As the Treasury Manager of the company, and the writer of this blog, I try my hardest not to get caught up in it, though I admit it’s hard. As a personal finance writer, I preach to be conservative with your money: save, invest prudently, and keep an emergency fund; and as a financial professional in charge of all of a companies cash I act the same way, because if there is one thing I know, it’s that the party always ends.

Adorning the walls of my office I have hung constant reminders of this: vintage advertisements for Chrysler and Chevrolet. Every time I look up and see the ad for “The New 1967 Chevrolet Pickup” or the “Silver Anniversary Edition Chrysler New Yorker,” I think about what their management would have said at that time had someone approached them to announce that their company would go bankrupt. As much as I’d like to think they’d sit down and ask “how? when?” I have a feeling that they would have laughed it off. After all it was the heyday of the automobile!

Think about approaching an internet startup in 2000 (really, any startup will do), with the same information. Money was being handed out left and right, it was a huge party!, but the vast majority of them got caught up in the party and never looked at the bottom line. For a prime example, watch the movie e-dreams which follows the rise and fall of kozmo.com.

What about telling Bear Stearns in 2005? Worldcom or Enron in 2000? Blockbuster in 1999? All of these companies were at the peaks of their “Party” stage in these times, only to go drastically downhill a few short years later.

With all this said, I’m not against the “party,” in fact I love the party stage it’s fun and very exciting, but like any party, you have to party like the party will end, or else you wake up in the bushes wondering where your clothes went.

In personal finance partying like the party will end means saving, planning for retirement, and keeping an emergency fund, all while still enjoying your money. In the business world, that means always keeping an eye on costs (I just saved the company $15k by changing vendors for deposit tickets), managing the funds prudently (and safely), always striving for efficiency, and growing the business at a manageable pace.

If you stick with this advice, the party will last longer, and you’ll be prepared if it abruptly ends.

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Our elders look at those of our generation who decided to take “a year off” to travel, are still jobless because they haven’t found the right fit, on the 5-6 year plan, or moved home to live with their parents after graduation and they tell us that we have ”failed to launch.”

I am not defending my generation in this regard.  I’m almost 23 (next week!), I have a wife, two dogs, and I’m buying a house.  At times I’m disgusted by my own maturity, but at other times I’m disgusted by the lack of maturity that many of my peers show.  I have made my decisions, and I am happy, others have made their decisions and I hope they are happy, but in order to change the world like we have been told and taught that we will do; some of us need to camouflage ourselves.

There are some great companies who realize that they need to adapt and appeal to us in order to thrive, you know who they are because you most likely researched them as a place you want to work.  But when the reality of being a college grad steps in and you don’t get your dream job, you’ll learn that at most companies it will be a struggle to make the company more gen-y compatible.  It will be a struggle that will last until we are in positions of power and can effectively fight for what we believe.  Until then we must fall into line, we must play the game, we must appeal to Gen-X and the Boomers.  We need to act more mature than we are and we will climb the ladder.  Then, when the time is right, we can grab the reigns and make the changes that are needed.

What this entails:

• Do not allow your parents to involve themselves in your workplace.
• Dress up.  If your dress code is business casual, wear dressy casual.
• Stay clean cut.  Shave and get a haircut, long hair is not boomer compatible.
• Imitate.  Older people love younger people that remind them of themselves.
• Go out of your way to impress them.

I know this goes against much that we believe to be true and what many people try tell us about ourselves, but unless you work for one of the few companies that is truly gen-y compatible this cammo will be necessary to make the changes we want.  Our fault as a generation is thinking that we can have our dreams now, but we must realize that in order to achieve our dreams and the changes we wish to see we need to plot out a realistic path and work towards acheiving them.

[digg=http://digg.com/business_finance/Why_Corporate_Camo_is_Necessary_for_Gen_Y]

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A key trait of millennials is that we love to be entrepreneurial, we love to take on new tasks, but most of all, we need to know that our ideas are appreciated or at least given the time of day. Being a millennial, these traits are some of the main reasons why I started this blog.Jumping into the workforce where all of my co-workers and bosses are Gen-X and Boomers has been challenging. On one hand it really hasn’t been difficult to impress them, but on the other hand there is no free-flow of ideas. All the people around me seem to think that good ideas can’t come from the bottom of the corporation, and that they always come from the top. Needless to say, it has been a frustrating environment for a millennial to work in.

A couple weeks ago I had a Jerry McGuire moment at work and wrote somewhat of a manifesto for the company, and I must say that it felt great. And it felt even better when I shared it with my boss and I wasn’t fired, in fact he agreed with me! He then proceeded to fall into my generalization that good ideas only come from the top.

Never forget that the free-flow of ideas is something that millennials thrive on. We can build on each other, we can help each other, and maybe some people will start to listen!

All of this takes me back to a phrase that my entrepreneurship professor taught me (one that is impossible to forget):

If you’re scared you’re going to get screwed, you’re never going to get laid.

Vulgar, yes, but it’s also memorable and true. Say you have a business idea, but you’re too scared to share it with people. Then nothing will ever happen (unless you know every aspect…marketing, development, financing…). But say you start sharing it with people, maybe a rich old guy at Starbucks wants to invest, maybe your friend knows a few people who can help you out, or maybe someone helps you build on the idea. Either way, you’re ahead!

But what if someone steals my good idea? Why do you care if someone steals your idea? If it’s your idea I hope that you will have more passion for it than someone else. Sure, greed is a motivator for some, but businesses that are looking to cash in from the start rarely do well. Remember, you can’t fake passion. Entrepreneurs with a passion and a vision are the one’s that surpass expectations. What do Google, Yahoo, Craigslist, Dell, and Starbucks have in common? They all started out with passion and visions, and all are still run by the people that put them on the map. Did other people try to steal their ideas? Yes, absolutely they did, but the people who conceptualized from the beginning have done better. Also, remember that imitation is just another form of flattery. Note: Howard Schultz was not the founder of Starbucks, but it was his vision that grew it from a few stores to what it is today.

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