap HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS from you kids every year.

Gen Z once again has a choice.  You can follow the footsteps of your older brother who still lives at home at 28, can't find a job with his "Creative Writing" degree, protests for his student loans to be paid off and may still be a virgin.

Or you can major in something that has a job at the end of it (even attending accredited online schools) and become a real adult.

Politics is Not a Substitute for Accomplishment

You will find that many Millennials (despite being "independent minded") fell hook, line, and sinker for the various scams elder generations laid out for them.  They are now poor, destitute, debt-ridden and largely unemployable.  They are also very likely depressed and suffering an existential crisis as they wonder how and why their 30 years of life on this planet was wasted.  It's at times like these people are desperate enough to turn to religion.  But not a religion in a traditional sense such as Christianity, Judism, or Islam.  Rather a political religion that excuses their piss-poor performance in life and deflects any responsibility for their decisions.  Also, a religion that gives them some kind of "value" in  life without (again) having to work for a living.

Enter the "isms" and "ists"

"I'm an environmentalist."
"I'm a vegan."
"I'm a socialist."
"I'm a communist!"
"I'm for feminism!"

Again, this is not by accident.  Just as you were brainwashed to attend college at all costs, you have no doubt been thoroughly indoctrinated to support socialism (no matter what variant of socialism it is that I listed above).  Matter of fact many of you don't even have to become as destitute as the Millennials in order to subscribe to these variant religions of socialism because you are already guilty of choosing a religion because it's easy and it feeds your ego, AND you don't have to work for it.

"We're against genocide!"
"We're for the environment!"
"We're for women's rights!!!"

Well, good for you Gen Z Skippy.  Who the hell isn't?  Why don't you try out for the football team and hit the gym or get a 4.0 in math instead of espousing idiotic and common sense ideas that take zero calories of energy?

The risk here for Gen Z is again one where laziness wastes your life.  Be it the delusional fat girl who wants to lie to herself that big is beautiful.  Or the political activist who is going to campaign for Trump or Bernie.  Or the all-too-common-and-boring high school student who's "for the environment."  What you are doing is replacing work, production, and value with mere "political positions."  And just like the color of your skin, the plumbing you have downstairs, or the gender you affiliate with, it has no value.  It doesn't produce anything of worth.  It won't put food on the table.

Certainly by all means participate politically for whatever cause or crusade you want.  But do not make it your full time career where you end up like many shameful Millennials who actually list "activist" on their resume.

Never Trust Anybody Over 30

One of the greatest ironies, if not outright hypocrisies, was the old Baby Boomer saying, "Don't trust anybody over 30."  I found this odd because if you do the math right it was the then-teenage and 20 something baby boomers saying that about their parents.  Their parents were the WWII generation that fought off national socialism, defended the world against communism, and build the greatest economy the world had ever seen.  They had created a country where their Baby Boomer children enjoyed childhoods that were unrivaled in human history. 

I use their quote today in delicious irony because it was painfully obvious the Baby Boomer SHOULD HAVE trusted people over 30, but when they themselves turned over 30, THAT'S when their saying became true.  And today that saying holds more value than every before.

I would like to say your elders have your best interests at heart.  I would like to say people over 30 are wise, mature, full grown adults who have their lives together and know what they're doing.  I would like to say you can seek their wisdom and they will guide you down the right path.

But the truth is much worse.

AT BEST you have your parents who do not consciously or maliciously hate you.  They do indeed love you and want what's best for you, they are just ignorant themselves about the real world and are just slightly less lost than you are.  So the advice you get from them may be well intended, but it will destroy your life just the same.

"You must go to college." 
"Any degree is a good degree."
"Girls like a nice, caring, sensitive man."

What is much more likely is you have people over 30 actively and consciously salivating over how they can make money off of you.  Worse, is how they present themselves as your friends. 

For example teachers and professors. 

