What’s your D.R.E.A.M.?
I’ve captured the hopes of Generation Y (or Generation WHY) in an acronym…D.R.E.A.M.. To D.R.E.A.M. means to have one’s Desired Relationships Employment And Money. Most people have two out of the three, but they are missing the third. You may be making the money you want and have the relationships you want, but you hate your job. Or you have the relationships and job you want, but you aren’t earning the income you desire. And lastly, you can have the job and the money, but you don’t have the relationships you want. Each of us has a unique balance of these three elements that offers us our ultimate happiness, but the problem is most of us try to maximize all three at the same time. It’s like a juggling act—many people can only manage to grasp two at once.

To D.R.E.A.M. Awake
To D.R.E.A.M. awake means having your unique balance between the three—where everything is working together and you don’t feel like you’ve had to make tradeoffs. Whereas most people day dream at their day job or they only dream when they are asleep, dreaming awake means that you are fully alive and present in every moment. Your relationships with your significant other, family, and friends are strong (even if difficult). Your job is challenging you in a way that allows you to use your passions, solve problems, and serve people that you really care about. And your money is enough to do the things you want to do after work in the evenings, on the weekends, and when your career is over. For a member of Generation Y, their D.R.E.A.M. job will allow them to D.R.E.A.M. awake and like their D.R.E.A.M. life.

D.R.E.A.M. Job vs. Cream Job
Cream has two connotations—the cream of the crop and money. Generation Y values both, but not to the extent that previous generations did. Generation Y is less concerned with sexy job titles. Jobs that the older generation respects—teacher, doctors, lawyer, engineer—are boring to the friends of millennials. For them it’s not about income maximization—it’s about value maximization. They’ve seen their parents pursue the path of income maximization and they realize it’s not that fun, secure, or fulfilling. Instead, they would prefer to create their own jobs and focus on creating value instead of only capturing value (in the form of income) if given the freedom to do so by older micro-managers.

At the end of the day, millennials want to make meaning and money and they don’t want to feel split between the two. Any organization that allows them to do both will attract and sustain the best talent going forward.