Archive for September 6th, 2007

You Can't Save the World with a Ball and Chain

Published by Ryan Paugh on September 6th, 2007 in Work/Life | 54 Comments

Three guys sitting around drinking some beers – button-downs un-tucked, ties off, watching highlights on ESPN – it's a typical weekday evening at my house.

"Hey man," my one roommate says. "Did you hear about Mike?"

"Nope," I reply.

"He's getting hitched."

"Damn," I thought, "dead man walking."

Watching fresh out of college twentysomethings "tie the knot" is a total mind-blow. One second the world is your oyster, the next, you're submerged in the end-all be-all commitment of life.

Maybe I'm crazy, but if you're as steadfast about capturing your dreams as I am, you have to stay as far away from matrimony as possible. And serious relationships? They're a bust too.

Want to be a leader? Want to help "change the world"? Get accustomed to being single. Leaders who are emotionally committed to another person typically can't hack it.

And with good reason, you've got a responsibility to another person that's supposed to know no bounds. How can you be expected to invest your soul in an assignment, when you've already sold it off to something else?

The Gen-Y mantra to make a difference needs to be nurtured while we're young. Let your serious commitments to others take the back burner and indulge in a little narcissism. You'll be making the world a better place.

If you're presently in a die-hard relationship right now or, even worse, married, you've likely been burned by my bluntness. So let me reshape my point of view:

You can be young, married and still a huge success. But imagine your potential for greatness if you choose to take a rain-check on the nuptials.

As the young buck in the corporate world, flex-time is a vital element of making a good impression. If you can't stay late to pick up some slack because it's date night, we singles are going to pick it up for you. We'll also take the credit while we're at it.

Last weekend, I visited an old friend in Cape Cod. It was a nostalgic visit that certainly alluded to the inevitability that times they were a-changing.

To my surprise, she told me about an unlikely college couple that decided to move in together after graduation. The girl in the relationship recently confided in my friend some of the oddities of moving in with a significant other at such a young age.

One afternoon she found herself in the laundry room washing her guy's unmentionables. He was in the living room watching the game.

Anxiety began to take hold. She peered down to her naked ring finger, reminding herself that she still had an ounce of freedom to cling on to.

"Weird," she thought.

…I agree.

You Can't Save the World with a Ball and Chain