“This is why I feel very confident, that longing for meaning.”

“In 1975, baseball players got free agent status, and that opened up massive salary increases for all professional athletes. In 1977, George Lucas got the deal for Raiders of the Lost Ark off of the back of his Star Wars success, where he got 50% of profits for zero investment. Many other things like this happened in a very short period, and created a context in which talented individuals started saying ‘that’s the task, and I’m talented, so you should pay me as much as possible.’ But how does that relate to the present? Well it turns out that all of the folks that are running these companies now are part of that 55-60 range, who were 20 when all of that stuff happened. And the thing about 20 year olds is that they’re extremely influenceable, and they get excited about things easily. That’s why we get 20 year olds to fight our wars, they can be convinced to do so. And these baby boomers who run our companies were competing for scarce jobs, became talented, and said, ‘It is about me. I have talent, and I will earn massive amounts of money.’

The 20-30 year olds of today are looking at that system and saying ‘I’m not interested in that system. I want to have meaning.’ In the past few years, I have had 3 of my top graduates come to my door and tell me that they’ve quit their lucrative job, all giving me the same reason: ‘I’m not sure why I’m doing all of this. I want to do something to accomplish something.’ This is why I feel very confident, that longing for meaning. I think that this current generation may save capitalism. They’re building different infrastructure for capitalism, like Kickstarter, to start companies not on Wall Street, but with their friends and peers. I’m very confident, because of the search for meaning in this young generation.”