In this months newsletter Steve talked about the magic of the garage and how in its nature lies a great secret to unleashing phenomenal ideas, creative restriction. It’s amazing how being stuck in a garage can bring about great focus, energy and creativity, ultimately yielding huge advancements. As a millennial the idea of being stuck in a garage isn’t unfamiliar to me. We hear from friends and family all the time about being stuck somewhere but my generation has given the garage a new name, mom and dads house. So I ask myself, “Can mom and dad’s couch be the new Launchpad for getting great ideas off the ground? Can the emergence and success of Harley Davidson, Hewlett Packard, Disney, and Apple all from a garage, sufficiently motivate the next generation to follow suit from mom’s couch or dads workbench?”
Now to a millennial the idea of moving back in with your parents is terrifying. We assume the worst and ask ourselves, “What will people think?” and “Where did I go wrong?” But it’s an all to common trend now and it has an extremely bad rap. But with such outstanding stories of success stemming from similar situations, should it? Perhaps what has led us back to the nest can be deemed negative. Of course there are those out there who have had to move home because of the backbreaking side effects of massive debt from college (65% of college educated millennials have over $27,000 in student loans) or maybe they’ve moved home because of a horrible job market that has left our generation wildly unemployed or underemployed (Millennials have a 16% unemployment rate and 41% claim they are underemployed in a field unrelated to their degrees). Any number of factors can be blamed for our current predicament but it is my optimistic perspective on the capabilities of our generation that has allowed me to see opportunity here. I don’t think any 20 something year old dreams of moving home with mom and dad only to get back in the habit of watching Wheel of Fortune and NCIS before getting to bed at the reasonable hour of 7:00PM. So what do you do?
Moving back home has given many the gift of creative restriction. They have time to focus on their ideas, weighing those of merit and dismissing those lacking substance and ultimately pursue them at little cost. Everyone has ideas, but not everyone has time to explore them. So if you’re living at home take some time to take stock of your ideas. Do they have value? If they do write an article, start a book, meet someone who thinks the same way you do and give your ideas traction. Your parent’s house is not the enemy; it’s just a stepping-stone to great success.
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