The pressure of making it in life has never been felt more by any other generation than Gen Z. The hunger to “omoka” is giving most, if not all, youths sleepless nights. Their minds are fixated on devising shortcut schemes to hack life and “escape the matrix” even before hitting 25 years.
There is a very large disparity between them and the previous generations, like the millennials. See, the difference lies not in ideas and independence only, but most importantly in patience and long-term endurance. The word “delayed gratification” is not included in their dictionary. Their goals are set to be achieved within a short and specific time period. The timeline for the set targets is often calibrated based on the achievements of their peers and the fast-moving lifestyle trends served by the West.
Using millennials as the reference point, since they are the former and most recent generation, it is clear as day that they had it rough. It is not imagination, nor is it a speculation. They have openly admitted it. They had to endure the hardships and troubles served by nature due to the lack of advanced technology, which the current generation now enjoys. For their assignments, they had large encyclopedias and large volumes of books for their study. Currently, Gemini and Chat GPT are the one-stop shops for answers, references and solutions for any topic thrown at them.
Consequently, this generation wants to break away from the standards set by their predecessors. They do not want to wait for years to see their hard work bear fruit. They do not want to pass through a system which, according to them, is a high effort, low reward system.
This now creates the problem and the disconnect between them and achieving their goals. The laws of the universe, according to Napoleon Hill, are simple: for every action, there is an equal reaction. Everything comes at a cost. The harvest is directly proportional to the seeds sown. To earn and afford that posh lifestyle, portrayed in the hollywood movies and films, work must be done and services have to be rendered.
As Earl Nightingale mentioned in his recording titled, “The Strangest Secret in the world, ” the only people who make money work in the mint. The rest of us have to earn money by either selling a product or rendering a service.
This concept is what has eluded the generation and is the source of the mounting pressure that pushes them to devious methods like online scamming and other get-rich-quick schemes. This has resulted in jail terms and, in the extreme, even deaths of young people who had the potential to be the changemakers the world needed, but unfortunately succumbed to the pressure of “making it.”
As a parting shot, it is possible to break away from traditional paradigms and established methods that have not worked out; it is important to consider that the universe is till the same and its rules do not bend for anyone. We either conform to them or get swallowed by them.
