Generation World Loses a Champion 
They are ageless. Age does not define them...nor is it central to who they are.
They are empowered. They believe it's up to them to make their lives meaningful.
They are global citizens. Borders are for maps...their interest in other cultures is as important as their own.
They are self-directed. Success is about how you see yourself...not how others see you.
They are mobile. Not because of devices but because they believe that everyone has the right to live their own life, to lead their own life and get where they want to be.
They are evolving. They very much see themselves as a work in progress...ever changing...ever different.
They...are Generation World - a group we have been studying, following, researching over the past few years and in markets as diverse as the United States, China and Brazil. This is not your traditional or neo-traditional demographic - in case you haven't noticed, we still tend to define by age and such.
For example, we talk about Millennials...Slacktavists...Baby Boomers...Generation X, Y and Z...Generation Me...we bemoan the fact that young men are hard to find, and praise VICE for doing it so well. Yet Vice can't wait to make a deal with HBO - a clear understanding that its audience is way broader than a bunch of beer-drinking, bong-smoking guys...good for VICE...
What unites this unique part of our global population (about 29% of the world) is values - ideals they have in common, principles they share and beliefs that drive it all....
I have been writing and speaking about Generation World for a couple of years now...and we continue to expand our understanding of them...and I am proud to report I have converted many companies to following their impact.
However, what really brought it all home for me was the death of my Father-In-Law last week at the age of 86...he was truly representative of this cohort and in retrospect may have fueled and inspired my interest in it.
He was a diplomat; he wrote a book that was a best seller in its category...a personal history that was the foundation for two documentaries; he was an advisor to prime ministers; he knew presidents, prime ministers, cabinet members, senators and parliamentarians, royalty and he knew all of their advisors...his counterparts...
He navigated the corridors of power around the world and was equally at home in the maze of back rooms where the real deals are made....
He used Facebook and Twitter and email - to communicate with his worldwide audience of fans and maybe, more importantly, his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
And, yet, paraphrasing Kipling's famous poem "If" (fitting for reasons you will see), "He could talk with crowds and kept his virtue, and walked with Kings - and never lost the common touch."
Born Lawrence Hafner and raised in Manchester, England - he died Yehuda Avner in his beloved Jerusalem.
He saw himself as a "Yerushalmi" - a person of Jerusalem...not just from Jerusalem - and to him Jerusalem was the sum of all its parts - the raucous cacophony of the three religions combining in some otherworldly choral that sang to him...and on Saturday as I went to the Western Wall, early in the morning, the Muslim call to prayer, the bells of the churches and my own prayers united in tribute to his memory.
He was present for some of the most defining moments of the last century - possibly, most notably, the Accords between Egypt and Israel that, despite what the cynics have held, saved more lives than we will ever, thankfully, know...and he knew Anwar Sadat and his wife Jehan as friends...
And so it goes...knee jerkers...spare me...this isn't a political post...I stay away from them...
Rather, this is a tribute to my friend - who to me personified our new, always-on, digital, streaming, yaddayadda world - but who never let it make him shallow...rather, he was all about changing the world...making it right...
Yehuda Avner personified Generation World, and as I celebrate his memory, I celebrate what I can learn - age is irrelevant; we need to be empowered and as such to self-direct; don't get lost in hardware definitions...mobile means freedom; love and learn from the world and, most importantly, never...ever...be afraid to evolve and re-invent yourself - and understand that it's a never-ending process....
By the way, he got a kick out of VICE.
And in the words of Kipling - what I'd like to think is the true Mantra of Generation World and for sure a fitting tribute and memory to its Poster Boy.... Listen:
Can we ever ask to accomplish more?
Let's change the world...in the way that I think Generation World can...
What do you think?
P.S. And for the knee jerkers...read the quote in the nonsexist/nongender sense....
They are ageless. Age does not define them...nor is it central to who they are.
They are empowered. They believe it's up to them to make their lives meaningful.
They are global citizens. Borders are for maps...their interest in other cultures is as important as their own.
They are self-directed. Success is about how you see yourself...not how others see you.
They are mobile. Not because of devices but because they believe that everyone has the right to live their own life, to lead their own life and get where they want to be.
They are evolving. They very much see themselves as a work in progress...ever changing...ever different.
They...are Generation World - a group we have been studying, following, researching over the past few years and in markets as diverse as the United States, China and Brazil. This is not your traditional or neo-traditional demographic - in case you haven't noticed, we still tend to define by age and such.
For example, we talk about Millennials...Slacktavists...Baby Boomers...Generation X, Y and Z...Generation Me...we bemoan the fact that young men are hard to find, and praise VICE for doing it so well. Yet Vice can't wait to make a deal with HBO - a clear understanding that its audience is way broader than a bunch of beer-drinking, bong-smoking guys...good for VICE...
What unites this unique part of our global population (about 29% of the world) is values - ideals they have in common, principles they share and beliefs that drive it all....
I have been writing and speaking about Generation World for a couple of years now...and we continue to expand our understanding of them...and I am proud to report I have converted many companies to following their impact.
However, what really brought it all home for me was the death of my Father-In-Law last week at the age of 86...he was truly representative of this cohort and in retrospect may have fueled and inspired my interest in it.
He was a diplomat; he wrote a book that was a best seller in its category...a personal history that was the foundation for two documentaries; he was an advisor to prime ministers; he knew presidents, prime ministers, cabinet members, senators and parliamentarians, royalty and he knew all of their advisors...his counterparts...
He navigated the corridors of power around the world and was equally at home in the maze of back rooms where the real deals are made....
He used Facebook and Twitter and email - to communicate with his worldwide audience of fans and maybe, more importantly, his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
And, yet, paraphrasing Kipling's famous poem "If" (fitting for reasons you will see), "He could talk with crowds and kept his virtue, and walked with Kings - and never lost the common touch."
Born Lawrence Hafner and raised in Manchester, England - he died Yehuda Avner in his beloved Jerusalem.
He saw himself as a "Yerushalmi" - a person of Jerusalem...not just from Jerusalem - and to him Jerusalem was the sum of all its parts - the raucous cacophony of the three religions combining in some otherworldly choral that sang to him...and on Saturday as I went to the Western Wall, early in the morning, the Muslim call to prayer, the bells of the churches and my own prayers united in tribute to his memory.
He was present for some of the most defining moments of the last century - possibly, most notably, the Accords between Egypt and Israel that, despite what the cynics have held, saved more lives than we will ever, thankfully, know...and he knew Anwar Sadat and his wife Jehan as friends...
And so it goes...knee jerkers...spare me...this isn't a political post...I stay away from them...
Rather, this is a tribute to my friend - who to me personified our new, always-on, digital, streaming, yaddayadda world - but who never let it make him shallow...rather, he was all about changing the world...making it right...
Yehuda Avner personified Generation World, and as I celebrate his memory, I celebrate what I can learn - age is irrelevant; we need to be empowered and as such to self-direct; don't get lost in hardware definitions...mobile means freedom; love and learn from the world and, most importantly, never...ever...be afraid to evolve and re-invent yourself - and understand that it's a never-ending process....
By the way, he got a kick out of VICE.
And in the words of Kipling - what I'd like to think is the true Mantra of Generation World and for sure a fitting tribute and memory to its Poster Boy.... Listen:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
Rudyard Kipling
Can we ever ask to accomplish more?
Let's change the world...in the way that I think Generation World can...
What do you think?
P.S. And for the knee jerkers...read the quote in the nonsexist/nongender sense....
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