by Ryan Healy 

Typically, we try to stay away from stealing someone else’s material and posting it to our site for your viewing pleasure.  However, I stumbled onto an amazing article from The Future of Information Work the other day.  Among other things, the article discusses the millennials shunning corporate jobs for entrepreneurial ventures and the need for companies to repair the lost trust that stems from watching our parents being downsized or let go.  The article pretty much sums up my thoughts about the corporate world.  I recommend reading the entire thing, but here is a small sample:             

…. In the case of corporate America, now facing the reality that the next generation of worker is willing to give up benefits and pay for time, that they are not committed to the workplace like previous generations were, that they see jobs in many cases, rather than careers — they children of the downsized-right-sized-laid-off parents feel the only things they can trust are themselves and communities they belong to, be those communities physical or virtual…..           

….. It appears, however, that the lost American dream may be detrimental to large organizations, and alive and well with the Millennials as they snub traditional employment in favor of new work models, including an entrepreneurial spirit that may well reorganize the American workplace into something industrial age workers and leaders would not even recognize. I for one, look forward to the rewards of the transformation, and the chaos of the journey.  

It has been well established that the new American dream is no longer two kids and a dog, a white picket fence and a safe job with a large corporation.  Is the new American dream this entrepreneurial spirit that I can’t seem to shake?  Will this re organize the workplace as we know it? 

Should we even be discussing the American Dream when we now live and work in a global economy?

I don’t have the answers to these questions, and I’m not sure an entrepreneurial spirit is enough to be classified as the American Dream.  I believe the new dream is whatever you want it to be.  Everyone I know has a dream, but none are the same.  My dream is to wake up every day with a smile on my face, excited to go to work,  even if going to work means walking into my living room. 

What is your definition of the American/Global dream?  Hopefully we can come to some kind of consensus.  But I have a feeling everyone will have a different answer…. 

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