Investing May 1, 2026 0 Comments

Why “Not Hungry Enough” Could Be the Silent Killer of Your Entrepreneurial Success—And How to Inject the Urgency You’re Missing

Ever wonder why today’s young workers seem to be turning their backs on what many would call “stable careers”? It’s a question that keeps popping up in boardrooms and coffee chats alike. Legal recruiter Lee Shulin alongside Edwin Tan from the Institute for Adult Learning recently dropped some real talk on a CNA show, unmasking a blunt claim: “They are not hungry enough.” Hunger—once the unmistakable fuel for climbing the corporate ladder—now seems to be interpreted differently across generations. As someone who’s watched the ebb and flow of workforce dynamics for over two decades, I can tell you, the story isn’t just about ambition fading—it’s about how we define value, grit, and growth in an ever-shifting landscape. So, are younger professionals truly less driven, or are the rules of the game simply changing? Grab a seat, because here’s the lowdown on what’s really going on behind the headlines. LEARN MORE

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Legal recruiter Lee Shulin was on this CNA show together with Edwin Tan from the Institute for Adult Learning to give their take on why young workers are walking away from stable careers.

Shulin voiced a very common complaint: They are not hungry enough.

She is not speaking for herself but most likely what the legal clients have been telling her. In a way, do you get that feeling since some of you are hiring yourself?

Very often, we would use the words “this generation ___ cannot make it.” but its important to realize that I also heard the same thing said about Millennials. I happen to sit at the edge of Gen X and Millennials and have been an employee for 21/22 years of my life.

What forms each generation’s world view is different and that influence what is important to each. I always felt that a life that you are worth fighting for should always motivate any generations. Its just that how each generation says it.

If you felt that this life is important, and you need money for it, then you jolly well go seek it.

It’s just that for the longest time, our way of showing value at work, is to work hard. Perhaps to a certain degree, there is a fair bit of over-delivery in order to be seen and get promoted so that you can get the money.

That is probably what the bosses’ are referring to. In the past, this looks stupid to many of us (especially when I was younger) because you see these older folks doing what seem like outdated/useless things when things can be more efficient. But the bosses just want to do it their way.

Overtime, I realize to mellow down that there is enough of “there is a reason why things are like this that I was not able to process then”, and for the rest, we change over time.

I think I have enough Millennials among my readers, and you won’t refer to yourself as not hungry. Some of you might make the same comment of the next generation. And so do you agree with me that its about how to systematically make them see how to climb the ladder. There is a story about whether compensation is worth it, and that is a story for another day.

But not everyone starts out being super aware how to deliver. There is a fine-line between taking advantage of younger workers versus instilling some you-need-to-get-your-shit-together-and-do-as-you-are-told-because-there-is-work-to-deliver.

Sometimes, they got to realize no company is perfect but you got to build up your skillset. If you go to another place, it can sound or feel rosy at first, but you might be subjected to the same old shit again. So learning to take shit, aside from providing feedback and potential solutions, keeping everyone’s morale high, is part and parcel of building skillset.

But if you come from a rich family and in your mind, you don’t feel like this sum of money is not worth fighting for because your family is rich enough, then that’s fair. If you don’t show any potential to be able to execute when it requires grit, then your employer would assume that you don’t qualify for something more. Unless you show enough resourcefulness that not everything is based on grit but its about looking at a problem with a more sophisticated lens and trying to solve the problem.

I guess if you don’t need the money, and don’t see a point of working hard, then a lot of these things breaks down. We going to have this more without societal reset.

The panel did also discuss about how underused our new skills are. We like to talk about going for training, upgrading, all these sort of stuff. But would we eventually use it or it’s more to meet corporate KPI?

A lot of the jobs are shit jobs where there is no way out. Sometimes it is because it’s part of a wider engine, that spans many departments. Even if your supervisor wants you to grow and incorporate things, other departments may not want to.

And so you will feel this is utter stupidity.

You feel less motivated to give more, wait for your bonus and leave. That is what higher performers do.

In a way, the new generation’s world view is different but we want them to have the same ethos traditionally.

But its whether some companies can meet them halfway there.

If the upper management doesn’t see this as a problem, that you need to improve if not there will be high turnover, then we are just going to have that.

But I wonder how the younger working adults realize that they now have a massive hill to climb. Companies are looking to stock pile the humans that are worth it still to have, when the rest can be handle by tech.

And if they cannot show that they are worth it to be stock piled then they are not going to get the same lifetime compensation charts as the previous view generations.

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