Why Entitlement Is Destroying Our Younger Generation

Comfort is easy; peace is earned. We take a hard look at the gap between what many expect and what life actually rewards, and we do it without fluff. From a fiery exchange over capitalism and guaranteed outcomes to the day-to-day reality of raising kids who understand effort, we unpack why standards, discipline, and resilience still win—especially when the world tempts us to coast. The thesis is plain: results reflect effort, and the fastest way to lose yourself is to seek rewards without rigor.

I walk through a debate clip where young voices argue for handouts and security as a right, and then I counter with what anyone who has built anything knows—focus over years, the willingness to fail, and the humility to learn. We step back to history for perspective on hard work and survival, then bring it home with practical parenting moments: tying treats to effort, teaching emotional control, and giving kids language that fuels persistence instead of quitting. The lesson scales from the mat to the marketplace—small choices compound into identity, and identity drives outcomes.

If you’re tired of doom headlines and finger-pointing, this is your reset. Presidents change, markets cycle, algorithms churn; your standards are the constant. Show up grateful, do work that matters, and repeat long enough to feel the deep relief of living aligned with your values. That’s where inner peace comes from—not from participation trophies or perfect conditions, but from honest effort and the courage to strive. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with someone who needs tougher love and higher standards, and leave a quick review to help more people find it.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
And so now we're living in the time of weak men
that are gonna create hardtimes.
Like this younger generation,they're gonna create such hard
times for themselves if theydon't learn how to have urgency,
be resilient, work hard, havethe right mindset, have
ambition.
Like I talk to a lot of youngpeople, and it's like the
freaking lights aren't on.
What's going on upstairs, man?
They're not really attuned towhat's reality.

(00:22):
And that's again because we livein soft times right now.
Times are so easy.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Unstoppable Mindset
Podcast.
I'm your host, Sean Crane, andI'm grateful that you're here
for this message today.
Check it out, you guys.

(00:42):
There's no handouts in life,nothing's gonna be given to you.
Everything that you truly want,from the money in your bank
account to the body to the innerpeace that we're all seeking,
must be earned.
And one of the biggest problemsI'm seeing in society right now
in America is that these youngpeople are entitled, they're
spoiled, and they don't knowwhat it really takes to create

(01:03):
success in their lives.
The reason I bring this up is Iwas watching a podcast with
Patrick Bett David, and he wasbasically debating with people
who are anti-capitalists, right?
People who are maybe they'resocialists or communists, I
don't know.
They're all these young people,and a lot of them had purple
freaking hair, piercings intheir faces.
A lot of the guys seemed superfeminine.

(01:23):
Check it out.
There's this weird thing goingon with the people that oppose
like strong men or masculinityor capitalism.
Most of people that oppose uhthose characters and those
characteristics, they're they'redifferent, man.
And different, not in a way thatrepresents like strength or
success or prosperity.
Like they're not people that Iwould want to follow, you know?

(01:45):
And like, where are theylearning this stuff from?
Where are they beingbrainwashed?
Why are why are these young men,why do they sound and look so
feminine?
You know, why are these peopleso confused?
And gosh, a lot of them arebeing manipulated at college.
They're being, you know,indoctrinated by their
professors on these campuses,those same campuses that Charlie

(02:06):
Kirk was going to wake peopleup, like these young people are
being massively manipulated, uh,almost to like hate America, to
hate capitalism, to hate strongmen.
You know, they all believe thatlike strong, wealthy white men
are crooked and evil and bad.
And it's like, do you have anyidea what it takes to actually
grow a business and to becomesuccessful?
You know, when I was younger,I'd hear people talk about like

(02:27):
uh Donald Trump or uh, you know,now people talk about Jeff Bezos
or Elon Musk, all these wealthypeople.
And immediately they assume thatlike they're evil and they've
done all these bad things toaccumulate their wealth.
Here's the truth maybe somewealthy people did do bad
things, maybe they did burnpeople.
Maybe they are shady, but Inever thought of it that way.
Initially, I always thoughtabout how do they get there?

