File Under: Gladwell-The Uses of Adversity

I enjoy Malcolm Gladwell's work. I find it insightful, well written and easily related to. This article came to my attention through "The Lefsetz Letter" (subscribe). I highly recommend you take the time to read it.

As an only child, it is often assumed that I have an overdeveloped sense of entitlement. Thanks to my parents, that just isn't the case. Anytime I started to think that way, I was always put back in my place, i.e. you work for what you get, life isn't fair, and the world doesn't revolve around you (I have since found that bed-spins temporarily negate that last one).

These are lessons that seem to be non-existent in many families around our country today. I feel that I am observing a generational devolution of the ability to overcome. Whining to mom and dad to fix it, is not a survival trait. I feel that Gladwell's notion of disadvantage as advantage is spot on. Our national fixation of giving children every advantage, and thing, is leading us down a path where so many people don't know real success.

The point in our society where a C became the teachers fault and was just unacceptable, therefore making self-preserving teachers change their scores, is the point where we went off the rails. If Joey doesn't know that he can get C's or even fail, he has no idea what it means to succeed based on merit. He won't develop those skills that are necessary to overcome roadblocks to success. In fine we are raising entitled kids, who have no idea what it means to struggle for what they have.

I fear for those people and what life will mean for them in the future I see coming. It seems quite possible that our national heyday has passed, and in that new world, the old insider ties that protect them won't matter. It will indeed be those who faced failure and disadvantages that will be most equipped to succeed.