Thursday evening I had the pleasure of listening to a highly successful Millennial speak to one of my classes. He had the most amazing story. I am hoping to interview him and incorporate some of what he says into the presentation I do with Liz Bushnell about how generations can get along in the workplace. Here is some of what Zach said that I think so completely relevant to generational differences.
Zach started a website with his friends while he was in college. Initially the goal was to have enough money to get through school. That turned in to a full fledged business. They grew from 4 partners to 60 employees in 2006. What I thought was interesting was everyone in the company was 25 and under EXCEPT for one person who is 31 because they needed an accountant. I really thought that was interesting. They were working in an almost all Millennial company. It looked exactly like what you would expect from a Millennial company. Ping Pong table, no official work titles, music videos and drinking. And yet, here was a company that is so successful, they were able to sell half of the company for $40 million dollars. Did you catch that? A Millennial company that would make every other generation cringe made it's owners (all 25 and under) Millionaires!!
I think the key point that gets lost when Millennials enter the work force with so many ideas is that, they actually have some pretty great ideas. So for those of you in other generations, don't just dismiss the ideas as naive, but accept that sometimes they may actually have something!
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