The Issue of Entitlement

As the end of another school year approaches, I can’t help but think of all of the young people who will be graduating from school and heading out to join the workforce. The sad reality is that many of them will hit the ground running with the belief that they are entitled to a great paying, high level job just because they now have a degree. They have been led to believe that if they graduated from a certain university or have obtained a master’s degree, they can work wherever they want and can walk in the door in a position of leadership with a salary to match. But, the part that I don’t understand is how these young people have acquired such a belief system.

“I feel sorry for every person who believes that they are entitled to things in life without having to work for or contribute to them. “Barbara Jacoby

I am aware that such thinking has infiltrated the politics of the current times. I have even seen a recent proposal again that would entitle high school students to receive free higher education. But, for me, that is taking things a bit too far and I have many reasons for feeling this way, not the least of which is that we are not even doing a very good job of educating students through high school. Many students who graduate can’t even read. The philosophy of the school may be that they don’t want anyone to fail as it would ruin their self-respect. But, the reality of life is that we don’t always win, we don’t always succeed in our endeavors and certainly, we don’t always come out on top and the greatest lesson is that when we do, we know that we earned it. If we don’t come out on top, we can still learn from our mistakes and try again to reach whatever our goal may be.

No person coming out of college even with a master’s degree or doctorate degree should believe that they have earned the right to be at the top. While they may have succeeded in their book learning, there is another whole realm of the workplace that needs to be learned. For many, it may be easy if they have learned how to respect others along the way in their lives but for many who have only a sense of entitlement, they are not in a position to understand why they may have to work for someone else who will have control over their work and workplace. After all, even those who complete medical school have to do a residency before being allowed to be in charge.

There is one more thing that I find to be of primary importance for anyone in life and that is nothing is ever as rewarding as obtaining those things and goals for which you really had to work. This applies not only in the workplace but to every aspect of life. My parents had 3 of us in college at one time and my father told us that if we really wanted to have a college education, we had to find jobs during the summer and all the money that we earned had to go into the college fund. That was the way that he would know that we really wanted to receive that additional education and he would help us with the cost from that point forward.

It was the best thing he could have done. Not only did we prove that we valued that college education but we also learned the value of a dollar and had more respect and pride in ourselves for that accomplishment. We also learned how to conduct ourselves in the workplace, how to respect the authority of our bosses and how to understand that you work your way to the top rather than starting there. I feel sorry for every person who believes that they are entitled to things in life without having to work for or contribute to them. Those people will never have pride in themselves for their own accomplishments and that is one of the most important things to have happen throughout our lives.