(02:49):
What do they do to reach thatlevel?
Because anyone knows who's growna business or created wealth,
like it takes so much effort andfocus for such a long period of
time to amass uh a large amountof wealth or to build a
successful business, right?
But anyway, back to my point,like I was watching this clip
with Patrick Bett David andthese young people, and one by
one, they were coming up to himto debate capitalism and why

(03:11):
they felt capitalism was wrong,you know, and they were trying
to use uh all you know all theseuh different anecdotal stories
or all these differentviewpoints about communism and
socialism.
And one of the guys, one of theguys stood up and he goes, Yeah,
we live in America, uh, youknow, life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness, right?
He quoted that.
And Patrick Beck David goes,Wait, so you think you're born

(03:33):
here?
Like you should just gethandouts?
Because the guy was basicallysaying we should all have free
health care, you know, we shouldbe able to make an abundance of
money doing pretty much any joband be rewarded for just minimal
effort, and everyone should justhave, you know, uh like pretty
pretty much everything theyneed.
And dude, this guy is sodelusional.
He doesn't realize just untilrecent times, the last 20, 30,

(03:56):
40, 50 years, maybe 100 years,most human beings every day had
to get up and kill what theyate.
Meaning it was pure survival,you know.
You were you were in puresurvival mode.
You know, people during the likeagricultural times, right?
They had farms and they had uhlivestock and they they grew
their own vegetables and likethe land sustained you, right?

(04:18):
You had to grow those crops, youhad to work hard every day to
harvest those crops.
Uh, you had to tend to yourlivestock, you had to, you know,
um kill cows and and you had toum you know skin the meat and
and prep the meat and store themeat and make sure it didn't go
rotten and like you had to raisechickens and go collect the eggs
and all this stuff.
Like every day was hard work.

(04:40):
Most of society, you know,historically has had to work
really hard every day just tomaintain.
And it's so crazy you have theseyoung people growing up in the
freest country in the world inthe most abundant time ever.
And they don't realize that wegot to this point by people
working hard tirelessly,tirelessly, uh, to create a

(05:02):
society where they have suchadvantages and opportunities.
But a lot of people are takingthat for granted to the point
where now they're condemning theexact system, capitalism, you
know, the United States ofAmerica, the constitution, the
morals, the values, and beliefsthat this country was founded
upon, right?
They're condemning that thatfoundation and like like the
forefathers that created thisbeautiful nation.

(05:25):
They're condemning those waysnow.
You know, it's just they're sonaive, man.
And I think this is because theygrew up in easy times and the
you know, the cliche statement,right?
Like easy times make hard men,hard men make soft times, and
then it goes back round andround and round, right?
Um, and so now we're living inthe time of weak men that are

(05:45):
gonna create hard times.
Like this younger generation,they're gonna create such hard
times for themselves if theydon't learn how to have urgency,
be resilient, work hard, havethe right mindset, have
ambition.
Like I talk to a lot of youngpeople, and it's like the
freaking lights aren't on.
Like, what's going on upstairs,man?
Like they're not like they'renot really attuned to what's

(06:06):
reality.
And that's again, because welive in soft times right now.
Times are so easy.
And so I was shocked when Iheard this guy try to like
counter Patrick Bed David'sargument about why capitalism
and a free market is soimportant, by saying, No, we
live in the land of, you know,um, what did I say a second ago?
I said um, I forgot what I said,but basically like the land of

(06:28):
the free, right?
With liberty and like basicallyabundance.
Like he just wants things handedto him.
Um and so what I do with mychildren every day is I talk to
them about what it takes toactually be successful.
I I'm instilling into them theright belief systems right now,
the right habits right now.
Scarlet six, Preston's four,Mason's 15.

(06:49):
Every day I'm talking to themand sharing with them the truth
about what works in life and theway life is.
You know, and the other day wewent to my son's martial arts
class, Preston, who's four, doesKrav Magah.
And at this age, they're notdoing a bunch of hand-to-hand
combat and stuff like that.
It's more of like teaching himhow to pay attention, how to
have discipline, uh, how to dopush-ups, how to do sit-ups.

