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A few days ago I found an interesting article about "Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy". It discussed how while Baby Boomers had worked hard towards something, and extremely happy with lush green lawn, the Gen Y are told that they are 'special' since childhood. So in their career, they expect 'a shiny unicorn on top of the flowery lawn'.

Baby Boomers are the generations who were born in 1950s. They were raised by "G.I Generation" or the "Greatest Generations" who grew up during the World Wars and Depression period. While Gen Y were the generation born between the late 1970s and the mid 1990s. This article also coined another term within the Gen Y; the Gen Y Protagonists and Special Yuppies, or GYPSYs. According to the article, a GYPSY is a unique brand of yuppie and who always think that they are the main character of a very special story.

This GYPSY attitude, according to this article what makes most Gen Y an unhappy bunch. Baby Boomers were taught that nothing can be achieved overnight, and envision a prosperous and stable career for themselves; this was what they called the "green lawn". But everything must be achieved through hard work, and no instant success. 

With the hard work, most Baby Boomers achieved more than what they had expected, which left them happy and satisfied. 

With this happiness and satisfaction, these Baby Boomers mostly raised their children, the Gen Y with a lot of optimism and unbounded possibilities. They told their children that they can be whatever they wanted to be, thus Gen Y had this special protagonist identity deep within themselves. Now Gen Y wanted to have "green lawn with flowers". A simple green lawn is not enough anymore.

Because these Gen Y especially GYPSY's had the impression that they were special, while their destinations maybe very clear, but do they know how to get there? 

The foundation of the journey is crucial because it sets us down the right path. There's no shortcut to success. It take years, a lot of sweat and tears, for most successful people to achieve what they have achieved. But according to the article, Gen Y can't accept this reality. 

The article also quite blunt in identifying these GYPSY as wildly ambitious, but delusional while always opened to being taunted by their peers and other things. Success is a gradual achievement. There is nothing sudden about it. People may just suddenly notice and talk about it. 

If we are indeed ambitious, as what most Gen Y thinks they are, we need to decide what our gradual factor(s) is(are). One day, everything will become apparent, whether we do things gradually well or terrible. 

We can't tell people that we are hardworking, we can only show them.

We can't tell people that our work excellent, we can only show them.

We can't tell people that we are an open-minded person, we can only show them.

We can't tell people that we are tolerant, we can only show them. 

In short, actions speaks louder than words. But actions take time to show results. It takes a lot of effort, blood, sweat and tears. However, we can take a deep satisfaction that we are not going to be a 'one time wonder'. At the end, it may give us the lawn with the flowers, and maybe, the unicorns too.

Thank you for reading my two cent worth of thought. I love to hear your opinion on the matter, especially from the Gen Y. Sometime, we the Baby Boomers are a bit hard-headed. It comes with age. So please forgive us. LOL

Source : Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy