As I sat down and switched on my laptop, waiting to board my flight to San Francisco from Austin, I saw a group of young people, full of life, with their backpacks probably going for an adventure trip. When I turned around, to my surprise, most people around me were young millennials, reading books, few looking at their phones, some involved in group conversation, and others busy with their laptops. As I made this observation, a question spurred in my head: what is that separates us millennials from the rest of the older generations?

One thing that stands out to me is access to technology and how efficiently we are using it. When was the last time we went to a restaurant without looking at the reviews? We don’t dare to book hotels with negative ratings. We have stopped taking things at the face value, and we don’t get lured to advertisements easily. We as a generation shop from the biggest retailer Amazon which doesn’t own any items, and use the car service from Uber which doesn’t own a fleet. For us experience matters the most and owning things is now a thing of the past.

Having talked to other millennials, I have realized making money is no more a life goal. We don’t mind taking a pay cut and switching jobs for what we believe in. Freedom is more important than schedules, nobody wants to work 9am to 5pm, stability and prosperity are not in our vocabulary, owning a house and buying a car is not a reflection of status anymore, we love subscriptions and don’t want to pay for something that we don’t use, traveling and vacations are more important than ever before.

In few years, millennials will be the largest workforce. We prefer asking questions than seeking answers, experience over money, subscriptions over contracts, travel over settling down, change over constant, and freedom over stability.

All the baby boomers and Gen-x out there, are you ready to embrace us??