Face of Nation : If I had a dollar for every time I heard yet another insult about Millennials like me, I could probably actually afford to be every bit as lazy as we’re always being accused of being.
Honestly, it feels like kids my age should all be walking round with helmets on given just how much of a beating we take from older generations.
Millennials are the laziest generation. We take, take, take but aren’t ever willing to do the hard stuff. We can’t or won’t put in a full day’s work. Or, in the case of Muffin Break, aren’t even willing to work for free (shocking, I know, to expect to be paid for your labour …).
Most recently, in March this year, a HR firm jumped on the anti-Millennial crusade, describing us as “entitled and over-informed”, and said one in three young people who get hired won’t even make it past the 90-day mark at a new job.
Let me make this as clear as I can: This is certainly not the case.
We’re lazy? I started my first online business at 12 years old, using the money I got mowing my neighbour’s lawn, which earned me the grand total of $20 a pop. I had no real money, no degree and no help. But I read and read and read and figured out a way to do it for myself.
Now, my e-commerce company has turned over millions of dollars, and I work harder than ever to keep it growing.
My day starts at 5.30am, and I spend my first two hours monitoring what happened on my sites the night before. I use the quiet hours of the morning (before my parents are even awake) to work on my company’s long-term goals.
Then it’s off to school for a pretty regular day before I get home at about 4pm and do two hours of homework and have dinner with my parents. After that, though, it’s back to work.
I spend the next three hours replying to emails, ensuring everything on the site is running smoothly, tracking the success of my ad campaigns and planning new ones, dealing with customer and supplier issues and generally ensuring the business is moving in the right direction.
And then the next day, I’ll do it all again.
I’m not saying that to boast because I’m not the only one. In fact, right across Australia — and across the world — young people are doing incredible things. There are start-up hubs and co-working spaces filled to overflowing with young people trying to launch the next revolutionary business that will change the way we live or work. And yet all we get told is how lazy and entitled we are.
But you know what? We’re not listening. We don’t want to spend 40 years chained to a desk taking a pay cheque like you did. We want to be in charge of our own future.
And we’re making it happen whether you like it or not.
Jack Bloomfield is a 17-year-old entrepreneur from Brisbane who runs several eCommerce stores. Through a simple method called “dropshipping”, Jack imports hundreds of products from overseas and sells them to international markets from his bedroom while still attending high school.
