If there were ever a truth about generationalism, it’s this: Every generation has the same complaint about the generation that came after it. Kids these days don’t want to work. They want everything but don’t want to work hard enough to get it. They all want participation trophies. We’ve all heard some semblance of these accusations in some fashion or another. In fact, we’re all probably guilty of delivering our own version of these generation-dividing dispositions. However, if every generation says the same about the next, then, inherently, how true can these criticisms really be? Perhaps, instead of there being an impediment in the work ethic of today’s “kids,” maybe they’re actually noticing something we “adults” aren’t ready to admit.
Maybe it’s the reality that entrusting one’s entire career to one organization might actually be a losing proposition—a perspective change that shifted between the boomer workforce and Gen X. Or maybe it’s the idea that work-life should be balanced with life-life—a dispositional shift from the Gen X workforce by millennials. The truth is, they (millennials) were right, just as we (Gen Xers) were right. And right now, today’s kids (Gen Z) are probably noticing something that we can’t fully comprehend: The rat-race orthodoxy that most of us have built our careers around may not be as fruitful as we thought. I’m sure your mind is chock-full of rebuttals to that provocation, but I want to make the case for our Gen Z coworkers here. Don’t take it from me; take it from someone who climbed the professional mountain, planted his flag at the top, and discovered that the view from up there was nowhere near as compelling as promised. And that someone is Blake Mycoskie.
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Mycoskie built TOMS into the fastest-growing shoe company in the world. He was the poster child of conscious capitalism, graced the cover of Inc., wrote a best-selling book, and keynoted just about every prestigious business conference there is. He has the kind of biography MBA students point to when they say I want to do that. Yet, he spent the bulk of those years, by his own account, in a depression he couldn’t name out loud. His external life was the thing every business reporter in the country was calling a dream, but his ascension to corporate fame and fortune proved otherwise. So, we invited Mycoskie onto the latest episode of the From the Culture podcast to talk about what he learned from his view on top of the world, and what we all can glean as we pursue our own corporate “glow up” (Am I using that right, Gen Z?).
As Mycoskie put it, “There was a huge difference between how everyone was telling me I should be feeling and how I was really feeling inside. I was so ashamed because I felt like I didn’t have the right to feel that way.” So, he didn’t say anything; he just suffered in silence to the point where he contemplated self-harm. And as the distance between the public scoreboard and his private thoughts widened, he realized no accolade could ever close the gap. No magazine cover. No round of funding. No public stage. No external validation could do the trick because the hole wasn’t shaped like any accomplishment; instead, it was shaped by an internal question: Am I worthy of being here?
All that achievement, yet Blake was not fulfilled. This is the part that the Gen Z pushback is actually about. They aren’t asking for a participation trophy; they are looking at a generation that won every professional trophy but still can’t sleep at night. They are looking at all our accolades and asking whether winning them was worth the cost. Worth our friendships, our families, and all the things we say we really “love.” And, you know what; they’re right to ask. When do we have enough?
This inquiry has become the focus of Mycoskie’s work in his post-TOMS world. He started a new venture called Enough that’s more of a mental health undertaking than a commercial enterprise, and which helped Mycoskie redefine his own worth. It’s now poised to help others remember their own. At Enough, Mycoskie institutionalizes all the Gen Z conventions that other Gen Xers would characterize as “soft” in hopes of helping people focus on the things that truly matter. No emails or texts before 9 a.m. or after 6 p.m. No overworking no matter how much they love the work. And, perhaps most important, Mycoskie made an explicit commitment to admit publicly when he’s gotten the balance wrong (and to correct it out loud) because he realized that every team takes its cues from whether the people above them celebrate weekend grinds or call them out. He knows that leaders who model enough make it permissible for the next layer down, who make it permissible for the next. And so on. So, he adheres to it.
Now, I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty awesome. I mean, say what you will about Gen Z, but maybe the kids are onto something. Maybe what they’re pushing back against isn’t the work but the lie about what the work was supposed to give us. That the work was supposed to define us because we silently told ourselves that we weren’t enough otherwise. So, perhaps, the next time someone on your team announces with pride that they worked all weekend to get something across the finish line, don’t applaud. Ask what they missed at home to make it happen. Ask whether the deadline was real or whether it could have moved. Ask them if it was worth it? Ask them when enough is enough.
Check out our full conversation with Blake Mycoskie on the latest episode of From the Culture here.
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