Yesterday my daughter participated in an Easter egg hunt – actually it was more like an “Easter egg gathering” event. The eggs were “hidden” in an open corporate cemented courtyard that was covered with astro turf and plastic eggs were spread out in plain site for toddlers. For elementary school-aged children (like my daughter), they were it “hidden in plain site” in tree beds that were spaced out among the courtyard. My point is the thrill came from the amount of eggs to be gathered much more so than the allure of finding what was “hidden”. It sparked a thought in me that this is so representative of what our future workforce is growing up in – follow me here for a minute…
I imagined that the “eggs” where like talents and the kids were tasked with an ability to acquire as many of them as they could in a competition against other kids vs finding “eggs” (talents), that they were motivated to acquire for their own unique reasons – with the confidence that there was more than enough to go around for everyone.
So, is this where life is headed for this generation? A race for acquiring as many “talents” as you can – more than you will ever use or enjoy (which BTW – aren’t unused talents the same as no talents at all?)- which only smothers the innate human flame for discovering what’s uniquely appealing and rewarding to you and therefore sparks a contentedness for not knowing what your talents are – and therefore not knowing what you want to do to serve others in this world. Will this translate into a workforce that has an even more limited chance of feeling happy and experiencing true success?