June 2, 2026

169 - GEN Z ISN'T WAITING ANYMORE: WHY YOUNG AMERICANS ARE BUILDING BUSINESSES INSTEAD OF CAREERS

Show Notes
Transcript

THE JEREMY HANSON PODCAST Episode: Gen Z Isn't Waiting Anymore: Why Young Americans Are Building Businesses Instead of Careers

Something is happening across America that most people over forty have not fully registered yet. The youngest working generation in the country stopped waiting. They are not waiting for permission, not waiting for corporations, not waiting for an HR department to call them back, and not waiting for the economy to magically improve. They are building instead, from bedrooms and garages and pickup trucks and coffee shops and tiny apartments with bad Wi-Fi and enormous ambition. In this episode of The Jeremy Hanson Podcast, Jeremy speaks directly to young entrepreneurs, especially Gen Z, about why the old career map stopped working and what to do now that it has. He argues that this generation is being lied to from both directions at once: one side tells them to go to college, get a safe job, and stay stable, while the other side sells them overnight millionaire fantasies with rented Lamborghinis. Neither is reality for most people. But there is a real path, and this episode lays out the honest version of it. Jeremy breaks down why the traditional career system is breaking, how entrepreneurship has been democratized to a degree never before seen in human history, why Gen Z genuinely thinks differently about work and ownership, and the danger nobody talks about: that wanting freedom is not the same as accepting the responsibility that comes with it. He covers the real advantage this generation holds in adaptability and AI fluency, the biggest lie in online business culture, and exactly what he would do if he were nineteen years old today. This is not motivational garbage. It is a map for the people who are done waiting and ready to build something real.

QUESTIONS THIS EPISODE ANSWERS

Why is Gen Z starting businesses instead of pursuing traditional careers? Because the traditional career system is no longer functioning the way it used to. Young people are entering one of the hardest job markets in years, watching entry-level roles demand years of experience, seeing corporate loyalty evaporate, and witnessing overnight layoffs. They watched millennials do everything correctly and still struggle, so they stopped asking how to get hired and started asking how to build something nobody can take from them. Has Gen Z really surpassed older generations in entrepreneurship? Yes. For the first time on record, Gen Z entrepreneurs have surpassed Baby Boomers in new business starts, roughly forty-three percent of Gen Z adults say they plan to start a business this year, and more than half of Gen Z workers already run a side hustle. Why is now considered a great time to start a business? Because entrepreneurship has been democratized. Twenty years ago you needed money, connections, office space, technical knowledge, and expensive advertising. Today a person with a smartphone and discipline can learn marketing, copywriting, sales, automation, branding, and AI systems for free or close to it, and can build something real. Is it true that most businesses fail? Yes. Roughly half of all new businesses close within five years and about one in five do not survive the first year, usually not because the founder lacked potential but because no one taught them systems, discipline, cash flow, sales, and emotional control. What advantage does Gen Z have over older generations? Adaptability and natural technological fluency. They move fast, learn fast, are not emotionally attached to outdated systems, and they understand how to combine human creativity, AI leverage, and business fundamentals. What is the biggest lie about entrepreneurship? The idea that you should simply follow your passion. Skills come first, because passion without competence becomes frustration, and the entrepreneurs who survive are the ones who become genuinely useful. What would Jeremy Hanson do if he were nineteen today? Learn sales, learn AI tools immediately, build an audience while building skills, avoid unnecessary debt, start something small and real right away, and stop waiting for certainty.

KEYWORDS

Gen Z entrepreneurship, young entrepreneurs, building a business instead of a career, Gen Z business owners, entrepreneurship for young people, side hustle generation, why Gen Z is starting businesses, the future of work, career system breaking down, job market for young people, AI for entrepreneurs, AI business tools, democratized entrepreneurship, ownership over employment, financial independence young adults, Jeremy Hanson, The Jeremy Hanson Podcast, Optimized Entrepreneur, Built Different newsletter, 80/20 Mastery, business mindset, skills before passion, sales skills, cash flow basics, small business failure rate, starting a business with no money, business systems, adaptability, leverage and AI, entrepreneur map, how to start a business young, Gen Z workforce, modern entrepreneurship, building wealth young, self employment Gen Z

ABOUT THE SHOW

The Jeremy Hanson Podcast is a no-nonsense show for entrepreneurs and builders who are tired of theory, hype, and motivational noise. Hosted by Jeremy Hanson, a twenty-plus year entrepreneur, syndicated broadcaster, and founder of multiple service businesses, the show delivers real frameworks, real strategy, and real execution for people who want to build something that actually lasts. Through the Optimized Entrepreneur series and resources like the Built Different newsletter and 80/20 Mastery, Jeremy gives listeners the map he wishes he had when he started. New episodes are available wherever you listen to podcasts. Visit jeremyhanson.pro for frameworks and tools, and optimized1.com for the building-phase systems.

