Today morning I woke up at 5 and saw a message from one of my Gen Z freelance developers. He was updating me on a few parts of the project, and honestly, it caught me off guard. I replied with a quick “okay, thank you,” and almost immediately he wrote back saying he was still sorting out some issues and listed what was going on.
I realized I needed more clarity, so I called him. He picked up. For the next hour or so we tried to figure out the problem together. He tried a few fixes, we tested ideas, and nothing fully worked. At that point I told him, “Go to sleep. Maybe you haven’t slept all night. We’ll talk later in the day.”
About 45 minutes later, I checked my messages again and saw he’d made more progress. He had tried another approach, pushed some work, and shared a solution that I still need to review and build on. But the bigger point stayed with me: this is what I think of as a Gen Z guy working hard, trying to get things done, and pushing himself forward. He’s recently married, he wants to move ahead in life, and you can feel that hunger in the way he shows up.
On the flip side, I also know enough people who already have everything lined up. They have an ecosystem. They have parent support. They have education. They have a safety net. And yet they don’t pay attention to growth. They get comfortable with the status quo. They don’t pick up new skills. And when things go wrong, the first reaction is to blame the system.
I’ve seen this pattern so many times that it doesn’t even surprise me anymore. I’ve spoken with young people who reached out directly or indirectly, and most of those conversations don’t last more than a week. Not because they’re bad people, but because there’s no follow-through. You give them one clear actionable item—update your resume, learn a skill, enroll in a course, build a small project, do something that moves the needle—and it just doesn’t happen.
Then six months later, the story repeats. They lose a job or a gig. They panic. They blame the system. And some of them start going down a slippery slope where they keep falling behind. At best, they end up staying exactly where they are, stuck in the same loop.
To me, human life is about progression. It’s not only about money. It’s not only about career. It’s about growth. It’s about how much time and attention you pay to yourself—your mindset, your skills, your discipline, your ability to learn—and how seriously you take the idea of moving forward.
AI, BI, CI—whatever acronym is trending today—these are flavors of the day. They matter, yes, but they’re not the real story. The real story is still you. Your life is your own. You have to make a difference in it. And more often than not, that’s what separates the winners from the losers.
And here’s the part that many people miss: the “losers” might look like they’re living a more comfortable life right now, because of their parents’ hard work and support. But comfort without growth can become a trap. If someone stops progressing, the next generation often pays the price. The slope doesn’t always look slippery at first—but over time, it usually is.
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