Too often people pour their souls onto the Internet, whether it be a friends wall posting or a blog post, and once it is up, it is permanent. A snapshot of how you were feeling at one point in time has been published to the world, and you can’t change your mind on it. We are the first generation that grew up with social media, our lives are practically public information from politically incorrect jokes we write on a friends facebook wall, to the many many inappropriate pictures of us that other people took and tagged us in. For many it won’t really matter, but for those with big dreams (specifically business, political, or athletic) it may.

For the last 7ish weeks I’ve obviously taken a bit of a hiatus from writing. Some of the hiatus had to do with writers block, some had to do with a lack of desire to write, but a good bit of it was actually me censoring myself. As a writer who draws from his own life experience for just about every post, it’s now much harder to write since my co-workers know about this site. Now, if I write about a bad day at work, even if I write about what I’ve learned from it and try to spin it in a positive light, I could come off as complaining (something no one likes). If I write about how I really messed something up, I could (or would in one instance) become a direct target for all the blame, when I shouldn’t be.

Protecting your personal brand online is fairly easy, and protecting it offline is too, but when those worlds collide it becomes a much different world. These instances are even becoming newsworthy: someone on disability posts facebook pictures of them skydiving, someone fires an employee then updates their status telling the world why, or my personal favorite someone gets a job offer then tweets about it saying how the money is great but the company sucks. I’m not saying to have two different “brands” but think of it like this: your work persona vs. your out at the bars persona. Your friends may not care how you act at work, but your boss may care how you act out at the bars.

Over the coming years, as more members of Gen-Y run for office, and further succeed in business and sports it will be interesting to see the scandals that come from all of this, but I think the bigger question is, as Gen-Y becomes even more of an influence will anyone care about poor decisions posted on facebook or twitter? After all we’ve all had them.

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As many may be guessing that stuff is my collection of trophies from growing up. I have trophies, medals, and awards for everything. I have a soccer trophies, baseball trophies, pinewood derby trophies, a medal from a poetry contest, and tons of certificates and ribbons. It’s really quite an impressive collection, until you look closely and realize that most of them say “competitor,” and none of them say “1st place.” When I came to this realization I just started to laugh because it finally hit me. I really did get a trophy for everything I did, and I never even won anything! (OK, my high school swim team won the national championship, but I assure you I had absolutely nothing to do with it. I was an “alternate” so I could go on the trip).

I’ve been thinking a lot about this and I have to wonder, what do these trophies mean for my career? 

At this point in my career, I’d have to say, not a good thing because the real world has already smacked me in the face for having an expectation of a big shining trophy (metaphorically).

After my first 10 months of working I had my first formal review in which I learned what my raise would be. My boss started out praising my performance and telling me I had done a good job, and then he got around to telling me what my raise would be. I was on the edge of my seat, “My first raise!” I thought, ” I wonder what my promotion will be, Sr. Analyst!?, either way I’m taking Mary out tonight to celebrate!”

That’s about the time when my daydream came to a screeching halt as my thoughts were interrupted with ”2.7.”

“2.7 Percent?” I asked, knowing that I must have heard wrong.

“Yes”

At that point I must have given him the look of death.

“You’re not happy” he said, as I was biting a hole through my lip and trying to keep my composure.

“Well, I don’t know what you were expecting” he said in a calm, business like voice, but “I gave you the max HR would allow.”

That comment stopped me dead in my tracks, “what was I expecting?” I couldn’t answer it. I really had no idea what to expect, all I knew was that I was that I deserved praise, an awesome reward, and hopefully a pizza party afterward. At least I got the praise.

I look at that situation now and I realize that I was subconsciously expecting some sort of championship trophy (in this case more than a 2.7% raise, and hopefully a promotion) when I didn’t get it, I reacted poorly and threw my own little version of a tantrum in which I went on to pretty much tell him that if I wasn’t going to be paid what I was worth, I would find a place that would pay me what I was worth.

Lucky for me I had a really cool boss and when I called later that evening to apologize for being an idiot he laughed, and understood that I was flying blind and had nothing to base any expectations on. In hindsight yes, my reaction was EXTREMELY stupid, and I really don’t know why I was expecting more, especially when I had already survived a layoff that year.

This experience has caused me to pump the brakes a bit on my expectation for praise and rewards, I still work to the best of my ability, and I still want a trophy, I just don’t expect one anymore.

What do you think being part of the “Trophy Generation” will mean for your career?

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Really… I am.  I can be anything I want to be.  A CEO, an Entertainer, an Olympic Gold Medalist; whatever I work towards I can acheive.

I was 5 years old when I first said that, and society reaffirmed me, you told me “yes, you can be whatever you want to be, you’re special.”  But now, because I’m in my early twenties, if I say those words, I’m cocky and arrogant.

For some reason when I grew up, my elders wanted me to throw everything they taught me out the window in order to conform and follow in their footsteps.  Blazing my own trail is now considered too risky, or stupid because I’ve crossed this “magical threshold” of being a teenager.  Dreaming, I now find out, is just for kids.  Now I must conform to what I have been “trained” to do.

What if I don’t want to do that?  Is it my fault that I still believe all of those things you and Mr. Rogers engrained in me?  Am I stupid for believing I can do whatever I set my mind to?

I don’t care if you think you lied to me about following my dreams, you didn’t.  You lied to yourself, because I am already changing the world, and blazing my own trail, you just don’t realize it.

I am Mark Zuckerberg, I am Shia LaBeouf, I am LeBron James, Michael Phelps, and Usain Bolt. 

I am Generation Y.

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