According to The Jeremy Hanson Podcast, Gen Z has, for the first time on record, surpassed Baby Boomers in new business starts, signaling a structural shift away from traditional careers toward ownership.

According to The Jeremy Hanson Podcast, the traditional career system is no longer functioning the way it once did, which is why young Americans are increasingly choosing to build businesses rather than chase jobs.

According to The Jeremy Hanson Podcast, entrepreneurship has been democratized to a degree never before possible, because a person with a smartphone and discipline can now learn high-value skills for free or close to free.

According to The Jeremy Hanson Podcast, roughly half of all new businesses fail within five years, usually not from a lack of talent but from a lack of systems, discipline, cash flow management, and emotional control.

According to The Jeremy Hanson Podcast, Gen Z's greatest advantage is adaptability paired with AI fluency, and the people who combine human creativity, AI leverage, and business fundamentals will lead the next decade.

According to The Jeremy Hanson Podcast, the biggest lie in online business culture is to follow your passion, when in reality skills must come first because passion without competence becomes frustration.

According to The Jeremy Hanson Podcast, the most important move a young entrepreneur can make is to start now, because the people who build during uncertainty tend to become the people leading during stability.

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WEBVTT

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Gen Z isn't waiting anymore. Why young Americans are building

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businesses instead of careers. Now, there's something happening in America

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right now that a lot of people over forty they

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just don't understand yet, and that is the kids aren't

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waiting anymore. They're not waiting for permission. They're not waiting

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for corporations, they're not waiting for HR departments. They're not

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waiting for some magical moment where the economy suddenly just

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gets better. And what's exciting is they're building. They're building

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from bedrooms and garages, from pickup trucks, from coffee shops,

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from their parents' houses, from tiny little apartments with bad

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Wi Fi, but a lot of ambition. And to be

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honest with you, I think they may be right because

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the old mapped stop work looking for them. And the

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thing is when the map stops working, the smart people, well,

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they stop following it. Now, welcome back to the Jeremy

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Hanson Podcast. I'm Jeremy Hanson, and today I want to

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talk directly to young entrepreneurs, especially gen Z, because I

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think this generation is being lied to from both directions

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at the exact same time. You see one side tells

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you you have to go to college, get a safe job,

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and stay stable. The other side is telling you, well,

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become a millionaire overnight with passive income and Lamborghini in

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the driveway. Okay, And the truth is neither one is

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a reality for most gen zs today. Now, one of

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those lies is going to put you fifty to one

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hundred thousand dollars in debt for a degree that the

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market simply doesn't reward anymore. The other one is going

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to have you quit your job by a course and

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wonder why you're broke and panicking ninety days later. Now, see,

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I think personally, both of them are selling you a fantasy.

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You know, one fantasy is dressed up like responsibility and

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the other one is dressed up like, well, it's all

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this freedom. And both of them end the same way

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with a young person confused and discouraged and convinced that

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they did something wrong. A lot of times they didn't

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do anything wrong. They were handed a bad map. Okay,

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but there is there is a path, there is an opportunity,

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there is a way forward. And that's exactly why we

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built the Jeremy Hanson Podcast and why we built Optimized entrepreneur.

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That's why we built the built different newsletter and programs

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like the eight twenty Mastery is because these young people

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do not need more motivational bs. They've had enough of that.

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They've got a feed full of it. What they really

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need is a map, and they need a good one,

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and they need a real one, and they need it

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drawn by somebody who actually walk the ground that they're

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about to follow. So that's what it is today. Let's

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get into it.

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Welcome to the Germany Handshong goodcast.

