Today I had coffee with a very successful, up and coming 25-30 year old. He is already successful and actually mentors others his age.

He has noticed something that worries him about some of his friends. “It is not uncommon,” he said, “for ambitious people of my generation, to have struck out on our own. But, many went after the get-rich-off-the-internet ideas. Try as I did, I could not convince them that if the money is too easy, it will NOT last. They said I sounded like their dad.”

“Well, now, competitors have arrived, and eaten their lunch. Instead of being able to apply the lessons learned and move forward, a lot of them have become bitter, and nearly anti-business.”

“It’s too bad,” he concluded.

It is too bad, but just a necessary part of the process. I think a failure like this creates a period of mourning or grief almost. It is a natural step…and one that has to be taken. The first step is “it must be them, it can’t be me.” After a period of reflection, most recognize that it is indeed “them,” and move forward.

Others never, of course, leave that stage and spend their lives lamenting how awful it all is, and how they got ‘screwed.’

Learn to recognize this in your own friends…console them when they are in their mourning stage, but true friends will see when it is time to tell the truth.

[tags]mentoring, mentoring twentysomethings, anti-business[/tags]