Ambitious Canada Part 5: I am Old

I remember first learning to program on a Commodore 64. I have gray hair, kids, and a Costco Executive Membership Card. I am an old man.

The next zillion-dollar company that changes our country and our world won’t be built by someone like me (though I will try). No, the new world will be built by someone who is still in school right now, or just graduating.

But when it’s time to talk about policy changes and building for Canada’s future, it’s usually people as old as me or (gasp!) even older. We talk about things that matter to us—stuff we would never have been bothered about when we were students.

What I see when I talk to people in university or just graduating is a stunning contrast to the timid conversations happening in our boardrooms.

The next generation of entrepreneurs are ambitious beyond belief. But it’s an ambition born from a different place.

For many young people I talk to, the old narratives have evaporated. They’ve grown up in a world of profound institutional skepticism. When the systems for politics, climate, and even technology seem chaotic and not run by mature adults, the old signposts for a meaningful life disappear.

There is a purpose gap.

Some tell me they are looking for a mission, but they don’t know who to look up to. The role models they are offered are uninspiring. This isn’t nihilism, though it can look like it. There is a drive that comes as a direct response to this crisis of purpose.

What if our constant focus on the things we care about – the things that old people talk about – is actually a distraction from the real work they’re trying to do?

The truth is, I don’t know exactly what a new generation needs. That’s the fundamental error my generation keeps making: we assume we know. We think about what people like me want, not what they want. But in the end, will we invite them into the board rooms and councils where the decisions are made?

More than any government program, there is a layer of community that matters. Together we have to build a society that actively supports ambition, that tells them their big ideas are essential, not naive. We can do that while also alowing room for care and concern regarding the dual nature of technology + progress. The kids can handle complexity.

We can’t have a serious discussion about Canada’s future if we keep asking old men like me what we want from our government.

It’s their future.