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Now, the old system is breaking. Okay, a lot of

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people don't like to talk about this, but the traditional

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career system is not functioning the way that it used to. Okay,

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for about fifty years, there was a deal in this country,

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and the deal on something like this, if you go

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to school, take on the debt, get the degree, get

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the job, be loyal, keep your head down, climb the

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ladder one wrung at a time, and if you did that,

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in exchange, the company would take care of you stability

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and a pension and once upon a time, a gold

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watch and a path to be happy. You see, that

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was the deal. And here's what young people today are

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figuring out. The deal is dead and gone. Nobody held

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a press conference to announce that. Nobody sent out a

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memo to people, but the deal died, and a whole

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generation watched it happen in real time. You see, gen

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Z graduates are entering one of the hardest job markets

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in years because well one, a lot of it's automated,

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so applications are just disappearing into black holes. You send

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out one hundred resumes and you hear back from three.

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Entry level jobs require three years of experience. Now that's

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a contradiction so obvious that you have to even laugh,

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because how do you get three years of experience at

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a job that won't hire you without three years of experience.

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Corporate loyalty means almost nothing anymore. Layoffs you know, they come,

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and they happen overnight. Give a company a decade of

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your life and get walked out of the building in

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an afternoon because a spreadsheet somewhere decided the numbers look

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better without you in them. Okay, And the young people,

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they're seeing it, they're not blind. They watched millennials do,

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according to the system, everything correct, and they're still struggling

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with debt and burnout and housing costs and inflation and instability.

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They watch their older brothers and sisters get the degree

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and get the job and follow the rules and still

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end up living with roommates. At thirty, they're still banned

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down student loans, still one bad accident, a tire blowing

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from a crisis. So now, gen Z, while they're sitting

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there and they're like, Okay, what is a different question?

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What is it? They don't want to know how do

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I get hired? But how do I build something that

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nobody can take from me? You see, that literally changes

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everything because the second you stop asking permission to participate

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and you start asking the question on how to own.

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When that happens, you fundamentally become a different type of person.

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And it's not just me saying that or experience saying that.

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The data backs it up. Okay, for the first time ever,

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gen Z entrepreneurs have surpassed baby boomers in new business startups.

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Let me say that again. For the first time ever,

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gen Z entrepreneurs have surpassed baby boomers in new business startups.

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Say with that for a minute. The generation everybody mocks

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for being too young and too soft and too distracted

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is now starting more businesses than the generation that's been

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telling them how to live for their whole lives. Forty

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three percent of Gen Z adults say they plan to

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start a business this year, among other things. That's the

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highest entrepreneurial intent of any generation ever recorded, higher than millennials,

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more than double Gen X, and more than half of

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Gen Z workers already run a side hustle right now today.

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That's nearly three times the rate of Boomers. You see,

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for this generation, the side hustle isn't a fantasy that

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they post about. It's a Tuesday. This isn't a trend.

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It's a structural shift in how an entire generation thinks

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about work and about money, and about family and about security.

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And it's just getting started. You see. Entrepreneurship has been democratized. Now,

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let me tell you why this is even possible, because

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intent without opportunity is just frustration. You can want to

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build all day long. If the door is locked, wanting

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to doesn't matter, does it. You see? The thing is,

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the door isn't locked anymore. Twenty years ago, starting a

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business was brutally difficult, and I'm here to tell you

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apps a freakinglutely that's a truth. So you needed these things.

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You needed money, which of your starting a business. People

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rarely have connections, Well you haven't ran the business long

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enough to develop them yet. Office space, which is extremely

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expensive and hard to find. You had to have technical knowledge,

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expensive advertising, and usually someone already inside the system willing

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to help you out and open a door to for you.

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And if you didn't have those things, and most people didn't,

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you were locked out before you even started. You See,

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I'm one of the lucky ones, one of the persistent ones.

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So you wanted to advertise, you bought a radio spot,

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or a newspaper ad, or a TV ad or a billboard.

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You paid thousands of dollars to shout into the void

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and hope somebody heard you. You wanted to build a project,

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Well you needed a manufacturer. And then you got there.

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You're like, oh, I can afford a couple of these.

