The millemma of the millennial legacy (and why we need to smash the millennial stereotypes)

This morning, I spoke at TEDxSydneyYouth. It was an amazing experience, and I have a selfie to prove it. I’m sharing the transcript here for anyone who, like me, believes we need to change the stereotypes around millennials and start acknowledging their power to shift the future.

My TEDxSydney Youth Talk

When I told my wife I was going to do a TED talk on millennials, she suggested I come on stage with a loaf of gluten free bread and an avocado and smack them together to make smashed avocado, but we settled with me promising I would do an Ellen selfie with everyone.

I’m a millennial, 75% of my customers are millennials and I am here to set the record straight about us.

I am a 27-year-old serial entrepreneur which basically means I have never had a secure pay cheque and always hustled to try make one for myself. When I was 19 at university, I managed to sell the most jewellery on eBay in Australia and thanks to that experience I went on to co-found a business called Afterpay which is changing how millennials shop in Australia.

A bit over two years ago when we launched, we had less than 10 retailers and a couple thousand customers – now we have over 7,000 retailers, over 1m customers and process annualised sales through our platform of over $1b.

When building my business, I believed that if I could drive high scale millennial adoption it would drive mass adoption, and I am privileged to watch first-hand how millennials influence the older generation to drive mass market adoption – we are the early adopters and we educate and influence older generations. We actually shift society.

Being 27, I am smack bang in the middle of the millennial generation, millennials being aged 18 to 35, and fit the profile to a tee. As much as I enjoy a laugh at the expense of our generation, I also want to challenge these stereotypes because they often distract from the conversation we should be having about the legacy millennials will leave the world.   

We are fast paced and intuitive, but sometimes this instant gratification gene may get in the way and prevent us taking the time certain scenarios deserve. Millennials are changing the world and leaving a legacy, but is it the legacy we want to leave?

I want to introduce the concept of “millemmas” – the millennial dilemmas facing us all today. Millemmas are life’s big little problems.

MILLEMMAS (definition) - When the everyday hurdles of older generations are experienced by a person from the millennial generation.

"She wants to save money, but she also wants to explore different cultures around the world while skiing in Japan for 6 weeks.”

Millemmas are real! You need to be in the millennial club to understand they are serious.

I saw something fantastic on Instagram a few days ago, it said “there should be a millennial edition of Monopoly where everyone just walks around the board paying rent, no one actually buys anything”. This is a serious millemma.

As a millennial, I’m sure you can appreciate the funny side to the stereotypes that get thrown at us.

Sure, like any emerging generation, millennials are guilty of many things. We have our generational quirks and our superficial side. But the stereotypes about our generation have opened us up to outright character assassination at times.

 This frustrates me, because more than any other generation in history, millennials have an opportunity to create deep, lasting and positive change. It’s time to stop being the generation that gets written off and become the generation that re-writes history.

Let’s dive deeper in to our everyday millemmas.

MILLEMMA #1: INSTANT GRATIFICATION?

Ok, let’s be honest here. We are absolutely guilty of this. We live in the moment and live for instantaneous gratification. I’m not going to lie – I’ve been in an Uber on the way home and may have ordered Uber Eats, and it kind of felt like I was in a real life game of Nintendo Mario kart.

We have grown up around technology evolving at an incredible pace, where we were always the first adopters. And social media has driven real time public feedback. We live for our 5 star Uber rating and 50 Instagram likes.

Looking at the positive side, I believe this means we are incredibly instinctive, intuitive, decisive and trust our gut. We make quick decisions and the world provides us with immediate feedback of whether or not the decision was the right one. We fail fast and are always learning.

MILLEMMA #2: IRRESPONSIBLE?

This is an outright myth.

Did you know that two out of every three transactions in Australia are on a debit card, not a credit card? 90% of my transactions through Afterpay use a debit card, not a credit card.

