Take the Shot

By nearly any measure, we live a far richer, far safer, and far healthier life than in any generation before us. Most, it seems, just don’t believe it. What they do believe are found in comments like these: • It is just too difficult to make it today. • I wish I lived during my parent’s time. • My parents had it so easy! • My aunt and uncle worked at the same company for 30 years, had company-paid retirement and health care, and had few worries about buying a home and sending my cousins to college. • Remember when you didn’t have to lock your door at night? • Everything is so expensive today! • Older people have so many more friends! • Everyone just seemed so happy on the older television shows! • What happened to the “good ‘ole days.” Sounds great. But is that really true? In some ways maybe; in many ways definitely not. First and foremost, not everyone – females and minorities, specifically – were allowed to share equally in gains in America’s rising standard of living. Secondly, previous generations had different needs and expectations, more often living within their means much more than the current generations. Consider these facts: the average home in the 1950s was 983 sq ft; today it’s 2400 sq ft (Kaplan, 2025). Or here’s another fact: the average savings rate in the 1950s was over 11%; in 2025 it is below 5% (USAFacts, 2025). In some ways, if not many, it is better today than it was in the 1950s, or even a century before that. This generation will live twice as long as those 100 years ago, have cleaner water and air, have healthier and more plentiful food, be able to travel throughout the globe, and converse with nearly anyone at any time in nearly any part of the world. So, it’s really not so bad. We just face different challenges. And we want more than previous generations. The concerns we face are unique to those faced in our parents’ and grandparents’ times. We face the possibility that our standard of living will not be as good as the ones before us. In a country where we are raised to believe that the “American Dream” means constantly and continually advancing your station in life, a reduced standard of living may seem unfathomable to some. But some statistics show it is real today. Consider that home-ownership rates have plummeted and college tuition has skyrocketed. More frightening is the prospect that by 2030 AI will eliminate 300 million jobs worldwide and automation another 800 million. Some of the jobs will remain but may be so severely compromised and diminished that they offer less value and security to those left behind. There are so many lessons to learn in this new era of challenges. Here is one undeniable, irrefutable, and unfortunate fact: if you want to “make it” in the chaotic and contentious world we live in today, you are going to have to do more. You are going to have to do better. That means you have to read more, learn more, know more, invest more, train more, experience more, and network more. It means you have to be more kind, more grateful, and more happy. That gives you the chance, and if you can develop and master the most important attributes, traits, and characteristics of those most successful today – an imagination to think differently, the guts to try, and the willingness to work hard – you can make it. That’s it. That’s what it takes. And all that starts with taking your shot.