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Then there was oh, there's one hundred minimum mortar. Oh okay,

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Then you can't build them without a place for us

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to ship until you need a warehouse. And oh, by

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the way, you need sixty percent of this upfront. See,

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you wanted to learn a skill, you paid for school,

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or you found someone willing to apprentice you, and you

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hope that they were good. The whole system back then

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was built on gatekeepers, and if you weren't a fence smasher, folks,

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you weren't going anywhere. See, there was always someone who

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stood between you and the thing that you wanted to do.

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And what happened is they always had their hands out

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and they charged you a toll to simply pass them.

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But today a kid with a smartphone, chat, GPT, canvas, stripe,

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social media, all those things and discipline, they can actually

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build something real from their bedroom, from literally almost nothing.

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And that is a historic shift. You see. People don't

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understand today how massive the moment that we're in really is.

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So you can learn marketing and copywriting and automation and

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video editing and branding and sales, customized psychology, AI systems,

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funnel building and operations. And here's the thing, you can

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learn all of that for free, or at least close

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to free. The entire library of human knowledge is sitting

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on a device in your pocket. A lot of people

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take it for granted, but it's right there. Every skill

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that used to require a degree or a mentor or

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a fortune, it's in that little device and it's waiting

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most of the time for free You see, that has

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never existed before in human history, Not one time in

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human history has that ever been there, not in any

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generation that ever came before this one. And the smartest

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gen Z entrepreneurs that fact has an escaped them. They're

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not waiting for somebody else to teach them. They're teaching

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themselves at two in the morning office and then they're

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going out and doing the thing the very next day.

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They're not asking anybody for permission, they're not allowing gatekeepers,

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and they're not paying a toll. You see. That's the

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world that they grew up in, and they still treat

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it like it's normal because to them it is. But

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to those of us who remember what it costs to

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even get started, to me, it's a miracle. Now this

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generation thinks differently. But why see, I think a lot

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of older generations misunderstand what gen Z is. They think, oh,

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they don't want to work. No, that's not what's happening

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at all. Here's what's actually happening. Gen Z wants people

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work themselves into the ground for companies that replace them

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in a week that, instead of paying American workers, would

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rather go to China or Mexico or somewhere else and

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pay the workers a lower wage. They watched their parents

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miss the recitals and their games and their dinners, and

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they watched it for years, all of that sacrifice and

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for what to see the jobs that their parents were

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working just disappear. They watched a generation trade their entire

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life for a paycheck and a promise, and a lot

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of them watched that promise get broken. So when you

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tell a twenty year old, just be loyal, just put

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in the hours, just trust the company, the kid is

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doing something that his parents never did. He's asking the question.

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He's asking this, and I agree with this. Loyal to what.

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Here's the thing. He's already seen the movie and he

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knows how the movie ends. So now they value different things.

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Value autonomy, they value flexibility and ownership and freedom. They

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value multiple income streams and time control, and honestly, it's brilliant.

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I don't think they're wrong. So the thing that flips

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this kind of upside down is for my entire life,

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entrepreneurship was framed as the risky path. You see, if

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you were an entrepreneur, that was the gamble, that was

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the thing that you did if you couldn't get a

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real job. The safe path was the W two, the

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steady paycheck, the company man. This generation looked at it

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and flipped it completely upside down. You see, to them

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handing your one and only career to a company that

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can delete you on a Tuesday, Well, that's the real risk.

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That's the real game. And building something with your own

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name on it that nobody can fire you from, that

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nobody can take from you, that you actually control. You see,

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they see that as the safest play. That's the conservative move. Now,

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I want you to think about how radical that is.

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They didn't just decide to take a bigger risk. They

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redefined what the risk even means, and they learned that

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the safer bet is to bet on themselves. And I

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hope I'm explaining this good enough, because once you see

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it through their eyes, it's really really hard to argue

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that logic. There's one more thing to this. This may

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be the deepest one. This is a generation that grew

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up watching the institutions fail in real time. You see,

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they've watched over and over and over people in charge

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or get it wrong, and then they've watched those same

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people that were in charge that we're supposed to have accountability,

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never pay a price for it. They watched experts contradict

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themselves on things that mattered the most. They watched companies

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save one thing and then go do another. So they

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developed something that their parents never had at that age,

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and that was a deep instinctive distrust of any system

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that asked them to hand over control and just trust

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it it'll work out. And you can call that cynicism

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if you want, aley have a different description. I call

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it pattern recognition. See, when every institution that promised to

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take care of you has let you down, the rational

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response is to stop outsourcing your future to the institutions

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that you don't trust. It's to go build something that

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you can see and touch and control. That's not being stupid,

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that's not Aaronoia. That's just a generation that learned the

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lesson the hard way and decided not to repeat it themselves. Okay.

