So, What Now?

You’re college educated. You completed the coursework. And you feel like you have more questions now than when you started. Fear not.

You might not realize it yet, but college should have taught you three fundamental lessons:

1. The point of a good education isn’t to give you all the answers. It’s to equip you to keep asking better questions, synthesizing answers, and accepting or rejecting conclusions. Which leads to even more questions.
2. College is about exploring and building an identity. Don’t expect to have it all figured out in four years. It’s a long process. Be patient with yourself.
3. Learning is lifelong. You never stop.

Gen Y sees President Obama as their leader today, much like Baby Boomers saw JFK in the 1950s and 60s.

Believe it or not, we don’t really care about money. We know it’s a means to happiness. But most of us do well with the little we already make.

You might doubt yourself. You might tell yourself you have nothing to offer. But there’s a fundamental truth: every generation still living believes (whether they admit it or not) that Gen Y can and will change this world. Many compare Gen Y to the Greatest Generation. Why? Because Gen Y knows this world needs a major redress, and we want to change it for the better. Never mind the recognition or fame. We do it because it’s the right thing.

Fear not failure. How will you accomplish something great without failing at something?

I expect my cliches and platitudes to be blasted by cynics. Their failures will color how they read this.

So you might be thinking, “What now?”

Get out there. Physically get up from your computer or lift your head from your phone, and do something.

• Call a local non-profit. Ask how you can help.
• Organize a group of friends. Plan a meaningful project. Physically get started. No plan is perfect. You’ll only learn by making mistakes.
• Start small. Grow larger. Scalability, economies of scale, learning effects will come. Add more friends. Add more resources. Good things happen. Before you know it, you’ve impacted a neighborhood, a town, a city, a county, a state, a nation. The world.

Because as one of the pioneers who created the device you’re holding once told us: “The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who actually do.”

So go on. Do.