full of spoiled self-indulgent overgrown
adolescents so indulge with every toy
game an electronic device available they
don’t even have to learn how to amuse
themselves since mom and dad are always
there to ferry them from one organized
activity to another sound familiar
we’ve all heard millennial sound bites
and stereotypes before lazy spoiled
entitled but what if I told you that
those lines you just heard we’re
actually from an article written by a
50-something baby boomer about a
20-something generation Xer written in
1993 the article was titled the whiny
generation it wasn’t even about the
millennial generation there’s been a
previous generation but many of you
probably thought that I was talking
millennial stereotype because that’s
just the new buzz nowadays look at just
2016 alone articles from real news
outlets talked about Millennials killing
the wine industry
we killed hotels for everyone napkins
movies running golf Europe’s Millennials
were even responsible for killing the
European Union so if you believe this
then our generation really doesn’t have
much left for us to sink our teeth into
and Rowin so I’ve wondered what it is
about today’s young people in particular
that really get people going and where
do we go from here that’s what I want to
hammer in on because despite the
negative stereotypes we’ve also heard
countless experts talk about the power
of the millennial generation and the
power of young people to one day change
the world and that’s great but when does
one day become today when do we stop
thinking about what we can do in the
future and focus on what we can do to
make a difference today in fact I’d
argue that young people have already
changed the world let’s look at what’s
been done a millennial teenager changed
the war
from his dorm room in October of 2003
when he launched something called face
match and that later turned into
Facebook and has since connected people
from all around the world
Dropbox Airbnb Quorra
oculus VR revolutionary tools and
businesses all founded by young people
when they were young that are making the
world a smarter more connected place
they didn’t wait for the rest of the
world to say they could pass Cup and
they certainly didn’t say well one day
see a Millennials are changing the way
that the world looks at solving problems
we’re changing the way that we
communicate with people the way our
politicians and our leaders are thinking
about the future but in reality with the
technology and connectedness that’s out
there today anyone can do that you don’t
need to be born in the 80s or the 90s of
the 2000s in order to start a company so
what makes Millennials special what I’d
argue to today is that the power of the
younger generations isn’t in changing
the way that people connect with one
another the most important thing we as a
generation all of us are doing and need
to continue to do is that we’re changing
the way that people view one another so
many in our generation whether we’re
from Center City Philadelphia or a rural
farm in Idaho of prioritized values like
social equality more so than any other
previous generation a past generation
certainly care about other people but
today’s young people are the first to
make it a point to incorporate their
values into things like their search for
work we saw just recently in a study
published by Deloitte that the majority
of Millennials surveyed from all around
the world feel like they have a fair
amount or great deal of accountability
into issues like the environment and
social equality all around the world
Millennials agree on this but I keep
going back to why and how does that
impact the future of millennial
leadership certainly access to things
like the internet and Facebook makes it
easier for us to connect with the rest
of the world growing up and people of
different cultures and backgrounds but
why did we care what happened that left
such a mark on our generation
that we either consciously or
subconsciously decided to push so
strongly for those values everyone may
have a different answer but I remember
mine and it was in sixth grade I
remember one day in particular I don’t
remember many days from sixth grade but
I remember one and it was around 9:15 in
the morning and we were getting ready to
start our second period American history
class I can only imagine we were going
to talk about the Battle of Bunker Hill
or some other aspect of the American
Revolutionary War but this day was
different because our teacher showed up
around 15 minutes late he was never late
we were a bunch of 11 year old boys so
we were just waiting joking around we
had no idea that while we were doing
that the entire world our futures and
the way that we would grow to look at
the world and each other was all rapidly
changing he was 45 minutes before that
teacher walked into class five
terrorists had taken control of an
airplane and crashed it into the North
Tower of the World Trade Center and the
minutes that followed three more planes
were hijacked one flying into the South
Tower one into the Pentagon and one into
a field in Pennsylvania after the heroic
passengers fought back that quickly
everything changed we didn’t know in
that classroom and I suspect that my
parents probably may have tried to keep
a little bit of it from me but I
remember seeing the replays over and
over and over again our world changed
like that I’ve seen studies and expert
opinion pieces and many come to the
conclusion that what happened on 9/11
was the most formative experience of the
millennial generation but I don’t
necessarily agree I think it goes deeper
than that I think it’s from that place
where the future of millennial
leadership was born because as much as I
remember seeing the smoke billowing in
Manhattan there’s something else that’s
been ingrained in our generations memory
and it’s not what happened on that day
it’s what we saw in the days and the
weeks and the months after the fact
every single young person no matter how
young Sall Americans as close as Union
Square in New York and it’s
Waikiki Beach in Honolulu come together
at candlelight vigils we saw people wait
in line entire days in Wisconsin to
donate blood to the Red Cross
we saw cities from all across the
country even some here in South Florida
sending firefighters and EMTs up to
Ground Zero
we saw the Reverend Billy Graham at the
National Cathedral and the Imam at the
al Abedin Mosque in Queens preaching
that we come together and rebuild
together because the world depended on
and it was what we saw in a baseball
stadium at night about a month or two
after the attacks when we saw President
Bush threw out the first pitch he didn’t
say a single word but he said so much
because it didn’t matter at that point
in that baseball stadium if you were a
Yankees fan for a Diamondbacks fan or a
Mets fan or if you hated baseball
altogether there were 55,000 people in
that stadium some were white some were
black some we’re Asian and Indian and
Hispanic some were men some were women
some were straight some were gay and
none of any of that mattered in that
baseball stadium they were just
Americans and as young people we saw it
all unfold
every young person a mattad engaged most
formative years of our lives we saw a
country come together and rise above any
perceived differences in that stadium
and I was fortunate enough ten years
after the fact to be in another state
this time in Philadelphia when slowly
but surely people were starting to check
their phones
you can thank Molina the millennial
generation for that too
and we saw that finally we had brought
to justice demand responsible for those
attacks 10 years before different
baseball state same principle because at
that point no one in that stadium cared
about the athlete of the game anymore
our generation saw the promise of a
country at an age where we were trying
to learn the promise within ourselves we
saw the power of unity regardless of
what differences tried to insert
themselves and regardless of what
challenges were thrown into the mix
the power that everyone says our
generation has to do great things in the
world isn’t in what we believe it’s not
in what we do and it’s not in what
companies we start it’s in why we
believe it
why we do it and why we start them
because we know what we aspire to be you
fast forward to today and the older
Millennials on 9/11 are now in their 20s
and 30s some are younger and they’re
even more young people learning from
them the world still has challenges but
now instead of watching it unfold on TV
it’s our generations turn to lead from
the front is the true test of any
generation of any people of any person
is in what they do when they’re called
on to lead as every single young person
now is so what’s the future of
millennial leadership it’s here it
starts with you starts with us so next
time that you hear someone mention how
they’re fed up with a spoiled overgrown
generation next time you hear about how
young people are killing golf for coffee
or fun all together next time you see a
conflict or a disagreement talk to them
hear the mountain don’t wait for the
world to tell you to pass go put
yourself in that baseball stadium and
leave from the front thank you [Applause]