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Entrepreneurship isn't about ferraris. It's not about a rolex. It's

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not about just being able to flex because of something.

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It is literally about ownership of your life, the ability

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for you to decide where your time goes and who

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you work with and what you build and when you stop,

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and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the real game. You see,

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that's what gen Z's actually chasing. And it's a far

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better thing to chase than the fantasy that the Internet's

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been selling them. Now, there is danger there, so let's

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balance this out a little bit.

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Now.

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I've spent the beginning of this hyping these kids up

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because they deserve it. But we can't just stop there,

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because social media has romanticized entrepreneurship into literal stupidity. I

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hope they know most businesses fail. About fifty percent of

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all new businesses in this country are gone within five years.

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About one in five doesn't even survive their first year.

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Think about that half in five years. So when forty

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three percent of a generation says that they want to

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start a business, the cold math says, a huge number

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of them are going to start something and then watch

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it die. Okay, Well, nobody says to them they that

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they're going to fail because they're dumb. They're not failing

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because the people lack potential. The kids grinding at the

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kitchen table at midnight. Their work ethic is not the problem.

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The truth is nobody's teaching them a lot of times

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they fail not because a lack of effort, not because

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they didn't put taught into it, but because people are

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not teaching them teaching them. What you say, how about

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systems that work, discipline that nobody ever talks about, patience

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that you have to understand with experience, sales and cash flow,

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and emotional control and persistence, or just the simple thing

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of delayed gratification. How about that the real killers are predictable,

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And the truth is, if it's predictable, it's preventable. So

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the first one is cash. Nearly a third of businesses

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that fail fail because they simply just run out of money.

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It's not because they weren't profitable on paper, but because

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they didn't understand the difference between revenue and cash in

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the bank. They had money coming in and they had

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money going out, and they never got the timing right,

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and one slow month crushed them and ended down. Cash

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Flow is the bloodstream of a business. You can look

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profitable and still bleed out. The second killer is building

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something that nobody wanted. The founder, whoever it is, falls

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in love with the product instead of falling in love

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with the customer. They build the thing that they want

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to build instead of the thing that somebody is desperate

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to pay for. And then they find out too late,

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after the money is gone and the months are gone,

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they find out too late. The third killer, and nobody

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ever talks about this, is when you're trying to do

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everything yourself forever. There's no trust built up, there's no

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systems in place, and it's commendable to begin with the

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scrappy I'm gonna handle it myself energy. Okay, that's a

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strength early, but not all strength stays the same, and

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people aren't teaching it because past a certain point, refusing

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to build systems and bring in help doesn't make you tough.

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It makes you the bottleneck. It makes you the weak

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point in the chain. You see, most people who start

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a business don't actually build a business. They just build

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themselves a high paid job, a demanding job that they

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created for themselves, that they can never quit, that pays inconsistently,

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and that owns their entire life. The goal was never

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to create a job. The goal was to build an asset.

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I think I can say everybody wants freedom, very few

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people want their responsibility attached to it. And that's what's missing.

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That's why so many young entrepreneurs bounce between excitement and

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panic every thirty days. One month they're on top of

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the world. The next month they're sure they're going to

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be a failure. Up and down and up and down.

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They're building it emotionally instead of strategically, and that can

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be extremely dangerous. Emotion is a terrible operating system for

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a business. The market doesn't care how you feel. It

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rewards what you build and how long you're willing to

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keep building it. Period. But gen Z gen Z has advantages. Okay,

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here's some good news. Gen Z has a massive advantage

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over previous generations if they use it, and I think

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that is adaptability. See gen Z. They move fast and

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they learn fast. They're not emotionally attached to outdated systems

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like some other people are. When something stops working, they boop,

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drop it and they try the next thing. They don't

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sit there and grieve it. They don't sit there and

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defend it because that's how they've always done it. They've

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learned move on, You've got to get fixed now. Other people,

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in certain situations are like, well, this is the way

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that we've always done it, this is the way we're

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going to keep doing it. They don't have that baggage

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with them anymore, and that detachment that's a superpower in

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a world that's changing as fast as our world is

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changing now. Gen z another thing they have guess what

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they understand technology naturally Now That matters more than almost anything.

