{"id":77908,"date":"2025-07-20T11:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T11:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/77908\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T11:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T11:54:10","slug":"shark-tanks-kevin-oleary-warns-gen-z-this-job-is-a-slow-drift-into-hell-thatll-make-you-unemployable-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/77908\/","title":{"rendered":"Shark Tank’s Kevin O\u2019Leary warns Gen Z this job is a slow ‘drift into hell’ that’ll make you unemployable for life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many business school students coming out of Stanford University, New York University, and the University of Pennsylvania are already stepping into their swanky<\/a> Wall Street jobs. But multimillionaire investor Kevin O\u2019Leary<\/a> is urging his Harvard students to skip the typical consulting track\u2014and build something of their own instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, if you want to drift into hell on Earth, stay 24 months in a consulting firm and you are tainted meat for the rest of your life,\u201d O\u2019Leary tells Fortune. \u201cNo one\u2019s going to hire you to make a decision because you never have made one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would anybody burn all those hours while someone else makes money, and you do nothing of consequence? I respect all the consulting firms that are out there, but I\u2019m going to do my best to keep people from going into that.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary is an Executive Fellow<\/a> at the prestigious Ivy League college, teaching an MBA Elective Curriculum course The Founder Mindset. The school has pumped out some of the most successful entrepreneurs, including Michael Bloomberg<\/a>, Sheryl Sandberg<\/a>, Jamie Dimon<\/a>, and Bill Ackman<\/a>\u2014but the institution\u2019s entrepreneurial spirit hasn\u2019t rubbed off on all of its students. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary says that when he asks his Harvard cohort who wants to go into consulting, about two-thirds raise their hands. But the $4.2 billion SoftKey Software Products founder has made it his mission to recruit them into entrepreneurial life\u2014even if his lessons require some harsh truths.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I try and do is disrupt a few of them in every class that I go into at the beginning of the program saying, \u2018If I can get four of you to abandon your drift into mediocrity, then I\u2019ve done a great job here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Business consultants will \u2018never be free\u2019<\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary understands the draw to the consulting world; he notes these jobs can offer $250,000 to $350,000 salaries right off the bat, despite consultants being worked<\/a> \u201clike an animal\u201d for the first three years. But sky-high wages and cushy offices might not be worth the price they have to pay: never producing anything of their own, always working for the big man and putting off potential employers, like O\u2019Leary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re there for more than two than 24 months, you get the virus. You\u2019re tainted\u2014your resume says you were someone of no consequence,\u201d the 71-year-old tells Fortune.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I always take those resumes of consultants that want to get into the real world, and throw them in the garbage,\u201d O\u2019Leary continues. \u201cThey haven\u2019t done anything, they just wrote reports. Didn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being worked to the bone for six-figures is still enticing for some professionals, as many log<\/a> in 100-hour workweeks for much less. But beyond having an underwhelming resume, O\u2019Leary says consultants will never have freedom working under a boss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can go to the soccer games, go to picnics. You can do whatever, and it\u2019s a great life. You can provide for a family,\u201d he adds. \u201cBut you\u2019ll never be free. You\u2019ll never be financially free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Entrepreneurship may mean no vacations<\/a>, sharing an apartment with five roommates<\/a>, and grinding for years\u2014but once you make it, you can call your own shots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many business school students coming out of Stanford University, New York University, and the University of Pennsylvania are…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":77909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[64,53829,53830,17900,49245,16778,18313,604,9604,607,50123,18315,3991,14232,53831,420,30674,255,24961,6214,67,132,68,258],"class_list":{"0":"post-77908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-business-school","10":"tag-career-advancement","11":"tag-career-advice","12":"tag-career-success","13":"tag-careers","14":"tag-chief-executive-officer-ceo","15":"tag-consulting","16":"tag-entrepreneurs","17":"tag-entrepreneurship","18":"tag-executives","19":"tag-founders","20":"tag-gen-z","21":"tag-harvard-university","22":"tag-investing-advice","23":"tag-jobs","24":"tag-millionaires","25":"tag-personal-finance","26":"tag-shark-tank","27":"tag-students","28":"tag-united-states","29":"tag-unitedstates","30":"tag-us","31":"tag-wealth"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114885431374387760","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}