(07:09):
Then they do obstacle coursesand have fun.
He has a great time.
He does it twice a week.
But the other day, him and thisother boy were goofing around as
they were supposed to be inline, paying attention to their
instructor.
And so after Crow Maga, hewanted to get like a little
treat or a snack.
I'll take him to 7-Eleven or 76and get him.
He likes Pringles.
I'll get him a little box ofPringles.
That's like his reward everyonce in a while.
And he said, Dad, can we go uhto the snack store?

(07:32):
He calls it the snack store.
Can we go to the snack store,Dad?
And I said, No, Preston, we'renot gonna go.
And he goes, Oh, but why, Dad?
Why?
And I said, Because you didn'tgive your best effort in Craw
Maga.
I saw you jok uh joking aroundand goofed around with that
other boy.
I said, It's okay to have fun.
That's what you're there to do.
But when your instructor istalking to you, you got to pay
attention.
And he goes, I know, I know.
And I said, Do you think yougave your best effort?

(07:53):
And he goes, No, I didn't.
And I said, So that's why you'renot getting the Pringles,
because in life, you don't getrewarded when you don't give
your best effort.
I told him, when you're younger,you have parents to take care of
you.
And, you know, your schoolteachers look after you, grandma
and grandpa, you have familymembers, and you know, life's
pretty easy as a kid.
But as you get older, you're notrewarded if you give bad or or a

(08:14):
lack of effort.
You know, your your rewards oryour results in life are a
reflection of the effort thatyou put forth.
So I'm always instilling thisinto my children.
I'm always telling them each andevery day, best attitude and do
your best at everything thatcomes across your plate, right?
Meaning, whatever you're doing,give your best effort.
Do it to the best of yourability.
Every day, I reiterate thismessage to them because that is

(08:36):
what's gonna give them theability to achieve a great life.
It's knowing that, hey, theharder I work, the more effort
that I put forth, like that'swhat's gonna give me places in
life.
No one's gonna give me stuff.
There's no handouts, you know,participation trophies and all
that crap.
We're done with that stuff.
You should not get rewarded fornot giving your best effort.

(08:57):
Like, if you're in a leagueplaying sports and it's
competitive and you get seventhplace, you shouldn't get a
trophy.
Okay, because what that teachesyou is like you're gonna get a
reward no matter if you getfirst place in life or last
place.
And that's a really bad messageto share with a young person.
It's okay to have a little teamparty after, give them some
pizza, let them play around.

(09:17):
Hey, great season, you guys,give people high fives.
You know, I love the way youshowed up.
You got better each game.
I saw improvements in all ofyou.
Next year we're gonna go out andget first place, right?
Set that standard for them.
And this is what good coaches,fathers, leaders, and men in
society need to do.
You need to raise the standardfor young people.
And not in a way that's gonna beoverwhelming for them and
overbearing, but in a way that'sgonna help them to grow to reach

(09:39):
their potential in life.
Always painting the picture oflike, hey, if you want stuff,
you can have anything you youwant in this life.
You can achieve anything youwant, but you have to try harder
and you have to be uh resilientand relentless.
And here's the thing kids getdiscouraged.
Like a lot of times, mydaughter, she'll be doing
something, she'll like flop onthe ground.
She's like, Oh, it's so hard,dad.
I can't do it right now.

(10:00):
And I always tell her, you know,two things.
Number one, if you believe youcan't do it, you won't.
And we had this talk thismorning.
I said, the words you speak toyourself and about yourself or
the words you speak out loud areso powerful, they become true.
So I said, every time thatyou're going through something
that's hard or difficult, don'tsay I can't do it.
Take a moment, you know, take alittle break and say, like,
okay, I'm gonna try again, orI'm gonna keep trying until I

(10:22):
get it right.
And one thing I've alwaysinstilled in my children is
like, we never quit or give up.
We never quit or give up.
We never quit or give up.
So even when times are tough,you know, they can persevere
because they have thatinternalized belief.
Now, the second thing is I tellher, like, hey, if you get angry
or upset or emotional in asituation, it's gonna make it
worse.
You know, teaching thememotional control and
self-control at a young age isvery important.

