The Era of the 1980s
I have been wanting to blog about this for quite some time already but never found the time to.
A couple of friends and I met up for dinner and we sat talking about life, people and mostly work. A similarity that we all encounter, is the young people who had just graduated and started work, for the first time, probably. The attitude of these young ones really amazes me.
Like some of the ones that I ran into at work, these young people are idealistic and ambitious. Some, very ambitous. But what I can't get is, how can these people expect to climb up the corporate ladder, earn big fat salaries, when they don't even want to get their hands dirty?
My best friend started out in the audit line at a big audit firm. She worked days and nights at her work. She said, during her first year, she spent the most of her time in front of the photocopy machine. It was the job of the first years, to photocopy the documents and keep the records for the seniors and managers for their use. When she was promoted to senior, she worked non-stop, finishing work only at 11plus at night. Once, she stayed over at her client's place and worked till 7plus in the morning. Such are the harsh conditions she was exposed to, before she can get to where she is today.
I have heard from a number of people, that, when they tell the new joiners to photocopy documents, they would be asked, in a most self-important manner, "Why should I do this?"
There is this other group of 1980s that are overly idealistic.
They breeze through life, going into colleges, hanging out with friends, making enough money to spend for their daily wants, etc. Then, all of a sudden, they decide to do something different, finding a new path of life. They drop whatever they're doing, forfeiting all the money that their parents or family have spent on them, and decide to just pursue their new found direction.
I couldn't understand why these young ones are behaving like that. So different from the way people in my era behaved.
Then my friend brought up, "it's because our families, in one time or another, have been poor. These people born in the 1908s, have parents who are more less enough money to sustain their daily needs and material wants. They can do whatever they want, not needing to make money to support their parents."
And she's right.
Must we all go through poverty before we can realise the value of money?
Must we all go through hardship before we realise that success doesn't come easy?
Must we actually see how our parents slog, before we realise how hard they work, to give us the life that we have?
I can't help but wonder how is the next generation going to turn out. We live in an era of computer games, aircon rooms, Nike shoes, LV bags, etc. The more we want to pamper our children with the finer things of life, the less they'll understand they have to get their hands dirty to achieve success in life. The more we want to satisfy their wants because we want our children happy, the less they'll understand they have to work to fulfil their needs.
Right now, I'm only glad I don't have kids. Because I really have no idea how to bring them up. So i'd better start planning now, just so i'll be ready when the time comes.
