I follow Scott Gerber, founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council, on Twitter(@askgerber). In his recent tweets he has been promoting the YEC’s new campaign “Fix Young America” which he hopes will bring young entrepreneurs together to help to fix the broken economy.
Now, I for one am all for every generation working together to fix the struggling American economy, but if I was a betting man, I’d be betting on the Boomers. You see for most Boomers the 800 pound elephant in the room is that we simply don’t have enough money to “retire” like many of our parents did. And this fact is going to spark a new era of micro-business activity among the largest generation on the planet. So, its time we get back to work!
Work …. yes, but traditional jobs …. never! Our generation is the generation of color television, cable, personal computing, and Starbucks. We are the children that Disney built his empire selling to and still the largest age based market in the US as well as many other economies. We were the great innovators that put men on the moon, created the internet, and created the strongest economy the world has ever known.
With all our experience and wisdom, its our turn to step up again, to turn our “retirement years” into something more than endless days of golf or tennis, We need to determine that we are going reignite our innovative juices and create again an economy that meets the needs for our “chapter two” and leaves a strong legacy for Scott and those in the Young Entrepreneur Council.
Here are some things I think we can do to bring the economy back to full strength:
- Look to our lifetime of experience to find, build, and promote new businesses that will put customers first and will effect our communities in a positive way.
- Look for ways to embrace our age group in the businesses we create. Remember, we are still the largest generation, and besides, who understands us better than we do?
- Look for ways to pass our wisdom on to succeeding generations. Many of us learned the principles of self-reliance and hard work by working with along side our parents or grandparents. We need to pass that ethic on and teach while we build businesses.
Scott and the members of the YEC are doing a great thing by looking for ways to fix the American economy by looking to the current and upcoming generations, but as for me, I’m betting on the Boomers!