Do not think for a second they actually give a damn about you.  Teachers became teachers not because they wanted to help the children or "change lives."  They became teachers because they wanted summers off and didn't want to math in college.  This is why the majority of your teachers are extraordinarily unmentionable and unremarkable.  This is why school sucks and is boring.  Your teachers are NOT primarily motivated by your education, but by making some easy money and avoiding a real job.

Related is the political indoctrination you received.  I do not wish to delve much into politics because it's not part of the lessons I'm trying to impart on you, but if you really are INDEPENDENT MINDED, don't you find it ODD 98% of your teachers and professors are always for voting for socialism and the democrats?  They ALWAYS want more money?  They're always against private schools, but send their kids there?  I merely wish to plant a seed of curiosity you might follow up on later, but they do have a FINANCIAL ulterior motive that has NOTHING to do with educating the precious children. 

If that doesn't convince you, perhaps you'll agree that paying $300 a credit and $400 a book for two years of college classes you don't need IS INDEED FINANCIALLY MOTIVATED?  That those deans and professors counselors aren't your friends but are leeches sucking as much money out of you, your parents, and the taxpayers so you can "maybe" get a college degree and "maybe" get a job?  Or do you actually think that "African American Studies" professor is helping some poor black student learn the skills and trades he needs to land a job and be financially successful? 

And what about the programming and conditioning you get to put your career and education first and above all else in life?  No self-respecting man or woman would suffer or tolerate a commute to a downtown area with traffic and $20 a day in parking fees for a $45,000 a year job.  And no self-respecting man or woman would get masters degrees for a mere promotion or the "chance" to get an entry level position. 

"Self-respecting" anyway.  Good thing they conditioned all those Millennials and Gen X'ers to get masters degrees they didn't need. 

And the media?  How about the media?

After getting your masters degree (just like the Millennials) are you going to take on more debt because a commercial convinced you to buy a car you couldn't afford?  How about the banks offering you low interest rates to buy your dream McMansion neither you nor your future spouse can afford?  It's "almost" as if employers and marketers know that if they can have an entire generation in debt, that generation will be so desperate for a job they will work for peanuts and have to take the abuse from their bosses and employers just to make ends meet.

All of these people;

Your teachers
Your counselors
Your professors
Your politicians
The media
Your employer

They're all over 30 and they are licking their chops to take advantage of you.

Conclusion

Having lived four decades on this planet and making many of the same mistakes Millennials have, I cannot in good faith just sit here and watch another generation come online and literally piss away and destroy their lives as the Millennials have.  Not only have they destroyed their lives believing in the lies their elders told them, but "destroyed" would indicate some kind of end or finality to their problems.  Sadly, they are so mentally warped and so brainwashed, it's quite literally impossible for many of them to salvage what remains of their life expectancies on this planet.  They're almost condemned to live mentally tortured lives because of the indoctrination they believed and their refusal to take responsibility for their actions.

The question posed to you young Gen Z'ers is which kind of life do you want to live?  And whereas in the past I would have thought the indoctrination and brainwashing you received in K-college would have been so complete you wouldn't have even given this article a thought, the Millennials have so spectacularly failed their horrific trainwreck of a life might jar you into waking up and TRULY critically thinking about the advice you've been given and where that would lead.

This article is merely a bullet point of some of the key lessons I think you can learn from the mistakes of Millennials and others.  I strongly recommend that if you are interested in your life and having a successful future you consider buying the following books:

Worthless - The Young Person's Indispensable Guide to Choosing the Right Major
Bachelor Pad Economics - The Financial Advice Bible for Men (and women too)
Poor Richard's Retirement - Retirement for Everyday Americans
Curse of the High IQ - A book for smart students who need perspective as to where they sit in life.

Additionally, if you have a question that is more specific to your situation, you may want to consider hiring my consulting services (which I do charge for).

Finally, if you know of a young Gen Z'er that could benefit from this article, please share it with him or her.  Life is too short to have this generation end up like the millennials and it is the least we can do to help them make wiser choices in their lives.
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