Most people who know me know that I am a guitarist/singer and perform ‘the circuit’ as a soloist and in a duo – this is something I have done for a long time now and playing in bars and clubs is something that I am completely familiar with. Last Friday night however it went up a few notches and I played a corporate function to about 300 people in a grand ball room of one of Brisbane’s most prestige hotels. We started at 9:30, finished at 12 and the aim was to keep everyone dancing. This was by far the biggest performance that I had ever done.

Because I burn the candle at both ends, this was an experience that seemingly approached quite quickly. It was different to what I was used to and took me far outside my comfort (or familiarity) zone.

The lead up to Friday night’s performance was pretty chaotic and I didn’t get the time that I needed to invest to be as I confident as I wanted to be. These weren’t regular pub folk out to see a band; they were at a staff Christmas party. Experiencing nerves of which I hadn’t felt for a long time (if ever) I got up and sung my heart out – before I went on I was visualizing it being over – as I was playing I wanted it to keep going.

The higher the risk, the greater the reward; and often before it all begins, you sit there thinking, ‘why am I doing this?!?’.

I’ve never had a ’run-away’ attitude; I’ve never called in sick because of a big night; I’ve never bailed on an uncomfortable situation due to fear. My motto in life has and always will be Persevere. As I expected on Saturday I woke up completely relaxed, like I had achieved something big the previous night and now I could get on with my life. So the moral of the story…

Achieving big things makes smaller things easier. As we attempt bigger challenges what was once big becomes smaller.

To relate this life philosophy to my corporate side, making a $10,000.00 sale can be stressful when you are used to selling $1,000.00. However when you make a $100,000.00 sale it makes the $10,000.00 (once scary) seem less difficult. Then you achieve a $500,000.00 and so on so forth down the line. Constantly striving for something more, makes your smaller challenges become easier. It also keeps life very interesting.

I am a self confessed challenge junkie and if I am not being challenged I am getting bored. This seems to a trait in Generation Y’s and it would appear that the best way to hold on to us in the workplace is to keep those challenges coming.

It’s a fact of life – You can’t reach new highs doing the same thing everyday – What have you done recently to challenge yourself? How did it make you feel and would doing it a second time seem easier?

I received this quote through one of my social network feeds a couple of days ago and loved it so much that I wanted to share.

“The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible – and achieve it, generation after generation”. – Pearl S. Buck

The success that Generation Y may often achieve, hand-in-hand with the heat that they often receive, can be summed in the above quote. Adidas said it in 2008, ‘Impossible is nothing.’

How often has someone over 30 said to someone under 30, “You can’t do that, it’s not the way it’s done! Steps need to be taken… Processes need to be followed… blah blah blah.” In the words of my generation, ‘whatever.’

To me, this quote is a mantra that everyone could benefit from following, regardless of generation. If you consider all things to be possible, you’ll act accordingly; confidently. Confidence and determination are the keys to success.

Next time you are approached by a person with an idea, don’t think about what’s wrong with it, think about what’s right with it – don’t be so hasty to filter it through your tried and tested value system. Consider that today’s buzz words are creativity and innovation and consider its application.

Likewise, if you are approaching someone with an idea, don’t let a ‘No’ stop you from doing it. Do it anyway! If it works, great! If it doesn’t, then it was a good learning curve and maybe you could revisit the idea in the future. Don’t be discouraged. It took Thomas Edison 1000 attempts to get the light bulb right. He had confidence and determination, and he succeeded.

Embrace your inner Gen Y next time someone approaches you with an idea – the power to say yes or no is life changing to people around you.

I and most of the people in my circles are Generation Wise… I, like many of my peers enjoy being analysed by Baby Boomers and Gen X’s as if there is some great code to crack. To me, the general gist of a generation is a cocktail of two things –people and their environment.

Firstly lets sum up the characteristics of the people that make up Gen Y. The biggest characteristic is that they are young. They are un-educated in the ways of the world, brash, eager to learn and experience, and exposed to peer pressures and social obligations.

The rest of the generational stereotype is dictated by the environment. The difference in technology available to the generation and the current political climate shapes how they behave. For example, if you have peer pressure and social obligation at high school when you’re a kid, then coupling that with Facebook or MySpace and a whole lot of time is like throwing oil on the fire.

Now when you take these characteristics and apply them to the environment, it is really quite simple to understand Generation Y. An eagerness to learn when you were a kid in the 1930’s was quenched through reading books and asking family members… Now we have Google, which provides mostly accurate results instantly… and they wonder why we’re impatient?!? Therefore theory and intellect are easy and for the most part we can get it whenever we need it, but our memories are absolutely shot because we have little need to commit things to it. My total dependence on technology has removed my thought process so much so that when I drive somewhere beyond my norm I am completely dependent on the GPS in my car. So much so that sometimes when I drive out of work to go somewhere and the tracking signal hasn’t picked up yet I drive completely in the wrong direction. People say, ‘I would be lost without my GPS’ – I think I’d start remembering where the hell I was going!

This is my observation of our generation. We are no different to how any other generation has been created, however we were brought up with loads of technology and in somewhat peaceful circumstances. We probably need to consider generational gaps much closer now as the technology changes so quickly and this is truly what affects the behavior of the generation.

With this in mind, how does an impatient, yet incredibly fast paced generation find fulfillment in the workplace? We are labeled as being selfish and arrogant, un-loyal and quick to jump ship for more money. I don’t believe that this is entirely true – whilst many of us are, many of us aren’t and often the reason behind changing jobs is due to boredom in a role.

Consequently, how can we achieve long term career success if we can’t tolerate the same job for a decent amount of time? Is this patience? I hope not, because I lack that virtue. This is what I will explore through the Generation Why Not series.