I am really excited to announce my involvement in XisHere.Com, a project that I have been working on for some time with the Ben Allan and Clara Chong from the Film Bakery.

We were inspired to create XisHere after we started talking about X was Here, a feature film script written by Clara about the journey of one Xer who was in danger of becoming obsolete – to becoming a reluctant hero to inspire a generation.

We are already underway in producing the proof of concept for what we believe will be a unique digital destination for Generation X.

There are 4.4 million Australians are in Generation X which is 21% of the population, born between 1965-1979. Surveys show two-thirds want to be thinner, 57 per cent live from week-to-week financially and 40 per cent worry about their families.

Those in Generation X are ageing, financially-aware, have young families, are the mainstay of the present workforce, consolidating position, worth and families, having grown beyond their opportunistic years, Y![1]

More will be announced over the coming months but in the meantime if the following sounds true to you, and you want to be involved in making a difference, please let me know!

I am Generation X- an Xer – and I’m skeptical, right?  I’m reluctant to say ‘I want people to be inspired’, but I do.

I grew up as part of the original latch-key generation, with both parents working and widespread divorce – the most under-parented generation in history.  I embraced grunge, good coffee and alternative music as a student, only to graduate during a time of corporate ‘downsizing’ and ‘restructuring’.  I am now part of the highest educated generation by age bloc to earn less than my parents at the same age – reversing a historical trend.  I’ve been called a cynical slacker, a grungy no-hoper…a baby busting McJobber – but I’m not.

In less than a decade, I’ve been hit with the boom then bust of the dot-com, two downturns, this latest one of the worst on record.  I’m scrambling to catch up after each downturn, but have never been able to get a firm foothold so whenever the upswing comes, I’m so far behind because they hit at such critical moments in my financial development that yet again Boomers and Generation Y profit, while I scramble back from the brink once more. 

Now, in my 30s and 40s, I beat myself up for not having made it.  I’m at an age where I should be in the prime of my life and career, stepping into crucial leadership roles and starting families.  Instead, I’m stressed, exhausted, and overwhelmed by debt.  Meanwhile, my government boasts about a booming economy – even though I can see for myself the reality is far from the truth by the sheer magnitude of my local shops and restaurants closing down or being shut down around me.

There’s an order to things.  Every generation is supposed to have their time.  Baby Boomers are supposed to be retired to make way for me.  They bought houses in their 20s because they bought 40 years ago.  Today, the average house price costs about seven years’ earning for the average worker.  Now Generation Y are nipping at my heels. Y’ers who have a strong sense of entitlement, a need for instant gratification and an apparent lack of any kind of filter – yet they live rent-free at home with their Boomer parents, so they can just buy…stuff and live out their reality TV lives. 

Generations are to Xers what gender was to the Boomer,  and race was to the Builders.   I’m fighting for equal rights.  I’ve had to work twice as hard as Boomers yet I’m constantly getting downsized and have to work double-time to prove myself.  I just want my due.    Google.  YouTube. Yahoo.  Wikipedia. Amazon.  MySpace.  I’ve done things that helped keep the world from sucking.

Unlike Boomers and Yers, I’ve never had much interest in the limelight and I resist the collective, but I don’t want to be treated like the forgotten middle child.  I want to connect and relate with the people around me.  I want to feel I am not invisible, that I am not alone in dealing with middle age, children, divorce, career-improving / career going backwards, dealing with older parents etc….

I want to know that I’m real and that I do in fact exist.  Success isn’t just defined by money.  True success can be gained by the legacy you leave behind.  I want to be successful.  And I want to leave behind a legacy of who I was and how I lived, so that my children will know and remember me.

[1] Referenced from changedrivers http://www.changedrivers.com.au/Articles/generational-change.htm