The Real World

When you hear the phrase, "Welcome to the real world," what does that mean? 

What does it mean when you go from elementary school to junior high, to high school, to college, to marriage, to careers, to maybe even a business of your own? At any stage along the way you may hear the phrase, "Welcome to the real world.”  So what does that mean?

What's different about the real world?

A lot of things, but here are a few. Things happen faster. It's like going from a country road to the interstate, there's a lot more people in a lot bigger hurry. Another thing is intensity. There's a lot more on the line.  It's in the area of personal responsibility. You no longer have people looking out for you, encouraging you on, like you did in the past.  Now you're surrounded by people competing in the same arena, trying to move up just like you. Things that you do are not assignments for school, are not chores around the house, they involve helping a company become profitable or helping a company even survive.  The intensity, the importance of delivery is much, much higher. 

The support structure is different.  
There is less emotional support. It's cold blooded. It's everyone for themselves. It's finding that people don't really care what happens to you because they don't have time, they don't have the luxury. They're concerned about surviving themselves. They may be sympathetic, they may be sad if you fail, they probably will be, but they can't stop what they're doing to console you for very long because they've got to survive themselves.  

That's why people say it's more cutthroat, more cold blooded. It’s just everybody's trying to survive. You don't have parents at work. You don't have parents on the football field with you. It doesn't work that way. Welcome to the real world. What does that mean? 

It means you are going it alone and you're going fast and it's up to you to look out for you.