When a Generation Stops Trying: A PowerMentor Perspective on Disengagement—and How Purpose Changes Everything

At PowerMentor, we spend our time with young adults others have already written off.

Not because they are lazy.
Not because they lack intelligence.
But because somewhere along the way, hope broke.

What China now calls “lying flat”—choosing to disengage from work, ambition, and effort—is not a foreign anomaly. It is a warning signal. And it is one we would be foolish to ignore.

Because we are seeing the early versions of the same collapse here in the United States.

Disengagement Is Not Rebellion—It Is Resignation

In China, young people have given a name to what they are feeling:

“Why try if the future is closed?”

They sleep late. Scroll endlessly. Do the minimum. Some openly identify as “rat people,” existing rather than building, waiting rather than striving.

This is not protest.
It is psychological surrender.

And while the language differs, the emotion is familiar to us in the U.S.

We see it in young adults who:

• drift after high school or college

• feel overwhelmed by comparison

• retreat into screens

• quietly believe they are behind—and always will be

In data, this shows up as NEET youth—young people Not in Education, Employment, or Training.
In real life, it shows up as lost momentum, lost confidence, and lost purpose.

The Crisis Beneath the Crisis

Here is what PowerMentor has learned through years of frontline work:

Young people do not disengage because life is hard.
They disengage because life feels meaningless.

You can survive hardship if you believe your life has direction.
You cannot endure effort indefinitely if you believe it leads nowhere.

This is not first an economic crisis.
It is an identity crisis.

A generation taught how to perform—but not why they matter—will eventually opt out.

Why Shame, Censorship, and Softening Standards All Fail

China’s response has been to suppress pessimism and police narratives.
Much of the West’s response has been to excuse disengagement or lower expectations.

Both approaches miss the point.

You cannot shame a young person into hope.
You cannot medicate or entertain someone into meaning.
And you cannot remove responsibility and expect purpose to appear.

At PowerMentor, we’ve learned something different:

Purpose is not discovered by accident.
It is engineered—through structure, belonging, and responsibility.

The PowerMentor Antidote: Re-Engineering Purpose

This is the heart of the PowerMentor model.

We do not start with résumés.
We do not start with politics.
We do not start with motivation speeches.

We start with purpose formation.

1. Identity Comes Before Achievement

At PowerMentor, young adults are challenged with a deeper question than “What do you want to do?”

We ask:

Who are you becoming?

When identity is clear:

• failure becomes feedback

• discipline becomes self-respect

• effort becomes meaningful

Without identity, success feels empty.
With identity, struggle becomes formative.

2. Belonging Before Ambition

Isolation is the accelerant of disengagement.

That’s why PowerMentor is built around:

• mentorship

• brotherhood and sisterhood

• accountability

• intergenerational leadership

Belonging creates gravity.
It pulls people forward even when motivation fades.

Young adults do not rise alone.

3. Contribution Before Consumption

Endless consumption numbs the soul.

At PowerMentor, purpose is awakened through:

• service

• leadership roles

• humanitarian response

• responsibility that matters

Young people come alive when they realize:

“Someone is counting on me.”

Contribution turns passive lives into meaningful ones.

4. Structure Over Mood

Waiting to “feel ready” is how disengagement becomes permanent.

PowerMentor emphasizes:

• daily discipline

• physical readiness

• mental resilience

• consistent action

Structure restores agency.
Agency restores confidence.
Confidence restores hope.

5. Hope Is Transmitted Through Example

PowerMentor does not sell slogans.

We model hope.

We place young adults beside leaders who:

• have suffered and endured

• serve without posturing

• live with conviction

Hope is not taught from a podium.
It is caught through proximity.

What’s at Stake

A generation that stops trying does not simply stall progress.

It weakens:

• families

• communities

• leadership pipelines

• nations

History shows us this truth again and again:

Civilizations do not fall when young people fail.
They fall when young people disengage.

The PowerMentor Commitment

PowerMentor exists for one reason:

To intercept disengagement before it hardens into identity.

We believe:

• young adults are not broken

• purpose can be rebuilt

• leadership can be cultivated

• hope can be restored

But only if we act intentionally, not accidentally.

Final Word

A culture that teaches quitting will harvest quitters.
A culture that engineers purpose will raise leaders.

PowerMentor chooses purpose.
PowerMentor chooses responsibility.
PowerMentor chooses hope—lived, not preached.

And we invite others to do the same.