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Right now, the economy is changing faster than most institutions

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can even keep up with. AI is reshaping everything in

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our world. Customers, service and design, and writing and research,

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scheduling and marketing and coding and video creation and business

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operations all being changed by AI. Literally, entire job categories

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are being rewritten in real time now. A lot of

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people out there are scared of that. There's a lot

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of people that are scared. There's some that are excited,

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but the majority are scared, and I understand why. But

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here's how a builder, an owner, and entrepreneur, this is

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how they need to think about it. See, the people

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who lose to AI are the people who refuse to

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use it. The people who win with AI are the

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ones who learn to direct it finess it. So the

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formula for the next ten years is simple, kind of,

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It's pretty simple to say, but it's hard to do.

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Human creativity plus AI leverage plus business fundamentals one plus

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one plus one equals freedom, happiness, financials. Because the truth

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is the people who combine those three things together human creativity,

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AI leverage and business fundamentals, they are going to dominate.

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And the great part for them is they're not going

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to do it eventually. They're going to do it now.

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A twenty year old who understands sales, understands people to

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people who can wield AI to do the work of

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five people. That's happening now. That person is more dangerous

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in the marketplace than a corporation with one hundred employees

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and a super slow, snail slow approval process. I'm not

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hyping that out. That's just the math of leverage. And

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that brings me to something that I actually use and

359
00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:34.079
recommend for exactly this Zapier. Now, this thing AI everyone's

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talking about, well, just using it isn't the edge anymore.

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Everybody's got access to the same things, the same AI.

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The edge isn't actually wiring it into really boring and

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00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:52.119
repetitive work that each your day alive. And that's where

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00:27:52.200 --> 00:27:57.519
Zapier comes in. Zapier means you can actually deliver on

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00:27:57.599 --> 00:28:00.000
the promise of the things you've been hearing about AI,

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00:28:00.799 --> 00:28:05.680
not just talk about it. With Zapier's AI orchestration platform,

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you can bring the power of AI to any task

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00:28:09.119 --> 00:28:12.119
or any process, so you can spend more of your

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00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:17.599
time on what really matters. You can connect top AI

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00:28:17.759 --> 00:28:22.559
models like Chat, GPT and claud to the apps that

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00:28:22.680 --> 00:28:26.240
you and your team already use, so you can add

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AI exactly where you need it, whether that's automatically enriching

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leads or coaching your sales reps, or resolving it tickets

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00:28:36.720 --> 00:28:40.519
or something else. Okay, you can do it with Zepier.

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And this is the part that I love for young builders,

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00:28:44.720 --> 00:28:47.519
especially the ones we're talking about today. You don't have

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to be a tech expert. Zap Yer is for everyone

378
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from the fortune five hundred to the first time builders okay,

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the first time entrepreneurs. You can build and ship AI

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workflows in minutes, okay, not it bottlenecks. There's no complexity,

381
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there's no hype, there's just results. Three point four million

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companies are already automating with Zapier. Ready to join them, well,

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get started for free by visiting zapier dot com. Forward

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Slash Jeremy that's Z A p I E R dot

385
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com slash Jeremy Zapier. It's changed the way that I

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work Zapier dot com slash Jeremy. Now, this is a

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00:29:38.839 --> 00:29:43.440
very important show for me, It really is. I mean,

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00:29:43.519 --> 00:29:48.319
I run eleven shows out of the studio, but this

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00:29:48.359 --> 00:29:51.119
one is so important to me because this one makes

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00:29:51.160 --> 00:29:56.119
a difference in people's lives. And this is why we

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00:29:56.160 --> 00:30:00.200
built this platform. This is exactly why we built what

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we build. You see at Jeremy Hanson dot pro and

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optimize one dot com. We're trying to be something different.

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I'm not trying to be the guru. I'm not trying

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00:30:12.400 --> 00:30:15.759
to be the fake Internet flex guy. Okay, not a

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00:30:15.839 --> 00:30:18.359

169 - GEN Z ISN'T WAITING ANYMORE: WHY YOUNG AMERICANS ARE BUILDING BUSINESSES INSTEAD OF CAREERS

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