Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.

Henry David Thoreau

This is a guest blog post by Kajsa Li Paludan, which is the DNV GL Young Sustainability leader 2014. You can read more about Kajsa Li here

Millennials are those of us born between 1980 and 1995 – there are 2.5 billions plus of us worldwide, and we do not dream of a corporate corner-office suite. In fact, 67% of us dream about starting our own company and we are super impatient about practically everything; Climate Change actions, learning curves, and internet-speed.

Millennials are also the first generation to inherit countries in decline. We were told that if we studied hard, and got good grades we would live the “American Dream”, but unless you’re from a Northern European country, you were lied to.

In the United States alone Millennials owe more than $1 trillion dollars in student debt (Bloomberg). Millennials is the most educated generation with the highest share of unemployed people. And most university graduates have jobs that do not require a four-year degree. No wonder it paralyzes us and awakes impatience.

Millennials’ world is chaotic; we travel wherever we want, and we have been brought up with distrust for the established management and older generations. Why? Because we have watched older generations used to prosperity not being able to see, that the world they are sustaining through unsustainable actions is actually failing. It’s like leaving a dirty kitchen for someone else to clean.

We Millennials are enthusiastic about making our own ways through life. We believe we will learn more from starting our own business, even if it crashes, than we will learn in fifteen years behind a desk at corporate company. It was also the reason to why I started my own company at 22. I wanted to make the world more green and sustainable. Fast. But I have always believed that we must work and learn cross generations and businesses to get out of this global mess. If we don’t change our mindsets together we never will.

Sadly, we Millennials have, too, watched older generations in charge of corporations, fire and not re-hire our friends if they didn’t have 10 years experience within their field.

But what experience exactly do we want? Humanity does not have 10 years to continue accumulating the kind of experience, which has led us to our global crisis. This planet’s ecosystems, including us, are dying.

We don’t want to die. Especially not behind a desk.

Millenials work online most of the day, everyday. If there’s something we are unaware of we don’t wait for our boss to give us the answer; we google it, we watch TED videos, and we go out and talk to people from whom we can learn. We accumulate information faster than you can say “Climate Change” and we are super impatient and ambitious people who want to continue our autonomous work lives, even within corporate structures.

Millennials hunger for action; we hunger for whatever drives humanity further, and we want to help create a regenerative and lush present. Not in the future, or after 10 years of experience, but now. Millennials need corporations, we need you, older generations, to hire us, learn together with us, explore with us and create with us now.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

Henry David Thoreau

Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robasghar/2014/11/11/study-millennials-are-the-true-entrepreneur-generation/

http://www.generationwakingup.org/about/our-generation/quick-facts

http://www.uschamberfoundation.org/millennial-generation-research-review