This Generation Is Not Idle!

This generation is not idle, it’s just that the face and scope of work has significantly changed!

In the wake of the first Industrial Revolution, a lot changed in the way people earned a living. The second and third Industrial revolution also came with its own dynamics that altered what we defined as “work”. The 4th Industrial revolution is already plunging a lot of persons into economic dysfunction and social irrelevance. The 5th Industrial Revolution would even be worse.

I sit and ask myself some fundamental questions about the similarities across these revolutions and how one can afford to be relevant in such a fast-paced world. A few thoughts came to mind and I would like to share.

First, I would like to state clearly that “any legitimate activity that earns you a pay is work”. It is good to be career-minded, work in formal settings, have a Boss, wake to a routine and enjoy the security of a paycheck. However, the winning mindset in this era is the “creator’s mind”. The ability to think up, build up, stay up and charge your fee. Some of us have enjoyed asymmetrical growth in building a new definition of self-worth.

We are often faced with the feelings of inadequacy, insecurities and deprivation especially when we begin to compare ourselves with those boxed up by socially celebrated (dignified) earning pathways — some are mundane, others just in service of those who dared to create. It is not unusual to be berated by those in formal settings with foreseeable growth prospects. What is even more fundamental is to ensure that you are on a moving queue regardless of how long it spans.

In the last decade and more, I have a testimony of legitimate survival with evidence based growth and advancement in a career path brought my way by providence and the ingenuity of those who created the social media. There are lots of derogatory ways to undermine this effort. However, I find consolation in the fact that we now inspire many others to be like us in a society where opportunity is uneven and preserved for a few.

I just want to encourage all those charting a course of survival for self and others to keep at it. “Wetin you dey do make sense na only your result go make them understand better” — make you shaa no thief or do bad thing!

— Mazi Ejimofor Opara PhD.