Abstract

Having grown up in a hyperconnected world, millennials are pressured by a lingering feeling that no matter their achievements, they can always do more. Conventional wisdom suggests that individuals should create and maintain their “personal brands” and continuously improve themselves, so that they can compete in a world that favors the most entrepreneurial and networked. Exacerbating these pressures are endless millennial success stories and “best-of” lists, educational systems that increasingly view their primary roles as creating “adaptable” and “skilled” workers, and a growing belief that in order to succeed, individuals must position themselves strategically in a rapidly changing world. But these trends only promote anxiety and psychological fatigue, hindering the cultivation of a long view in lives and careers. Individuals are drawn away from themselves, losing the spaces for solitude that are necessary for honest selfunderstanding. In "The Plight of Potential", Emerson Csorba, blending scholarly research with first-hand experience based on his work on intergenerational engagement, discusses how millennials can recapture a sense of control in their lives through time and space for solitude. This requires that individuals sometimes resist pressures to constantly connect and share, and in place of this embrace their limitedness despite society’s emphasis on growth and potential.

“The very nature of work is changing dramatically. This affects not just economic prosperity but social relations and sense of self. As Millennials in the Modern Workforce shows extremely well, the implications are profound for work itself, for social structure and for the loneliness or happiness of individuals. Both those who haven’t yet grasped the depth of change and those living through it need to pay attention.”
—Craig Calhoun, University Professor of Social Sciences, Arizona State University, USA

Emerson Csorba is president of Csorba & Company Ltd., where he leads projects involving social network analysis, intergenerational engagement and political campaign management. Born and raised in Canada, Csorba now lives in the United Kingdom, where he is a Clarendon Scholar at the University of Oxford.

Immersed in a hyperconnected world, millennials are pressured by a lingering feeling that no matter their achievements, they can always do more. Conventional wisdom suggests that millennials must create and maintain personal brands while striving to achieve their potential. But this mentality, while initially appealing for many, breeds anxiety and insecurity. In "The Plight of Potential", Emerson Csorba shows how millennials can live deeper and more enriching lives by reflecting on the self, placing value on solitude and resisting the feeling that they must constantly connect and share. Drawing on case studies of millennials from networks such as the Global Shapers Community, Csorba offers suggestions on how millennials can thrive in a world that favours immediacy and superficiality.

Millennials live in a world of opportunity, characterized by the constant pursuit of personal growth and a belief that to hit the pause button would be catastrophic to a career. Within this context, Csorba explores ideas such as the ruthlessness of comparison amongst millennials and outlines guidelines for overcoming these pressures. Advocating for a long view of work and life, Csorba builds on hundreds of interviews with millennials across the world as well as research at the University of Cambridge.

The themes that Csorba explores in "The Plight of Potential" are not unique – they have existed for centuries, and do not pertain exclusively to millennials – but in a society that glamourizes the individual while paradoxically discouraging solitude and self-reflection, they are radical. Both practical and critical, this book is timely and refreshing for millennials looking to overcome the social pressures around them and advance their work and lives, while also cultivating the skills and qualities required to better know themselves in the process.