Simon Sinek: How to Succeed as a Millennial

Simon Sinek is a British-American author of the New York Times best-selling book Start With Why.  He is also known for his motivational speeches and inspiring messages directed towards the millennial generation. Simon Sinek came in the limelight with his motivational speech at the TEDx conference. The video of the event went viral on YouTube and made him popular amongst the entrepreneurship and startup community.

In an interview with Tom Bilyeu of The Inside IQ Quest show, he shared his thoughts and understanding about the millennial generation. By the way, millennials are people who were born between the years 1981-1996. According to Simon Sinek, millennials are selfish, entitled and greedy. They don’t care about their long term well being and are only interested in short term gratification.

He also explained how they think they are the cause behind their dire state of affairs. They think they have a character flaw and need to read more books or attend more seminars to become good enough for the corporations they are working for. Sinek blames the corporations for using young generation for their short term profits.

In this post, I have listed a few lessons from Simon Sinek on how to succeed as a millennial.

1. Stay away from social media

Social media sites like Facebook and Instagram are ruining lives of the millennial generation. Dopamine is a brain chemical that gets released every time we see something that can help us minimize our time and effort. This is what it was originally intended for. But unfortunately, social media companies have used this information to hack our brains and make it release whenever we see a reply on our comment, like and shares of our posts on their sites.

This is the reason most young people turn to social media sites when they feel low or depressed. Feeling low is a very common condition. It means that your body needs rest or you need to take a break from whatever you are doing. But millennials fail to understand this fact and go on looking for quick ways to feel better.  

If triggered artificially, dopamine can be very addictive. You begin to crave for it. Hence, your social media usage goes up. With this, your quality of life and relationships suffer a lot. According to Simon Sinek, millennials often replace humans with mobile devices and social media. So, stay away from social media and mobile phones or minimize its usage to live a happy and content life. This was also why I took a break from Facebook recently.

2. Don’t look for instant gratification

Ideally, we are supposed to feel gratified after achieving something big; like finishing a marathon or achieving our financial goals. Basically, we feel good when we know that we fully deserve our reward and didn’t get it by fluke. Seeking the reward without putting in the effort is known as instant gratification.

According to Simon Sinek, millennials are addicted to instant gratification. They can have anything they want in a matter of seconds. It can seem pleasurable to quickly have what you want, but it is painful in the long term. Things like job satisfaction and eternal happiness are achieved only after working hard and living your life correctly.

3. It takes time to make an impact

Motivational posts on social media are parroting the same old theories again and again. The gist of their content is that you can achieve anything you want. All you have to do is envision it and work a little bit for it. This concept leads millennials to think that they need to make an impact quickly or else they are losers.

In this interview, Sinek gave an example of a young person who recently graduated from college and was working an entry-level job for the last eight months. Sinek described how he wanted to quit his job as he wasn’t making enough impact. The young person was deluded by social media messages that probed him to achieve big things in a short time. Sinek’s advice to such people is to have patience. Also, know that achieving something great takes a long time.

4. Ditch the corporate world

Big corporations lure young talented people by promising them financial safety, security and a long term stable career. These are all great things. But they fail to deliver the promise and use these young people for their own gains. Which, according to Sinek is manipulation and misdirection of the masses.

According to Sinek, corporate organizations don’t help young people build their confidence. In fact, they encourage being meek, spineless and passive. Sinek questions our decision to join these companies. Another major thing that hurts the millennials is that they blame themselves for being incompetent when the real blame should fall on the corporation themselves. So, why join these corporations when you know they don’t care about your well being.

5. Seek good leadership

As a newbie, who just graduated from college, you will need people who will mentor you and show you the right path for success in life. It is difficult to find such people. But if you are lucky, you will get them in the form of co-workers and friends. A successful person wants others to be successful as well. So, if you spend enough time with them, you are likely to pick up on those habits and behaviors that made them successful.

You are not going to find good leaders in corporations. Corporations are run based on conflict avoidance. And good leaders always ask tough questions that create turmoil among those who are in charge. Entrepreneurship and self-employment is a good alternative for millennials, and I think most of them have begun to realize it’s benefits. So, if you can’t find a good leader, become a leader yourself.

So, remember these points and try implementing them in your life. Being a millennial is not easy. You don’t have the leisure that the baby boomers had. The baby boomers had the security of a fixed salary, health insurance, and a retirement plan.

A millennial’s life is difficult. But there are some positives as well. Especially if you are looking for job opportunities. These days, employers prefer hiring young generation. By doing so, they benefit massively as far as the cost-cutting is concerned. Young people are more motivated by the work itself. Moreover, they are not looking to suck the company dry until they turn 66. They prefer changing jobs after a few years as it gives them more exposure and allows them to grow fully.