moralism

David Solomon is one of the most influential managers on Wall Street. Nobody gave him supposedjust as Solomon himself told in the graduation speech from students at the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania. The Goldman Sachs executive gained his position through hard work, washing dishes at McDonald’s and serving ice cream at an ice cream parlor while he studied. His story is that of rewarded effort, that of a young man who learned to squeeze every hour of the day and knew how to take advantage of it in the workplace. The problem is that, when that message is sent to the young people of Generation Z today, something doesn’t add up: the world in which Solomon built his career and the one in which Gen Z has had to live They look less and less alike. A lesson in time management. On the stand and before an audience of recent graduates, Solomon explained that as a teenager he played three sports, participated in his school’s student council and still found time to work serving ice cream at a local ice cream shop. Perhaps hoping for some financial help, Solomon told his father that, despite his dedicationhe never had enough money to cover his expenses. Instead of a loan, the millionaire manager got some advice from his father: “write down everything you do each day on a calendar.” In doing so, he realized that he was wasting a lot of his time. Three weeks later, with more order in his schedule, he had already found space for a second job preparing hamburgers at a McDonald’s. Solomon made that lesson the focus of his speech at Wharton, where he talked about embracing criticism and taking advantage of available opportunities. “Throughout my 42-year career, I have discovered that there are certain fundamental values ​​that transcend technological and cultural changes,” said the Goldman Sachs executive. Effort yes, but where are the opportunities? What Solomon did not mention in his speech is that the ladder that Solomon climbed during his youth, today has many more candidates and many fewer steps. According to a recent report of the recruitment platform Greenhousethe average number of applications per offer grew by 111% between 2022 and 2025, going from 116 to 244 applications per position. That is, for every job opportunity there are twice as many candidates. The writer, podcaster and professor at New York University Suzy Welch told in the podcast ‘Masters of Scale‘ conducted by Jeff Berman, that younger workers face the same intensive schedules and tough work demands as previous generations, but lack the assurance that hard work and the effort will reward them with progress in their careers. “We believed that if you worked hard, you would be rewarded. And therein lies the disconnection,” said the work motivation expert. The problem is not that young people do not want to work. According to the report ‘Turning the Tide on Economic Inactivity‘ prepared by the consulting firm PwC, 42% of young people aged 18 to 24 who left the labor market did so due to mental health problems, and the analysis ‘Keep Britain Working‘ from the British Government reveals that young people in the United Kingdom are almost five times more likely to be out of work. According to a report according to the Gallup consultancy in 2025, those under 35 years of age are now less committed than their older colleagues, something that has not happened since 2007. 78% of adults under 30 years of age also fear that artificial intelligence will destroy employment opportunities, compared to 45% of those over 65 years of age who fear for their jobs. A system that does not always reward effort. A Pew Research Center survey in 36 countries reveals that 57% of those surveyed believe that today’s children will grow up in worse conditions than their parents. In Spain the perception is even more concrete: 58% of citizens believe that young people are going to live worse than their parents, according to CIS data from 2024 collected by The Pluraland 84.4% consider that they have more difficulties than previous generations to become independent. 68.7% of young people between 18 and 34 years old lived with their parents or depended on their income in 2025, according to Eurostat data collected by The Confidential. A survey carried out by The Conversation collect the feeling of the young people of the generation that Solomon was addressing, who leaves statements from young people that put the current employment situation on the table: “We had a belief about what our life would be (…), which today is totally incorrect. At the cost of experiencing a great effort to train, the promise of work and economic stability is not fulfilled.” Those who already accumulate work experience are the most skeptical: “the social elevator has broken,” they conclude. In Xataka | Billionaire Mark Cuban has advice for Gen Z: “If you have time, use it to learn more about AI” Image | Unsplash (Marilia Castelli), Flickr (World Economic Forum)