Millennials are said to be irresponsible with money however our own data as well as broader research says the absolute opposite is actually true and they would prefer to spend their own money and use a debit card. Millennials use a debit card because they feel responsible – they are spending money they have. When the GFC hit, the middle millennial, being myself, had just turned 18 and it sent a shock through the cohort, and sent debit card payments in to rapid growth. We all saw what unfolded and deciding spending our own money was the right approach.   

Millennials are very responsible.

MILLEMMA #3: ENTITLED & DISLOYAL?

This is my favourite misconception. Millennials are ridiculously loyal, and actually vocally loyal, to brands that deserve our support. Brands which hold extreme customer centricity and make us feel special received the loyalty they deserve. But, the bar to loyalty is high, very high.

I swear I had absolutely nothing to do this, but our customers created a group on Facebook called We love Afterpay – and it now has over 100,000 members.

Or let’s use the example of entitled millemmas in the workforce – “you want to have a long and rewarding career, but you haven’t been given enough responsibility or promoted for months.”

Many employers look at this as a sense of entitlement and impatience. Don’t get me wrong, yes, it must be managed but this entrepreneurial spirit is incredible.

When you think about the economic environment which millennials have grown up – we have never experienced a proper downturn or high unemployment. We have never struggled to get work. In fact, because we came in at the perfect point of technology advancements where we were the early adopter, so we were actually a highly demanded resource. Our upbringing economic environment perfectly fostered a confident entrepreneurial spirit where millennials want to be challenged day in day out. We want to make a difference.

A number of high profile social commentators have been very vocal about millennials in the workforce, saying we’re driven by free food and bean bags, and that we are social media addicts, who are hopelessly entitled, because our parents have inadvertently destroyed us. My parents encouraged me to negotiate, to find angles, to make things happen. I was rewarded for challenging the status quo and for speaking my mind.   

Here’s what I think – I think millennials have serious grit. Call it disloyal or entitled if you want to. But we have perseverance, a mindset which can’t be taught or trained. It has developed through a coming together of a perfect economic environment and being at the forefront of the technology revolution. We will run through walls to get something done if it is a purpose we truly believe in.

Who are the early adopters in all businesses which have completely shifted society in recent history? Millennials. The social media revolution, the shared economy revolution and the video or music streaming revolution – they are all millennials. Millennials are the early adopters and they influence the older generations to educate and encourage them to engage with new services which make life more enjoyable.

Millennials are now coming into their perfect point of power. We are not the new kids on the block any more. We are no longer the people the older bosses are complaining about – we are the bosses.

Did you know that millennials are currently Australia’s largest population cohort and in just over 10 years time will earn two out of every three dollars of income in Australia?

Just let that sink in for a second. It is incredible but also a little scary. Millennials hold all the power right now. We are changing society every day through our instantaneous gratification decisions.

What we need to do is pause instantaneous gratification for a second and think hard about the legacy we want to leave.

THE BIGGEST MILLEMA – THE MILLENIAL LEGACY

Without a doubt, the biggest millemma is us as a group deciding what legacy we want to leave. We need to take a moment to breathe and actually think through the mark we want to leave on this world.    

Our decisions over the next five years are going to shape how society remembers the millennials, and I know that I sure want to make it a mark which is remembered for centuries.

My inspiration for avoiding a corporate job and creating my own destiny was the legacy I want to leave – I want to build products which improve people’s lives so much they think ‘how did I live without this?’. 

But beyond that, I would love to be part of helping us millennials to shake off the stereotypes and be known for all the right reasons. I want my legacy to be making sure millennials leave the legacy we deserve to leave. Let’s be known for grit, for perseverance, for applying our skills to make a real difference.

Over the next decade the world will be faced with incredibly important decisions – decisions which will shape society for the next fifty years. Decisions such as climate change policy, inequality and an aging population.

These are true millemmas. Guess who's going to have to make those decisions? We are – Millennials. The world is empowering us with their future, let’s turn our millemmas in to opportunities and make sure we leave an incredible legacy. 

So if I can finish by asking you one thing – please think hard about what legacy you want to leave on this world.

Your time is now.