'Young & Ambitious', it is not what it seems

  “Today's young people no longer want to belong to an association.” You hear fifty-year-old men constantly shouting and honking. “Don't Wilders and Trump also bring together their millions of voters via Twitter?” You know, those angry white men between the ages of forty and fifty. In the first week of February, FHI organized an afternoon under the title 'FHI Young & Ambitious'. Indeed an association meeting for employees of the member companies who are not yet thirty-five years old. No, things didn't start immediately. The contact persons of the companies that are registered with the trade organization to receive the messages are expected to inspire young people within their company. But yes, those people are ten or twenty years older themselves and are convinced that young people have no need for this. One hell of a self-fulfilling prophecy… Nevertheless, the location was old, really old. A dilapidated glue factory, on the banks of the Schie, Delft, right next to the TU buildings. Tours of the University's labs were planned. You can't think of anything more nerdy. You really can't get an angry white man in there.     Then, in that cold old factory, playing games, serious gaming with Lego. Tell each other what mistakes you have made. You can't think of anything more corny. Oh yes, as a 64-year-old (!) I was allowed to organize and manage everything myself, a true caricature of Young & Ambitious.   The result? A wildly enthusiastic group of young people. “When is the next meeting.” “I would like to help organize.” About seven years ago the book 'Generation Einstein' was published. Was about this same batch. Wasn't even twenty at the time. The researchers noticed enormous social commitment among these young people. They were slightly older themselves, indeed the generation that is now forty/fifty, and wrote very honestly that they were a bit ashamed of their own generation. People in their forties and fifties, this text is not intended to write you off, put you in the corner or skip you. The message is just 'it's not always what it seems'.       By means of Kees Groeneveld, FHI