(10:43):
We all get discouraged at times,we all get upset.
But if you allow that to defeatyou and stop you in your tracks,
are you gonna get what you wantin life?
No.
Right?
So, again, these are things thatI'm teaching my kids at a young
age, but these are things that Isee a lot of adults and young
people lacking, man.
It's like you don't work hardand you expect to just have all
these results, and then you wantto blame the government and

(11:05):
society and inflation and theeconomy.
Dude, it's so easy to win inlife if you just work hard for a
long period of time.
Like it doesn't matter who'spresident, okay.
You live in freaking Americawhere you have unlimited
opportunities, unlimitedopportunities right now.
Okay.
So it doesn't matter who'spresident, doesn't matter really
about the economy, dude.
Like you haven't been through adepression.

(11:27):
You haven't, I haven't, right?
You might have been through acouple mild uh recessions in
your lifetime, but even duringthose times, you can find a way
to win and to make money and besuccessful.
Um, it doesn't matter what'sgoing on in politics, in global
politics in other countries.
If you get sucked into the newsand you get this doom-gloom type
mentality and you're overlookingthe opportunities in front of

(11:48):
you each and every day, you'renot gonna get where you want to
go in life.
But if you're willing to get upevery day, you're gonna be
optimistic, you're gonna begrateful for what you have,
you're gonna work your butt off,you're gonna have the best
attitude and be positivethroughout that day, and you can
rinse and repeat over and overand over.
Success is inevitable.
And here's the thing thateverybody wants in life, right?
You guys think you want money,you think you want stuff, like

(12:10):
that's cool, that's part of theequation.
But what we're really after islike this inner feeling of
peace.
This this feeling inside of uslike we're enough, we're doing
enough in life, like we made it,we like we got what it takes,
right?
It's this, it's this like it'sthis inner peace, but it's
almost this like relief that weexperience when you reach a
certain point.
And but you only get there byreally going all in for a long

(12:34):
period of time.
And like going back to that clipthat I saw on Patrick Bett
David's podcast with that youngguy, uh, the pursuit of life,
liberty, and freedom.
That's what he said that we alldeserve growing up in America.
But here's the truth, man.
If you were just to wake upevery day and the government was
giving you the certain amount ofmoney you needed to get by and
you had free health care, let'ssay they even paid for your rent

(12:54):
or your groceries, and that wasit.
Dude, eventually you would startto get anxious.
Eventually you would start tofeel something was missing.
Eventually you would start tofeel uh, you know, uh
ungrateful.
Eventually you would start tofeel like there you wanted more
in life.
Okay.
This is why socialism andcommunism don't work, because
inside the human spirit is thedesire to excel and go far above

(13:18):
and beyond what is known.
There's something inside eachand every one of us that wants
to go and explore that unknown,that wants to bring that vision
to life, right?
That ambition, that desireinside you to reach your
potential.
That is such a powerful gift.
And if you give people the bareminimum and just expect them to
be okay, eventually they're notgonna be okay.
Right?
Eventually they're gonna wantmore, they're gonna crave more,

(13:40):
and they're gonna feel stuck.
Okay.
I don't want to be in a societythat just gives me enough to be
okay.
I want to live in a society thatgives me the opportunity to be
freaking great, gives me theopportunity to take risks, gives
me the opportunity topotentially fail.
I'd rather go all in on mydreams and fail and fall flat on
my face than just be okay andget some handouts, right?
Handouts don't create innerpeace, handouts don't create a

(14:02):
feeling of, damn, I'm amazing.
Like I'm living a life ofgreatness, like I'm all in, I'm
bringing dreams to life, I'mproviding the best life I could
for my family.
That comes from you tapping intothat potential you possess
within, facing fears, going outof the unknown, taking risks,
and materializing those outcomesfor yourself.
And so for these young peopleright now, man, I think they're

(14:24):
gonna get rudely awoken by lifecircumstances, and they're gonna
have to go through some hardtimes to recognize how good they
have it and develop some urgencyand some grit and some tenacity,
right?
That mental toughness that'srequired to really create a life
that's worth living.