Generation Limbo

It reminds me of a speech I covered as a student reporter. The speaker's topic was entrepreneurship and a couple of business-major douchebags said they wanted to be entrepreneurs because they would be able to boss people around.

 

And people who do so often choose "business."

 

It's probably the best major for someone who thinks they're going to get rich and boss people around. The world is littered with former business majors who want to start a company, but have no product, and no sound ideas.

 

Anecdotal, but illuminating nonetheless for what it's worth:

My best friend in college, a business major, told me, as seniors, that he planned to buy a Corvette, a Harley, and a Ford F150 when we graduated.

I said, "Down the line, huh?"

No, he said, right away.

Today, 12 years down the line, he pulls $40K in a cubicle for Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Now - my friends who were accounting majors and became CPA's, they are doing well.

 

I learned plenty hustling. For some people its starting your own business. For others, its school. Some people sell drugs. Not that I would recommend that, but I know of more than a couple of people who earned enough money doing that to open a little restaurant. You have to do what you need to do. I can count on my hand the number of strictly 40 hour weeks I have worked since college. I have done several things and have expanded my horizons so to speak, so I am ready when a new challenge comes around.

 

I agree, if you're short on cash, you have to at least investigate the possibility of selling drugs. Especially around schools. Gold mine! ???

 

The handwriting has been on the wall since 1996:

So, yeah, he did need a better plan.

I was a commodities floor trader. Lots of folks here work, or worked, for newspapers.

We could see the handwriting on the wall. If you stay 'till the bitter end, and have no plan for when it's all over, then you fucked up.

 

The best part of the story, he's working in the coffee industry!

We're colleagues now. I'm glad he latched onto a growing industry.

 

Yes, Greenhorn, it was the WSJ they were referencing on NPR the other day.

Listen, I voted for President Obama but I'm convinced now that Congress and Senate wield far more decision-making power than at least half the Presidents we've seen come down the pike.
President Obama has got to make some headway on something(s) that appeal to the rightists or he's going to be defeated.
He needs about 5 more "Bin Laden takedowns"and/or economy surges.
That, and there has to be an opposition candidate that distinguishes themself with a better passle of promises.
If not, Obama will win the numbers game and get 4 more years.
I thought the wars would be over by now but you see Afghan leaders calling just the other day for a long-term U.S. presence there.
That'd be a set-up for disaster, to have a U.S. base there permanently.
And there would be zero accomplished by having such a fixture there.
Let's get out of there yesterday! And from Iraq, too.
Nothing good's happening there for us that I can see.
Finally, let me say again how proud I am of the thousands of service members who've answered the call over the last 10 years and carried out their missions.

 

Wow. Must be nice to be that comfy. What's next? Everybody who gets whacked or bought out should just have options lined up aplenty?

 

At this point? Pretty much.

On this board and in that NYT piece, we are talking about very intelligent people. Potentially the cream of the hiring crop, if you play your cards right.

I know this sounds like blaming the rape victim. But it's not. It's encouraging people to adapt to the new reality. Hey, I include myself, once upon a time, as one of the people in the middle of the ocean without a paddle. Journalism and English majors. If anyone wanted to hire somebody who could break down a spread offense - or talk about the differences between the film and book versions of "The English Patient" - I would have been their man.