I Just Don't Buy It

Let's forget about the Warrens, Bills and Steves for a second.

The Tila Tequilas, Larrys and Sergeis, Toms and Marks of this world say it loud and clear: there is no reason, absolutely NONE, that can justify this. (And I mean it. See Harsh Letter.)

The world is different. Nine-to-five was the dream of my parents' generation, a world where you put in cubicle time (two-thirds of your adult waking LIFE!), hit the bar and made babies. All for a good pension, a nice house and a decent social life.

That's not a bad lot. But it's no longer the only option. What's more, the excuses people made to get us to defer our dreams, excuses like, "There's only one Warren/Bill/Steve and millions of failures," no longer hold water when today's success story icons are racking up faster than we can learn their names - and they're getting younger and younger.

If we're honest with ourselves, we can find an outlet for whatever we want to do - and with streaming video, podcasts, blogs, wikis and tagging having turned us into actors, producers, editors, deejays and journalists, we have unlimited access to our own self-marketing arsenal.

We just have to be willing to take risks and commit to them.

To those who'd prefer to roll with nine-to-five, making this choice will look completely insane. That's okay. You have to consider that if you're going to lay claim to a personal passion, the majority is naturally going to reject the gameplan. But is the majority right? Look at where the majority is. Consider what you want.

Why the rant? Oh, no reason really. Aside from that the MySpace Empress herself just opened a casino. Tila's only 24, and there's nothing she did to rack up her fame that is inaccessible to us.

So beloved self-entitled Echo Boomers (meself included), please let's stop bitching and pull ourselves together. We're the most educated generation the US has seen thus far. We're more tech-savvy than previous generations. We want things our way and we're vocal about it.

We have all the makings of success. All we need do is want it enough to shoot for it. That's it. That's it and the world is yours. Ours. Whatever. Take it.