Fantasizing Failure
MWF @ 8
Wednesday, 10/28/2020
Welcome back, as we count down the final days of Spooktober. Here's a little fact... This Halloween is the first one in 17 years to have a full moon. Not too late to go with the werewolf costume! Let's see what we got today >>
Coalescence
Context Matters
Last week, I was standing in line to vote, and you can't help but take inventory of who all is there. I went late in the morning so it was an older crowd. Actually, I was probably the youngest person in line. While waiting, I couldn't help but notice some of the looks that I was getting. I'm not talking about nasty looks, but more so surprised like a, "didn't expect to see you here" look.
Younger generations get a connotation of more progressive-leaning, so as I'm voting in Trump country, people could have been pegging me as a Biden supporter. Conversely, older generations love to call Millennials/Gen Z lazy, so it could have been shocked looks that they couldn't believe I put my phone down long enough to come vote. Whatever the reason, people formed an opinion of myself without even speaking to me that would have never been articulated if it wasn't for the environment we were in.
There were probably 300 people in line to vote when I was there. If you would have divided the people up based on who they voted for, the groups would not have any trouble getting along. All the Trump supporters could talk about their beliefs while the Biden supporters could do the same (independents, too). It would be a simple exercise where everyone could connect off of a shared commonality.
Alternatively, say everyone had to match up with someone from the other party. They would have to find commonalities elsewhere. Immediately there would be a schism known by the voters, so instead of having an immediate agreement, any sort of connection would have to come from something else. It would prove to be difficult because both would have a preconceived idea of the other in their head which makes any connection potentially disingenuous.
Take this idea into everyday life. One of my favorite things to do is people watch. Whenever I fly to a new city, I'm always like, "I'm curious to see what the people are like." Only, I get off the plane to a realization: Everyone looks similar. The people in Dallas look similar to the people in Chicago with some outliers and vice versa. This makes it difficult to figure out how people are. When this happens, we rely on stereotypes. When you meet someone from Boston, you assume they are loud, passionate, fast-paced; versus, if you meet someone from Denver, you assume they are easy-going, friendly, casual.
Context matters; whether we like it or not, we've built up biases and stereotypes that follow us every day. These can be undone or confirmed by one experience. One of the greatest compliments can be, "They weren't who I thought they were" (in a good way).
Life 255
Fantasizing Failure
Put yourself into the 1920s. You work construction in the heart of the industrialization of America. You've got a family at home that depends on the income to keep the house and raise the kids. One slip up can cost you your job, and with no education to rely on, your future. There was no alternative; there was no sudden career change. This is how hard work was instilled into the generations post-WWII.
Fast forward a few generations to enter a unique time. The late-20th century brought jobs galore as tech expanded into many industries that allowed companies to expand. From the chart above, it looks like we might have peaked in the 2000s as the labor participation rate has dipped pretty hard in the 2010s (and more than likely harder in the 2020s due to the pandemic). Tech is the easy external factor to attribute this phenomenon to, but I believe there is a psychological component that we have adopted as well: fantasizing failure.
Somewhere along this timeline, we started accepting failure that wasn't an option for earlier generations. What do I mean by that? You have to fail in order to succeed. Steve Jobs "left" Apple. Bill Gates ran his first company into the ground. Thomas Edison attempted the lightbulb "thousands" of times before he invented it. Milton Hershey had numerous failed candy companies before Hershey's (**Halloween is this weekend, figured I'd throw Hershey's in there).
We romanticize these stories of people who have failed and then go on to be huge successes, but what about all the failures that stay failures? Those people aren't writing an autobiography any time soon. They actually might struggle to go back to any sort of normal work as displayed in the dip of labor participation.
I struggle with this concept because I consider myself a risk-taker. I wouldn't have started MWF if I wasn't. I'm just not an advocator of reckless, and, oddly enough, being reckless might have worked in the past. Now, we enter uncertain work environments after the pandemic (I keep talking about the end of Covid-19 hoping I speak it into existence) where everything is on the table going forward. If the margin of error for our personal failures is getting slimmer then you best believe they are ultra-tight within your company.
Now, this chart is double-edged. Millennials are finding new ways to make money that might not be considered "in the workforce." Also, America is also an aging population along with the fact that recent generations are putting off having kids/having fewer kids. These factors combine to decrease the workforce. Regardless, there is still enough data available to indicate some red flags.
This is in no way an avoid risk piece. While I have a cautious tone, I believe taking risks is the only way to accomplish anything of value. Rather, I'm pointing out that the downside might be greater. Take all the risks you want, but don't have the mindset that failure is a reasonable option. It's not 2000.
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