The Fight Our Youth Face

The more and more time I spend with young people, the more I realise how big a fight there is that they face – and they don’t even know it yet.

The blessings of our knowledge economy have created an abundance of choice and opportunity for young people, which in turn has paralysed them.

1. Delayed Decision Making

It’s a lot of pressure to force a 16-year-old to make decisions about the rest of their life. But it is equally detrimental to remove as many decisions as possible, therefore denying the essential lessons of discipline and responsibility.

I want to see young people taught how to make quality decisions. I want to see them learning decision-making at a younger age by having to make smaller, more incremental decisions.

2. Not Identifying Transferable Skills

I spent a good deal of time with my 18-year-old brother helping him see the transferable skills he had learned over two years of media studies – otherwise he felt they had been a waste of time.

Most young people I know lack the fundamental self-insight needed to be a success in the knowledge economy. The knowledge economy affords incredible opportunity, but it also requires greater knowledge of yourself.

3. Realising They Have More, and Need More, Than Money

When I talk about young people giving towards a cause, they immediately say they have no money. My response is always: is money the only thing you have to give?

We have four things we can give: Time, Talent, Treasure, and Tongue. Our default is to give Treasure. But charities often value Time, Talent or Tongue more.

We have to get our youth to understand that money isn’t everything.