I Find Myself Disagreeing with Adam Grant
Last week on LinkedIn, he said people shouldn't ask kids "what do you want to be when you grow up?"
Last week, in a well followed post on LinkedIn, Adam Grant wrote this:
"We shouldn't ask kids what they want to be when they grow up. It encourages them to define themselves in terms of work."
Of course, childhood is fleeting. And we should guide our children to form meaningful friendships, fully explore the world around them, and play.
We shouldn't prepare our children in Kindergarten or pre-school to be stressed out like their parents, disengaged from professional work done in a workplace that can turn toxic.
But when you ask a four or five-year-old child "what do you want to be when you grow up?" they are not thinking about some detailed job spec or future career prospect. They are dreaming glorious dreams about doing fun things.
And here's what I mean:
Back when I was little, I stunned my mom when I shared my answer to teacher's question, "Danny, what do you want to be when you grow up?"
Without a beat I said "I want to be a garbage collector!"
[Mic drop.]
So why did young me say that? It's because, each Wednesday morning, from my bedroom window over our home's garage and driveway, I watched as the garbage truck pulled up. Two very happy guys jumped off of the back. They grabbed the trash cans my dad left on the curb, emptied the contents, and dropped them back onto the driveway apron. The two guys laughed big laughs and back-slapped each other.
I saw what they did as work that's fun to do.
Sure, it didn't register with kiddo me that that job of working on the business end of a smelly garbage truck was probably an awful and, at times, demeaning way to draw a paycheck.
Likely, those two garbage collectors were extremely well-lubricated with liquor to get them through the monotony of their day's work.
But to four or five year-old me, they seemed to be having loads of fun. And fun was what life was all about.
Where I think Adam's thinking does become cautionary is much later on in a child's life, when they are middle schoolers. It is then that the stress of a future career takes shape: standardized tests, AP courses, coding academies, early college explorations, et. al.
We should encourage kids that are of middle school age to explore their futures, joyfully. There are no right or wrong dreams for them to have.
And, we should help them build on their earlier enjoyed dreams of futures doing work they think they may love.
As I grew, I moved on from trash collection to considering work as an architect, then as a news reporter, then as a TV producer, then in advertising. My first career chapter involved executive work in the ad agency space.
When those Gen Alpha and Beta kids enter the workplace, may they aspire to a work fit where work becomes a wonderful part of their day doing other wonderful things.
When that happens our best days lie ahead.
Image based on our prompts rendered on ChatGPT 4o.