I wrote Motivate Your Son in 2012. I described the challenges that I observed as a practicing educational consultant in Shoreline CT. I predicted three general career paths for the majority of young men.
I led with optimism. Those that had what I termed “work character” – which has much overlap with what is commonly thought of as good character but focuses on… well… work!- , had at least sufficient talent, and were fortunate enough to grow up in places like Guilford, Madison, Old Lyme, East Lyme, Essex, and Old Saybrook (as well as all of Fairfield County) had an opportunity to be on the:
The Path of Abundance (the title of my second book): happy and successful work. This is true for the 10% who are lucky enough to make the most of excellent universities and for those who had outstanding work character regardless.
The Path of Struggle which I suggested would be the bulk of the group. Working harder for less money and the unfortunate Path of Disaster which meant some combination of unenjoyable work and inability to pay bills.
At the time, my research confirmed the looming disaster and now – unrelated to the pandemic, which was just an accelerant – the crisis of boys to not quite independent men is full throttle.
Sure, I like being right. But I would gladly take being really wrong in order to avoid the suffering I’m seeing of young men adrift in their twenties.
The Parents’ Guide to Career Planning for Your Twentysomething was my last book. It was based on the struggles of those in their early twenties who are just not quite gaining career traction.
My next book will likely focus on helping boys-young men (16-24) based on the enormous amount of work I’m doing with this age group.
If your son needs help building his career, contact us now. Unfortunately, the challenge only gets worse with time.