Why Gen Z’s success is triggering Millennials and Gen X— and what to do about it
I saw a post on LinkedIn the other day which said that Gen Z (born 1995-2010) can be incredibly triggering for those of us who are Millennials (born 1980-1995) and Gen X (1965-1980).
Because Gen Z (and those that come after them) have been born into a different world of work.
Theirs is a world where social media and the internet have made work possible whilst they travel the world and earn x10 or more in a month what most of us born before them have ever seen in our banks. And they use the internet to cheer on and congratulate one another and see what is possible for them (while we scoff and roll our eyes 🙄).
All that whilst those of us of the two generations before who want to start our own businesses are fighting the stories and beliefs we have had loaded onto us throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s about what work should look and feel like.
Work should feel hard
We shouldn’t ask for too much
We should graft and work our way up
Money doesn’t grow on trees
Earning money is complicated
Work longer = earn more
Stay small and be likeable
Asking for money is crass
People who have ‘too much’ money are unlikeable
I could go on…
We know at a logical level that the freedom and success many Gen Z entrepreneurs have is available to us too. We have the internet and a phone too. The blueprints and courses and masterminds and programmes are all out there for us to access in the same way they are for them.
But we aren’t starting from the same place. Not mentally anyway. Or practically quite often, as many of us have mortgages, children, parents to care for and other responsibilities that come with being that bit older. But that’s a story for another day…
Mentally though, most of us are a world away. To get to the same starting line as a fresh Gen Z bouncing into the world of self-employment with their phone and internet connection from Bali or even just their University halls bedroom, Millennials and Gen Xers first have to clear a path in our minds.
We have to identify what we believe about ourselves, about work and about money. We have to get curious about where these stories have come from (clue: 1980s parenting has a lot to answer for 😳).
And then we have to consciously and subconsciously work on unpicking and rewiring our brains to look for evidence of new beliefs. New, more supportive beliefs that help us set prices, create services, design our work days and promote ourselves burden-free. Ways of thinking that make work feel joyful, earn us comfortable amounts of cash and bring out the best in us and leave heaps over for spending time on our hobbies, past-times or with loved ones (which, let’s be honest fellow Millennials, we sometimes forget exist with all the work we’re doing).
To make that leap takes bags of courage. It’s a lot of inner work.
But the first step is acknowledging that going that deep and looking at those stories is where we need to begin in order to live the Gen Z dream of earning money while you sleep and sipping mojitos on a beach in Mexico.
Orrrrrr, you know… fulfilling the Gen X / Millennial dream of living a really comfortable life, being able to build that extension you want on your house, treat your kids to holidays every year, drive a nice car, invest in gorgeous clothes when you want to and do the work you really love. Or is that just me?
These are generalisations of course. There are certainly many entrepreneurial Gen Xers and Millennials who have had incredible parenting and schooling and have built the mindset to grow a business which feels easeful and expansive to them.
But I’d argue for a lot of us the reason we’re triggered by Gen Z and their way of approaching ‘work’ is because it confronts us with the fact we carry a lot of mental baggage which needs to be unpacked before we can have the sort of easy success we know we’re capable of, and yet constantly feel held back from.
I’d love to know what you think about this. Let me know how it lands. If you’re interested to do this deeper, exploratory work on your own stories and beliefs that create self-doubt in your business, book in a call so we can talk about how we can work together 1:1.